When Ed Sheeran and Chris Martin team up for an acoustic duet, you know you’re in for a good time! The megastars cooked up a two-piece duet at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City on September 28, 2024, and their voices just sounded so beautiful together. The pair sang Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida,” with Martin taking lead vocals and Sheeran providing backing vocals. Both stars also played acoustic guitar, providing a funky rhythm over the modern classic.

Martin and Sheeran had big cheesy grins on their faces throughout the song, and you can tell they were just loving working together. When the two English stars hit the chorus and sang together, it was just sublime. Their voices work so well together, it was like this was what the song was made to be all along. The readers will also want to tune into the bridge after 3:30, where the whole crowd sang as one, so beautifully.

Sheeran and Martin performed at Central Park for the festival, which was organized by Global Citizen to support social change and help end extreme poverty. The pair really went all out for the show, as they performed duets on not one but four songs together, which was Martin’s entire setlist for the show. The two stars opened the set with Coldplay’s “Yellow” and also performed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” and “Thinking Out Loud”.

Seeing the two hitmakers sing together must have been quite a thrill for the crowd, as the duo set was kept as a special surprise. Fans initially believed Martin was there to give a speech, but the British rocker delivered the highlight of the musical acts instead. Martin switched things up during the set, providing electric piano and backing vocals on the two Sheeran songs, with “Shape of You” being a particular highlight.

Sheeran and Martin go way back, as in an interview with iHeartRadio in 2015, Sheeran spoke about how Martin had recently made the time to see him live. The readers might be a little surprised to hear that Sheeran told the interviewers he was really nervous that the rock star was going to be watching him live. Sheeran explained that he even shuffled his set around to make sure that Martin, who was arriving late, would hear the best part of the show. The pop singer also admitted he was constantly asking his guitar tech during the show if Martin had arrived yet, and that luckily he did arrive to see the big song Sheeran had prepared for him.