Life in Technicolor II

The music video premiered on 20 January 2009 on 4Music and Channel 4.^[7] The director of this video is Dougal Wilson.^[8] It starts out with a group of children sitting and awaiting a traditional Punch and Judy puppet show in the Aldenham War Memorial Hall. Suddenly, the band appears as puppets "onstage" and begins performing the song, which confuses and somewhat unsettles the children and the adults in the room. A girl in the audience recognizes the band members as she looks back and forth between them and the cover of a book she is holding, which is a fictional "unofficial biography" of Coldplay called Playin' It Cool. The puppet show becomes increasingly extravagant as the video goes on, eventually featuring pyrotechnics, frontman Chris Martin crowd surfing over the children, and Punch and Judy performing motorcycle stunts across the stage. Finally, after finishing the song, the puppet band members board a miniature helicopter and after taking off, drummer Will Champion tosses his drumsticks to the girl in the audience before the helicopter crashes through a window as they fly away. The girl looks down at the tiny drumsticks in her hands and smiles.^[9] James Clarkson and Coldplay's fifth member, Phil Harvey, can be seen in the video.^[10]

"Life in Technicolor ii" was nominated for Best Art Direction in a Video and Best Visual Effects in a Video at the UK Music Video Awards 2009,^[11] in addition to Best Music Video at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. Pitchfork included it on their "Top Music Videos of 2009" year-end ranking.^[12] NPO Radio 2 ranked the song at number 418 on Top 2000 that same year.^[13] In 2010, it was featured on The Xfm Top 1000 Songs of All Time book.^[14]

The short instrumental version of this song (released on Viva la Vida) can be heard as the film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ends during a scene with Ben Stiller and Amy Adams. It was also used on Sky Sports' "Ford Super Sunday" coverage during the 2008/2009 as well as "Match of the Day" during the same season. This version was used at the beginning of the Great Yarmouth (UK) Hippodrome Circus show 2009. NFL Network also used it for their coverage of the 2009 NFL Scouting Combine and also for their coverage of the 2009 NFL draft. The song was also played during the opening montage of the 2009 ESPY Awards. The instrumental version of the song is used in London Eye's pre-flight 4D Experience show. A portion of the instrumental version is also used in Apple Inc.'s introduction of the 2008 MacBook Air, as well as the introduction of the Late 08 MacBook.^[15] The song was also used in a promotional on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for PBS's primary programming. Life in Technicolor II was used in an advertisement for Wimbledon 2013 on ESPN.

• Chris Martin – composer, performer
• Guy Berryman – composer, performer
• Jonny Buckland – composer, performer
• Will Champion – composer, performer
• Jon Hopkins – organ, harmonium, synthesizers
• Mike Kezner – sitar
• Davide Rossi – strings

• List of Billboard number-one adult alternative singles of the 2000s