Coldplay Scores 5th Entry in YouTube’s Billion Views Club With ‘Yellow’
Written by djfrosty on January 10, 2024
Forget looking at the stars, look at that view count! Coldplay‘s “Yellow” has become the band’s latest music video to join the Billion Views Club.
Their beloved 2000 breakthrough hit — which they opened their 2016 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance with — is the band’s fifth music video to collect over 1 billion views on YouTube. Their other Billion Views Club clips include “Paradise,” “Adventure of a Lifetime,” “The Scientist” and the Beyoncé-assisted “Hymn for the Weekend.”
While some of the band’s other music videos are quite grandiose, “Yellow” stands out with its minimalistic bent. The video consists of one continuous shot with no cuts, a stark difference from the CGI and multiple sets of the band’s later music videos.
“Yellow” served as the Stateside lead single for Parachutes, the band’s landmark Grammy-winning debut studio album (it won best alternative music album at the 2002 awards show). On the Billboard Hot 100, “Yellow” climbed to No. 48, while Parachutes reached No. 51. Obviously, the rockers have grown tremendously from those humble beginnings. The band currently boasts a pair of Hot 100 chart-toppers — 2008’s “Viva La Vida” and 2021’s “My Universe” (with BTS) — from 24 career entires. On the Billboard 200, the band has notched four No. 1 albums from 14 career entries, including the multi-week chart-toppers Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008, two weeks), X&Y (2005, three weeks) and Ghost Stories (2014, two weeks).
In addition to its new Billion Views Club entry, the band also saw two of their catalog tracks enter YouTube’s U.S. Top Songs on Shorts chart. A pair of trends vaulted “Viva La Vida” (No. 3) and “Clocks” (No. 37) to the ranking’s top 40.
Last year, Coldplay continued on their globe-trotting Music of the Spheres World Tour, which earned them top rock touring artist honors at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards. According to Billboard Boxscore, the Music of the Spheres World Tour was the biggest rock tour of 2023, and the second-biggest tour across all genres. Since its kick-off back in 2022, the tour has earned $664.5 million and sold 6.7 million tickets. The band’s latest trek is in support of Music of the Spheres, their 2021 LP, which climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and earned a Grammy nod for album of the year.
Revisit the “Yellow” music video below.