Wiki
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Release Date
1 December 2010
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Length
2 tracks
"Christmas Lights" is a song by British rock band Coldplay released on 1 December 2010, as a digital download single. According to lead singer Chris Martin, it was written in December 2008. The morning after he began work on the single, he performed a segment of the still in-progress song for Steve Kroft during an interview for 60 Minutes that aired on February 8, 2009. Described by the band as "a mid-tempo number" in the key of G major, "Christmas Lights" was released to generally positive reviews. It later got named as one of the best Christmas songs of the 21st century by Cleveland. The cover art was designed by Yu Matsuoka Pol. The music video appears to be one continuous shot, and while it might have been filmed with a single camera, the amount of takes in the video is unknown. Whether this means the finished product is a mix of many clips seamlessly stitched together is unknown. It begins with the starting up of a record player, and the camera panning across a multicoloured player piano, then the four members of the band lying on a wooden floor. Martin begins to sing the first verse as the camera pans and zooms out to show the piano—which is now next to him—and then back. Martin has changed his position, and the rest of the band are now nowhere to be seen. Martin rises up from the floor, then begins to play the piano, which is revealed to be on an outdoor stage in front of the Thames. Curtains open to reveal the rest of the band, who join in playing the song, accompanied by fireworks and three violin-playing Elvis impersonators (who are played by friends of the band: actor Simon Pegg, the 'fifth member' of Coldplay Phil Harvey, and Tim Crompton - friend of the band and frontman of The High Wire). One hundred fans of the band appear in the music video; they release coloured balloons from a boat on the Thames whilst singing along to part of the song. "Credo Elvem Etiam Vivere" is written across the top of the stage. In Latin this means "I Believe Elvis Yet Lives". This is likely connected to the three Elvises appearing in the video, which is, in turn, connected to the lyrics of the song. The video was directed by Mat Whitecross, a long-time friend of the band and director of several of Coldplay's other music videos, such as "Bigger Stronger", "Lovers in Japan", "Paradise", and subsequently "Adventure of a Lifetime", as well as the 2018 documentary Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams. Just hours after the release of the video it was removed from YouTube after the IFPI claimed a breach of copyright, despite the video being on one of Coldplay's official channels. However, it was eventually uploaded once again.
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