The Stellenbosch University Choir has done it again. They’ve taken a popular song, one that many of us know and love, and made it even more moving and beautiful.
Stellenbosch, South Africa (11 November 2025) – It’s not the first time they’ve made headlines for it. In July earlier this year, the university choir’s emotional performance of Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ helped them win triple gold at the European Choir Games.
We saw the video. We cried snot and trane.
Since then, the performance has been made unavailable online. That’s no worry, because the choir, led by their legendary conductor André van der Merwe, recorded the song again. This time, on South African soil at the Endler Hall at Stellenbosch University Konservatorium.
Why do we all need to hear this right now?
End of year is often a really challenging time for many. Everybody’s dealing with something, and we’re all putting on a brave front to see these last few weeks through. With each twelve months that pass, we get to celebrate the wins. But we also make it through the lows that felt insurmountable.
That’s what the song is about, essentially.
‘Fix You’ was written in 2003-2004 during a deeply emotional period for Chris Martin and the band. They were on the rocks.
“I’d just got married. I had a baby, who’s now a young woman. I was so out of my depth in every direction, and so were the rest of us. There was addiction — there was just all of the things. The only thing that really was a positive was, of course, having my daughter. Her mom had been given this keyboard called a Korg Triton by her dad, who had passed away. This keyboard had sounds on it that I’d never heard before,” said Chris Martin, as per The Rolling Stone.
And so Chris recorded the song on a keyboard that his then-wife Gwyneth Paltrow’s late father, Bruce Paltrow, owned. It became a saving grace for the band, who were on the edge of splitting up.
“That song came from the situation that we were in. It was just everything that felt broken. The band was a mess. We were not sure why we were doing it. We weren’t getting along. We didn’t have our own place to go and play. This song was the light in a dark period for the band,” said Chris.
And now it’s a universal anthem for comfort, 20 years on. It captures grief and the longing to help someone you love. Feeling powerless but wanting to be present, and trying to rebuild after loss or failure.
Here’s the beautiful rendition by the Stellenbosch University Choir. Best enjoyed with a cup of tea.
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