Coldplay ProfileColdplay singer Chris Martin made a surprise appearance at last night’s tribute concert for John Farnham.
The Songs Of John Farnham A Living Legend - The Celebration Concert, held at Rod Laver Arena on Sunday (20 September), already read like a roll call of incredible artists.
Performers at the tribute concert included Richard Marx, Jimmy Barnes, Tina Arena, Keith Urban, Jessica Mauboy, Diesel, Vanessa Amorosi, Jon Stevens, Jack Jones, Mahalia Barnes, and many others, plus Celine Dion and Hugh Jackman beamed in via satellite.
However, they weren’t the only ones who appeared on screen. So did Martin, who The Music’s Monique La Terra said “delivered a hilarious yet heartfelt song recounting how, 17 years ago, in the wake of the Black Friday bushfires, Shane Warne made him a mixtape that introduced him to Farnham’s music.”
The song, an acoustic comedy ditty called Better Singer Than Me, saw Martin rhyme Farnham’s classic, You’re The Voice, with “you’re God’s choice.”
Fans and promoters at TEG Dainty are already pleading with Martin to share the song on streaming platforms. Check out a snippet of the performance below.
17 years ago, Farnham and Coldplay performed You’re The Voice at the Sound Relief bushfire benefit concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
In March 2009, Farnham’s backing band ended up being Coldplay, who brought the Australian icon to the stage during their performance. Martin introduced Farnham by saying he’d be singing the “Australian national anthem.”
The collaborative performance is remembered to this day and went viral before “viral” was a thing.
Coldplay returned to Australia in November 2024, playing a string of concerts along the East Coast. The tour followed their one-off performance at Perth’s Optus Stadium a year prior, and marked their first Australian tour dates in eight years.
Following the band’s Melbourne dates, it was revealed that Coldplay had broken Marvel Stadium’s attendance record for a band at the venue previously held by AC/DC. Across four shows, the British band drew over 227,000 punters to the venue.
Reviewing their first night in Melbourne, The Music’s Michael Prebeg wrote, “Coldplay kick off their Australian tour for the first time ever without their bass guitar player, Guy Berryman, but they still deliver a show that’s out of this world.”
