Aby Coulibaly took the saying "viva la vida" literally on Monday night, performing on the huge Croke Park stage with Coldplay by her side.
The Irish singer had been approached by the band's manager to be one of their support acts for their four-night stint in the Dublin venue, which she previously admitted hadn't sunk in until she stepped on stage.
Speaking to EVOKE, Aby recalled that though she was filled with nerves on Thursday, the first night of their concert series, she quickly found her rhythm and by Monday it had become all too comfortable.
However, as she prepared to take on her final night at Croke Park, Coldplay threw a spanner in the works by asking her to perform their new track "We Pray" on stage with them.
Not only was she starstruck by their request, the cherry on top was that Aby was also asked to write her own verse for the song.
She told EVOKE: "I wrote it quickly and then a couple of hours later I was performing it, which was so insane.
"I did end up kind of like improvising a little bit of it when it actually came to the shows because I had just written it that day, it hadn't fully stuck with me.
"But I was aware that if I didn't remember it, as long as I could improvise, then I was good," Aby recalled. "That's kind of what happened for some of it."
Though frontman Chris Martin and the rest of the band were aware of Aby, they didn't actually end up meeting until the final day of their Croke Park stint, Monday.
Aby recalled: "I went to their sound check at 3:30 pm, and it was quite quick. I kind of said hi to them and practiced [performing 'We Pray'] with them once or twice.
"Then I got to speak to Chris later on that night after everything [at Coldplay's after party at House, Dublin], which was really nice," Aby recalled.
The singer told us that when she spoke to Chris at soundcheck, he revealed to her that he had woken up at 4 am that morning and had an epiphany to feature her on "We Pray."
Not many people can say Chris Martin was dreaming about them, eh Aby?
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Aby gushed that the support she's received on the back of Coldplay's Dublin gigs has been wonderfully "overwhelming," explaining: "There have been times where I felt like 'How am I going to respond to everyone [sending me well wishes] because I don't want to be rude.'
"But then at the same time, it's actually not possible," Aby said.
"It's honestly overwhelming, but it feels good. There's just been [constant] support from people, so it's been really, really nice."
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Congratulations, Aby. No doubt next time she'll be performing in Croker will be for one of her headline gigs!
*This article was originally published on Evoke.ie.
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