The pair practiced backstage before bringing it to the massive crowd at the humanitarian-based festival
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The star-studded lineup for the 2024 Global Citizen Festival in New York only got better when Coldplay‘s Chris Martin, who was not scheduled to perform, enlisted the help of Ed Sheeran for a surprise acoustic set.
Martin, who was named the festival’s curator in 2015, supported a stacked lineup featuring performers Post Malone, Jelly Roll, Rauw Alejandro, and Doja Cat. He chose to not sit out on the fun and brought out Sheeran to run through their hits.
Gayle King introduced the duo as her “new favorite boy band sensation, Ed and Chris.” Fans can be heard cheering in the livestream playback, until they erupted into screams once the pair’s identities were made clearer.
In a sweet video shared to Sheeran’s Instagram captioned “Coldplay dueling songs,” the pair is seen practicing “Viva La Vida” backstage before it cuts to the massive crowd singing along. Martin also accompanies Sheeran on piano for “Thinking Out Loud.”
Sheeran also handled vocal duties for Coldplay’s melancholy breakout hit “Yellow,” and performed his own radio favorite “Shape of You.”
In a newly released interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe premiered exclusively with PEOPLE, Martin revealed that Coldplay only plans to release “12 proper albums” as a band before disbanding. Their 10th studio album, Moon Music, is set to release this Friday, Oct. 4.
Lowe joked that he’d like 50 more albums from the band, but Martin immediately shut down that idea. “You don’t, because less is more. And for some of our critics, even less would be even more,” he said.
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As for Sheeran, he seems to have a knack for surprises. In the second season of Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, the actor debuted his drumming skills onstage with the “Bad Habits” singer. The docuseries follows the actor after he discovers he has a greater chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease. In collaboration with his loved ones and experts, Hemsworth embarks on life-changing experiences to combat the disease.
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“Basically what’s happening is Chris emailed me last December saying he’s doing a documentary on cognitive health and the benefits of learning an instrument,” Sheeran said. “And he came to visit me, and he’s learned drums and he’s coming onstage in front of 70,000 [people].”
The show’s second season is set to premiere in 2025.