Coldplay salutes US immigrants
Coldplay hailed the contributions of immigrants to the United States as the English rockers released a video for a new song, Miracles (Someone Special). Without any explicit reference to President Donald Trump and his crackdown on immigration, Coldplay made clear that the history of the United States goes beyond people of European heritage.
The video starts with a wall of old photos. The shot zooms in to show immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, the station in New York Harbour through which 40 percent of Americans trace lineage. The videos intersperses black-and-white pictures of European immigrants with new Americans of other backgrounds, starting with a family of turbaned Sikhs. “You could be someone special / You’ve got fire in your eyes, I see Heaven inside / You’ll go further than we’ve ever gone,” frontman Chris Martin sings on the mid-tempo pop track led by keyboards.
Rapper Big Sean contributes a verse in which he speaks of the struggle to earn a stable living in contemporary America.
The video opens and closes with a child lying in a bosom of the shape of the Statue of Liberty, which is within sight of Ellis Island. Coldplay earlier this month released the track Aliens after performing at the Global Citizen concert against global poverty on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg. The band said proceeds from Aliens would support a charity that rescues migrants attempting the perilous trip across the Mediterranean into Europe.