Earlier this year during their MTV Unplugged special, BTS took on Coldplay‘s stadium heartstrings singalong “Fix You” for a resonant performance that Coldplay later praised as “beautiful.” It wasn’t just a random cover — BTS and Coldplay have quite a bit common as chameleonic global pop stars. Both groups remain comfortably, consistently on a small list of acts that could conceivably claim to be the biggest in the world.
That’s perhaps why their inevitable team-up is called “My Universe.” (Any other title wouldn’t properly convey the scale.) As you’d expect, the music video for this big-chorus pop jam is expensive, intergalactic, and loaded with enough special effects to make you feel like you’re actually living in another reality. The Doomsday Clock is set at 100 seconds to midnight, and BTS and Coldplay are going to sing their song until the end of the world.
It begins with an absolutely incredible bit of scene-setting that I’m going to include in full below so you understand precisely the kind of Avengers-scale team-up we’re dealing with here:
Once upon a time, many years from now… Music is forbidden across the spheres. On three different planets, three different bands defy the ban. DJ LaFrique, on her alien radio ship, unites them via holoband. All the while they are hunted by the silencers…
A rich text! We’re in the future (or past?), and planets are called “spheres,” and music isn’t allowed (like in Footloose) and entities called “Silencers” are prowling to put a stop to it. In a brave act of resistance, BTS and Coldplay and a third band — eventually revealed to be aliens whose members resemble the Jedi High Council — sync up their holograms via “holoband” and throw a bash to “My Universe.” Then things get sticky.
The computer effects in this video are wild and must’ve cost so much money. But when you’re two of the biggest bands in the universe, you can do this. (The third band, made up of robot drummer, a butterfly lady, and a Mad Max-styled alien on space guitar, might also have pooled resources for this clip; I am not familiar with the mechanics of intergalactic record contracts.)
The visual was unsurprisingly directed by blockbuster maestro Dave Meyers. If there was any doubt about the sheer scale of this video, even the promotional poster has shades of Avengers: Endgame.
“My Universe” appears on Coldplay’s upcoming ninth album Music of the Spheres, which is out October 15. Check out the epic video above, then dive into previously released singles “Higher Power” and “Coloratura.”
