Coldplay’s A Sky Full of Stars was released on May 2, 2014, as the 8th song, and the final song to be written for their sixth studio album, Ghost Stories. The song is a favourite at concerts as tens of thousands light up and become one all-encompassing star.
The song was co-written and co-produced by Avicii. While the song has an electronic dance sound, Chris Martin, Coldplay’s frontman, says A Sky Full of Stars is EDM, and for him that means “Emotional Dance Music.”
“This is the truth: I was missing track 8. Then the song arrived out of the sky, and I was like, ‘This is it! This is it!,'” said Martin. “But what took some convincing was, because it’s obviously a bit bigger in sound than the rest of it, so I had to really fight its corner in terms of ‘This does fit with these others.’ Because it’s important in this point in the sequencing. So some people were saying, ‘Let’s save it for something else.’ Some people were saying, you know what I mean? It was only when we listened to the whole album in sequence, everyone was like, ‘Oh, okay.'”
Martin transformed his scars into stars.
Ghost Stories, and especially A Sky Full of Stars, explores themes of unconditional love, admiration, and loss.
“I would describe Ghost Stories as the journey of going through a challenge or an ordeal, to come out a little bit stronger and happier at the end. Not as a toolkit for that, but just as a way of accepting that something crazy is happening, whether it’s a loss or a challenge or something in business, whatever it might be. Not letting it break you but letting it make you,” said Martin.
“A Sky Full Of Stars came out about 11:30 at night, and came out in about seven minutes. That song really ended up being inspired by EDM, which some people turn their noses up at. But then you go and see an EDM thing, and people are so together, and having the best time, so I was like, ‘fuck it,’ I love that stuff so I wanted to have a song that comes from that world. I’d really like to jump up and down to this, in terms of we really don’t know what we are doing. So let’s call Avicii.” said Martin. “He did a full Avicii version. And then we did a full Coldplay version. The we spent weeks pulling it all together.”
“Nobody really knows this story, but this song, ‘The Sky Full of Stars,’ arrived by day. I was working, as a whole, stop. Just kind of appeared on the piano, and I went and I did the demo in Los Angeles. And I only just recently met Tim. I thought he was just wonderful, and I sent him just this demo of singing and the chords. And I promise you, within four hours, certainly got our biggest hit single of all time. So we spent six months ruining it and making it worse, and then we made it better.” said Martin.
Coldplay first played A Sky Full of Stars on April 29, 2014 during an episode of BBC 2’s Later… with Jools Holland. Three days later, Ghost Stories was released on May 2, 2014, then the band played Saturday Night Live the next day by performing Magic and A Sky Full of Stars.
“I love that song and so far when we play ‘The Sky Full of Stars,’ in the few concerts we’ve done, there’s such a collective feeling of ‘fuck it, let’s just sing,'” said Martin.
Lyrically: A Sky Full of Stars
The song’s lyrics tell a vivid story of overwhelming love with another, possibly connecting to Martin’s 2014 ‘conscious uncoupling‘ with Gwyneth Paltrow, with whom he has two children.
Martin said in an interview about the creation of the lyrics, “I’ll tell you the truth, I was listening to a lot of Katy Perry. I’m not the most poetic of lyricists, but I know what feels right… A lot of her songs have the same chord sequence the whole time … and then I realized a lot of other people have done that, Nirvana being a classic example, with Smells Like Teen Spirit,” said Martin.
‘Cause you’re a sky, ’cause you’re a sky full of stars
I’m gonna give you my heart
‘Cause you’re a sky, ’cause you’re a sky full of stars
‘Cause you light up the path
These lyrics express a deep love for someone and how they make life brighter in a way that only a “sky full of stars” could do. Even on a day that is cloudy, snowy, rainy, or at night, it’s brighter with the person around. The lyrics “I’m gonna give you my heart” indicate a willingness to fully give and share love. Additionally, “you light up the path” implies this person is a guiding light in their life.
I don’t care, go on and tear me apart
I don’t care if you do, ooh-ooh, ooh
‘Cause in a sky, ’cause in a sky full of stars
I think I saw you
These lyrics match Martin’s theme of working through challenges and show a willingness to face pain or heartbreak to feel whole. Martin discussed the overall theme of the album Ghost Stories as “probably an album about heartbreak, but it’s not saying that something’s broken, so you should just give up. It’s saying something’s broken, so let’s work out how to fix it and make it better than it was before.”
‘Cause you’re a sky, ’cause you’re a sky full of starsI wanna die in your arms, oh, oh-oh‘Cause you get lighter the more it gets darkI’m gonna give you my heart, oh
The lyrics “I wanna die in your arms” express a powerful love, showing a willingness to face any fate just to stay with that person. Followed by “‘Cause you get lighter the more it gets dark” is used a metaphor of light and darkness to show that there is hope even in the most challenging of times.
I don’t care, go on and tear me apartI don’t care if you do, ooh-ooh, ooh‘Cause in a sky, ’cause in a sky full of starsI think I see youI think I see you
“I don’t have the gift of Shakespeare with lyrical brilliance. I was like, well, I’ll just try and be honest then. That’s all I can do, and as time’s gone on, I, I just try and do that,” said Martin. “And this one in particular, I was going through some stuff in my life, and some friends of mine were going through some stuff, whereas I don’t want to bullshit with what I’m singing about. And I know that for some people it won’t resonate, but maybe for other people it will. And so I just trust, as I get older, as we get older, we’re trying to just trust our gut instinct more and more and more.”
‘Cause you’re a sky, you’re a sky full of starsSuch a heavenly viewYou’re such a heavenly viewYeah, yeah, yeah, ooh
The last verse ties everything together with the line, “Such a heavenly view / You’re such a heavenly view” suggests that being with this person feels like looking at something divine or otherworldly. These lyrics reveals this person is almost spiritually important.
“I love that it’s come out of this dark place. It was the last song to be written, and you know I was asking for it for a long time. We’ve got all these other songs going through this journey, and we need this like a door opening to the sunrise,” recalled Martin. “It’s the most important song we’ve ever had, lyrically, because every time I sing it, I’m like, yeah, that’s how I wanna live my life.”
The cover art for the album also follows a similar path with a pair of angel wings etched onto a night sky scene over an ocean, symbolizing a broken heart.
