Coldplay made their return to the “Saturday Night Live” stage on Feb. 4 as the musical guest alongside first-time host and "The Last of Us" actor Pedro Pascal.
For the first song of the evening, they performed the group’s 2022 collaboration with BTS member Jin, “The Astronaut.”
Later in the show for their final performance, Coldplay brought out something old and something new. They performed an emotional medley of their songs “Human Heart” from their 2021 album “Music of the Spheres” and their classic 2005 hit “Fix You” from “X&Y."
During the “Human Heart/Fix You” medley, Coldplay was joined on stage by musician Jacob Collier and choral ensemble Jason Max Ferdinand Singers. With frontman Chris Martin center stage, he was surrounded by the ensemble and Collier as they sang “Human Heart” a cappella. The rest of the band kicked in as the group transitioned into “Fix You."
In the middle of the performance, Martin took a break from the lyrics to give what seemed to be a touching shout out. In the instrumental buildup before the song’s bridge, the singer appeared to dedicate the song to “Pedro and Verónica,” calling out their names before returning to the lyrics.
Pascal's mother, Verónica Pascal, died before the actor made it in Hollywood. The actor told People in November 2020 that his mother was “always incredibly supportive,” adding, “None of [my success] would be real if it weren’t for her.”
Since the song debuted on the band’s popular “X&Y” album in 2005, “Fix You” has remained a popular — albeit emotional — hit for the band, one that has been speculated to be about dealing with grief after experiencing loss.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Martin’s ex-wife, shared the personal background story of the song during a January 2015 interview with Howard Stern on his Sirius XM radio show. The actor's father, Bruce Paltrow, died in Rome in October 2002, months before she first met Martin backstage at one of his concerts.
After Stern asked the "Shakespeare in Love" star what songs of Coldplay's Martin had written about her over the years, the actor confirmed one of the band's tunes that was inspired by her. She explained, “‘Fix You’ was about him trying to put me back together after my dad died.”