LyriSis #6 - Viva la Vida [When I Ruled the World]- Coldplay

A deep dive into the poetry of pop

LyriSis is a bonus for my paid community. Think of it as a summer concert series, but with fewer stage dives. Each week, I take a song—pop, rock, indie, guilty pleasure, whatever—and treat it like it just turned in a midterm. Line by line, image by image, we channel our Walkman-wearing, lyric sheet holding selves to get into the overt and hidden meaning behind the lyrics… and just have some fun. A Spotify playlist will be dropped at the end.

Viva La Vida (When I Ruled the World)

Coldplay (2008)
Written by Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion & Chris Martin

At the time Viva La Vida was written and released (2007–2008), Chris Martin was at the height of his external success. He was married to Gwyneth Paltrow, father to two young children, and fronting one of the biggest bands in the world.

Yet he released a song about a fallen king, guilt, and divine rejection. Why?

I never realized what this song was actually about because the words were hard for me to follow and remember until I did this deep dive. (I also never realized the title of it is Viva La Vida. Thank goodness for the parenthetic secondary title.)

Here’s my take: the song is about realizing that success isn’t the same thing as meaning, which is a theme I often think about with people who rise to stardom.

There’s no documented evidence that the song is about his marriage—but I still draw that connection since I know what he doesn’t at the time of this writing…that they won’t go the distance. Is the song foreshadowing? (Or was Gwynnie just a p.i.t.a.?)

Martin strikes me as an introspective chap. So it follows that, while his personal life appeared pristine from the outside, he dwelled inside a song of existential fatigue. He lamented the illusion.

Viva La Vida is about realizing you were clinging to the wrong power all along. Now, let’s dive in.