O

Album: Ghost Stories (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • Ghost Stories is a concept album that was partly inspired by vocalist Chris Martin's troubled relationship with his wife Gwyneth Paltrow at the time of the album's recording. The narrative follows a man's various emotional states as he experiences a breakup of a relationship leading up to his eventual acceptance of the situation. This soaring ambient ballad closes the album offering a sense of hope.
  • The song was produced by French house producer Madeon, who also worked with Lady Gaga on her ARTPOP tracks "Gypsy," "Mary Jane Holland" and "Venus," as well as Ellie Goulding on her Halcyon Days song "Stay Awake."
  • The song features the voices of Chris Martin's son Moses, daughter Apple and her friend Mabel. Martin told BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe that Moses' presence underscored the album's overriding message of hope in the face of adversity. "For me the message is Don't ever let go. For example we've had friends who have killed themselves or gone down the wrong road because they haven't had the right people around them. And that's really sad. But having my son in the studio with me is really powerful."
  • "O" received a significant sales and streams spike after the United States' Adam Rippon used the song as part of his individual free skate routine on February 12, 2018 during the Winter Olympics.

Comments: 3

  • Susanne Bjerregaard Vrist from DenmarkThe title 'O' is inspired from a childrens book by Shel Silverstein called 'The missing piece meets the big O'. The main message in the book is, "that nobody is our missing piece, we shouldn't have a missing piece. We are a whole and we just need to find the wholeness within" (Chris Martin on O in interview with Beats music).
  • Susanne Bjerregaard Vrist from DenmarkIt isn't actual birds in background. It's Jonny being a bird on his guitar :)
  • Susan Kleinbauer from United States"O" one of my favorite songs by Coldplay, and I adore Coldplay! The words are just beautiful, the implications of the birds in the background... Stunning.
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