Blackpink‘s Rosé is celebrating her 25th birthday on Friday (Feb. 11), and as a celebratory gift to her fans, she shared a heartfelt cover of Coldplay‘s classic hit “Viva La Vida” to her YouTube channel.
Backed by just an acoustic guitar, the singer put her characteristic sparkling flair to the 2008 song, flawlessly hitting the high notes in the chorus.
Coldplay’s original version topped the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2008. Seven months later, the song won two Grammys — song of the year and best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.
Rosé is no stranger to putting her own spin on other artist’s songs, from John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” to Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You.” In March 2021, she released her solo debut project, titled R and the album’s first single, “On the Ground.”
“We went through the whole thought process of: ‘What are we going to sing about? What is Rosie going to talk about for a good three minutes by herself?,’” Rosé told Billboard of the personal nature of her debut solo single. “It could have gone any other way — love songs, breakup songs. They would have all been great. But we wanted to find something that spoke to me, so it felt right to be talking about what I’ve been thinking about these past couple of years. When we debuted, it was all chaos, everything was happening — bam, bam, everywhere. We were on that whole rollercoaster. And there comes a time when you gotta just sit and [ask yourself]: Where am I going? Where am I at?”
“I had a lot of these thoughts in my head anyway, and I think this song just spoke to all of us. We felt like it sounded the most like me,” she continued. “It sounded like if you would have dinner with me, have a conversation with me. It’s something I would passionately talk about and question. It’s something I would question myself before I go to bed. So I thought it would be a good approach for my first solo song.”
