Coldplay brought 12-year-old Mexican boy Huillo to sing onstage with them at their Mexico City stadium show and there’s quite a touching story behind the performance. When Huillo was six his father shot a video of him at Coldplay’s previous concert in Mexico, where the young boy, who has autism, was crying with intense emotion as the band played “Fix You”.
When Coldplay returned to Mexico City frontman Chris Martin said “this video was the best video we’ve ever seen. It was more important to us than anything we’ve ever made in terms of videos, that’s for sure.” The rockstar then invited young Huillo onstage to sing the boy’s original song “Different is OK”. Check out the big moment below.
Martin explained that Huillo is “a very special young man. He’s been doing music as a form of understanding the world, feelings and people. We heard one of his songs this week and asked him to come and sing it with us.” The group were playing at the 65,000 capacity Foro Sol stadium and the whole crowd began chanting Huillo’s name as he took to the stage.
Huillo sang lead vocals and played piano, seemingly unfazed by the enormous crowd looking on, while the band played an acoustic arrangement to support his song. The lyrics of “Different is OK” is about developing meaningful relationships while celebrating the differences between people. You can watch the full version of the viral video of Huillo’s trip to his first Coldplay concert in the video below.
At age four Huillo was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Not long after, his parents noticed that he loved listening to Coldplay, which is why his father took him to watch their concert. The video of Huillo at the concert made a big impact with fans online as well as with Coldplay, who thanked the family by saying “it’s worth it for things like this.”
The band and the family kept in contact over the following years. During that time Huillo began music classes as a form of therapy and to help him engage with other people. It soon became apparent to his parents that the young boy had quite a talent for writing songs.
In 2021 Huillo dropped his debut single “Different is OK”, which eventually led to his triumphant appearance at Foro Sol with Coldplay. Huillo’s official video for “Different is OK” gained quite a bit of attention online, with the clip being viewed 72,000 times on his YouTube channel.
Music fans couldn’t get enough of Huillo and Coldplay’s collab, adding admiring comments to the Foro Sol video like “As a 42-year old man I cried the same way as Huillo did six years ago. Thank you guys,” and “Thank you Coldplay, Huillo and his family for making us believe in humanity in these difficult times.” If you would like to see more from Huillo, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow him on Instagram.