Jay Z, Rihanna and Coldplay Close Out the Paralympic Ceremony with Beautiful Music

I don’t know if you happened to catch the Paralympic Closing Ceremony last night, but, if you did, you probably noticed that — all due respect to the Spice Girls — it blew the 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony straight out of the water. The speeches were inspiring, the visuals were mesmerizing and the musical performances were rousing — a surprising twist considering that their headlining act was the typically Milquetoast Coldplay. Sadly, in this case, the credit does not go to Chris Martin & Co., but instead to appearances by Rihanna and Jay Z, both of whom breathed new life into Coldplay’s typically bland musical narrative. Perhaps this was most evident in the evening’s final performance — a Jay’d up version of Coldplay’s “Paradise.”

And here’s their take on Jay Z’s “Run This Town.” I don’t know — for a group that’s typically so blah, Coldplay makes one hell of a backing band.