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"Humankind"
Promotional single by Coldplay
from the album Music of the Spheres
Released	23 July 2021 (2021-07-23)
Genre	pop
Length	4:26
Label	Parlophone Atlantic
Songwriter(s)	Guy Berryman Jonny Buckland Will Champion Chris Martin Max Martin Daniel Green Stephen Fry Jon Hopkins Federico Vindver Oscar Holter
Producer(s)	Max Martin Oscar Holter Bill Rahko
Official music video
"Humankind" on YouTube

Humankind(Coldplay)

"Humankind" is a song by Coldplay from their ninth studio album, Music of the Spheres. It is the third track on the album. The song's official music video premiered on 17 August 2022.

Background and composition

Coldplay stated "Humankind" was the hardest to be recorded on Music of the Spheres. Jonny Buckland revealed the band “couldn't quite get the feel of it right until the end of the [recording] sessions. And then suddenly it all clicked into place.”. In an interview to Apple Music, Guy Berryman explained: “You can sketch ideas out in the studio sometimes, and ["Humankind"] was one we were really kind of struggling with before Max [Martin] took the reins. It didn't sound very fresh; it had a good energy, but was maybe just a little bit too rock for us, and he really gave it more of a modern shine. It could be from just editing the basic song and the song structure or it could be adjusting slightly the rhythm pattern to make it all stick together better.”.Buckland said the song is “like our tribute to Van Halen being played by New Order.”. Vocals by Moses Martin are featured on the chorus, alongside his father Chris Martin.

A Kaotican language intro countdown featuring filtered vocals is provided by English actor and comedian Stephen Fry; although it is counted in Kaotican, the lyric video features the numbers written in Mirror Text, which is associated with "Humankind's" planet, Echo. The song has a songwriting credit by English musician Jon Hopkins, and segues into the next track on the album "Alien Choir", also co-written and co-produced by Hopkins.

Live in Mexico City

On 22 April 2022, a live version of "Humankind" recorded in Mexico City during the first leg of the Music of the Spheres World Tour was made available exclusively for download on Bandcamp as part of a collaboration with EarthPercent for Earth Day to support and generate funds for organisations addressing direct attention and urgency to the climate change crisis.

Critical reception

Rhian Daly of NME praised the track's uplifting sounding and wrote it is “a song that rushes with so much brightness and euphoria it will likely have the unifying effect he sings of when the band perform it on their eco-friendly tour [in 2022].”