MUMBAI: Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin ended the Global Citizen Festival India concert on a high note with his band by singing “Vande Mataram” with music maestro A R Rahman. The band performed for over an hour at the MMRDA grounds late last evening. The singer is in the country as part of the Global Citizen India initiative 2016. The British Rock band performed several memorable songs including Paradise, Viva La Vida, Yellow, Fix You. Martin invited Rahman on stage and both sang “Maa tujhe salaam…Vande maatram”. Martin later waved the national flag. Initially, he also had small tricolour stuck in his back-pocket but later put it away. Martin enthralled everyone with his own version of song “Channa Mereya” from Karan Johar’s film “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil”. During his performance, Martin said, “Namaste friends, yeh hamari khushkismati hai ki itne khoobsurat desh mein aaye hain. (We are fortunate that we have come to such a beautiful country).” At the start, Martin was introduced by superstar Shah Rukh Khan, cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar and actress Frieda Pinto. While introducing music maestro A R Rahman, SRK said, “I wouldn’t be what I am if it were not for Rahman’s “Chaiyya Chaiyya”. King Khan later returned to the stage to introduce American rapper Jay Z. Jay Z made his India debut at the Global Citizen India concert with his hit ‘Bounce’, set against a sample of AR Rahman’s tune “Chaiya Chaiya”. He also crooned his hit songs ‘We gonna run this town tonight’, ’99 Problems’, ‘In Paris’, ‘Drunk In Love’ and his Panjabi MC collaboration ‘Beware Of The Boyz’. The Global Citizen Festival India 2016 turned out to be the biggest entertainment event of the year in Bollywood as Indian celebrities shared the stage with international artists like Martin, Jay Z, Demi Lovato and the Vamps. Among the celebrities present at the gala were Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Katrina Kaif, Sonakshi Sinha, Parineeti Chopra, Monali Thakur, Arijit Singh, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Arjun Rampal, Suzanne Khan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was earlier supposed to attend, could not make it to the event. He, however, joined via a video link that was beamed live. Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra announced the opening of the festival. Singer Arijit Singh began the musical extravaganza by crooning his latest blockbuster track “Ae Dil hai Mushkil” and other chartbusters.
