Vienna might have missed out on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, but it has just had Coldplay and Maggie Rogers performing Love Story, a Taylor Swift song.
In the midst of Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour show at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion last night, the band’s frontman Chris Martin took a moment to acknowledge recent events.
“This is something we never do but we have to do it today,” he said. “Of course, we haven’t mentioned that Vienna was in the news, all over the world, for all the wrong reasons. But, what reached us was the beauty and the togetherness and the kindness of all of Taylor Swift’s fans.”
“Taylor is in America, she’s not here,” continued Martin, dampening hopes of a guest appearance, “but we’re here, so we have to do the best we can do.”
Martin then asked the crowd to find “the biggest Swiftie” among them, and ended up inviting two people - and also Maggie Rogers, who had played a support set earlier in the evening - to the stage.
“We sing this song with so much love for Taylor, with so much for Swifties, and we sing this song with love for young people who are brainwashed into doing stupid shit,” he said. “If this is not good please, please don’t put it on YouTube, because I don’t want to get in trouble with Taylor.”
Well, you can make your own mind up, because Martin and Rogers’ subsequent performance of Love Story has indeed ended up on YouTube, and you can watch it below.
Swift meanwhile, has now issued her first statement on her cancelled Vienna shows, which were called off after police confirmed that they’d uncovered a terrorist plot to target them.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” she wrote on Instagram. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows. But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives. I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together.”
