Chris Martin Goes Back to School in Coldplay’s Magical ‘Champion of the World’ Watch

Sometimes you have to go back to the beginning to see where you are.

You ever have that dream where you feel like you're back in grade school and those same kids who teased you back then are at it again? Only this time you're grown-up you, and the pain is even worse because you already know how long that terrible feeling of getting picked on lingers? That's kind of where Chris Martin is in the new Chloe Bailly-directed video for Coldplay's "Champion of the World."

Only, because it's Coldplay, who always look for the rainbow, there's a sweetness to the bitter taste. The clip, filmed in Los Angeles, opens with a group of middle schoolers teasing an unseen fellow student splayed out on the ground, who turns out to be grown-up Martin in little guy drag. He's anxious, he's awkward and playing the guitar at the school talent show to an empty room is just awful. His hat gets knocked off, the other kids don't want to play with him and his parents are always arguing.

But Lil Chris has a magic power nobody else can touch: with a blink of his eyes he can make them all disappear and transform into butterflies. Plus, his Viewmaster takes him to other worlds, where his Coldplay compatriots are jamming in space and on the moon and when he tosses his toy rocket into the air everything is right again in the universe.

"The video is about this magic power that kids have to switch off from reality and jump into their own world," Bailly said in a statement. 

Coldplay just released the Coldplay: Reimagined EP, an Apple Music exclusive that features acoustic versions of "Cry Cry Cry," "BrokEn" and "Champion of the World" from the band's recent Everyday Life double album.

Check out the video below.