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James Marcus Haney
Coldplay
Chart Beat
Here’s Why This Coldplay Song Just Hit the Hot 100 for the First Time, 25 Years After Its Release
"Sparks" debuts at No. 93, after originally being released in 2000. It's also at No. 73 on the Canadian Hot 100. What happened?
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You can never truly predict which catalog songs are going to take off and have their viral moment.
Sometimes you can point to a clear and obvious reason — a prominent synch in a film or TV show, such as Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” resurging after Stranger Things season four, or Nirvana’s deep cut “Something in the Way” getting its moment thanks to The Batman. Or, it’s the annual resurgence of holiday staples around Christmas or Halloween.
Other times, the resurgence is a little more unexpected — like when Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” or Fetty Wap’s “Again” returned to the Billboard Hot 100 (in 2020 and this February, respectively) thanks to light-hearted viral moments on user-generated content apps such as TikTok.
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The latest case is Coldplay’s 25-year-old song “Sparks.”
Originally released in 2000 on the band’s debut album Parachutes, the cut enters the Hot 100 for the first time this week, debuting at No. 93 (on the chart dated June 28). The renewed interest stems from a viral breakthrough on TikTok, driven by a surge in streams following Coldplay’s two-night set at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on June 6 and 7.
The timing of the shows coincides with reports of frontman Chris Martin’s reported breakup with long-time partner Dakota Johnson. In one widely shared viral TikTok when the band performed “Sparks,” Martin appears to be visibly emotional while singing the line, “And I know I was wrong/ But I won’t let you down.” The moment stuck a chord with fans, as the song has now soundtracked more than 500,000 clips on TikTok to date.
Here’s a week-by-week breakdown of the song’s on-demand official U.S. streams, according to Luminate:
May 23-29: 3 million
May 30-June 11: 3.2 million (up 5%)
June 6-12: 4.8 million (up 48%)
June 13-19: 5.7 million (up 18.5%)
Despite never being released as a single, “Sparks” has long endured as a fan favourite and a mainstay in the band’s live setlists. It previously received a minor boost in 2005 after appearing in a scene in the movie Wedding Crashers. In 2020, Billboard’s editorial staff ranked it as one of the best deep cuts from the year 2000.
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The Parachutes album also benefits from the renewed attention for “Sparks.” The set re-enters this week’s Billboard 200 at No. 169 with 9,000 equivalent album units earned (up 11%). The album originally peaked at No. 51 in 2001, and had last appeared on the chart in February 2016. The album’s single “Yellow” also saw some gains — it tallied 5.3 million U.S. streams in the tracking week (up 6%). That song became the band’s first entry on the Hot 100 in 2001, reaching No. 48. It also became a top 10 alternative radio hit.
“Sparks” earns Coldplay its 27th career entry on the Hot 100, and first since “We Pray,” featuring Little Simz, Burna Boy, Elyanna and Tini, in October 2024.
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