“Hymn for the Weekend” by Coldplay

The “Hymn for the Weekend” actually reads as if it is an ode to the romantic interest of this singer. He refers to this person as an “angel sent from up above” in terms of the positive effect she has had on his life. When he was depressed and down on his luck, this individual ‘came to lift him up’. So he deems his relationship with her to be akin to receiving divine favor, so to speak. Moreover he likens the love he receives from her to “a drug” which has him “feeling drunk and high”, i.e. more euphoric in terms of life in general.

You can view the lyrics, alternate interprations and sheet music for Coldplay's Hymn for the Weekend at Lyrics.org.

But whereas the implication is that Chris Martin’s “angel” is indeed a lover, there is no clear indication of such. Owing to this, these lyrics can be interpreted on another level, as in the addressee being someone who has had the aforementioned effect on him, though not necessarily his sweetheart. Or some may view this  “angel” as being exactly that – a type of spiritual being. Indeed that fact that the word “hymn” is present in the title would imply as much.  But the word “weekend” also being present is indicative of the reality that this track was originally conceived as a party song.  So applying a spiritual significance to it, despite there being a number of angelic references, would likely be tantamount to stretching its meaning.

Moreover considering that he did in fact enlist a female singer, Beyoncé, to collaborate on this track, as stated earlier, the insinuation is that it is indeed romantic in nature. And in that regard, all of the colorful metaphors used throughout ultimately point to the idea of his romantic interest having a profound, uplifting effect on his life.

Lyrics of “Hymn for the Weekend”

Music Video

The music video to “Hymn for the Weekend”, which was filmed throughout India in late 2015, had Ben Mor as its director. And there was also a bit of controversy concerning the clip. Many accused the artists involved (Coldplay and Beyoncé) of pimping Indian culture (i.e. cultural appropriation) for their own personal gain.

However, the music video still went on to be a big hit. It garnered well over one-billion views on YouTube going into the year 2020.

Facts about “Hymn for the Weekend”

This track is from Coldplay’s noted album “A Head Full of Dreams”. And it was released as the second single from that project, by Parlophone and Atlantic Records, on 25 January 2016.

“Hymn for the Weekend” was written by Martin, Buckland, Champion and Berryman, who are all members of Coldplay.

And A-list songstress Beyoncé participated on this song at the behest of her homey, Coldplay’s frontman Martin.

Rik Simpson produced this track along with a popular Norwegian production duo known as StarGate.

And interesting to note is that the late EDM musician Avicii (1989-2018) also made contributions to the production (i.e. programming) of this song.

The track went multi-Platinum in almost 10 countries and in that regard had its best showing in Italy. In Italy, it has been certified eight-times Platinum.

And in terms of its chart history, “Hymn for the Weekend” made official music listings in diverse countries all over the world. This included peaking at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 6 on the UK Singles Chart.

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