Aussie muso shares new Chris Martin-produced EP ahead of joining Coldplay tour

Emmanuel Kelly will rejoin his Coldplay mates on their upcoming Music of the Spheres tour and premiere a very significant song.

Emmanuel Kelly will proudly debut the single Chris Martin rejected when he opens for his mates Coldplay on their sold-out Australian tour which opens this week in Melbourne.

The Australian pop artist and disability advocate, who counts Martin as a friend and mentor, said the pop superstar initially told him to cut the song Right From The Very Start from his new EP.

But Kelly wouldn’t back down; the song is a tribute to his mother Moira Kelly, the Australian humanitarian who discovered him and his Paralympian champion brother Ahmed in an Iraqi orphaspnage in 1998 and brought them to Melbourne for medical treatment.

Emmanuel Kelly in rehearsals with his band last week for the Coldplay tour. Picture: Jerome Cole

Kelly does an hilarious impersonation of Martin as he recalls the pop superstar giving his new single the thumbs down when he heard the original demo.

“When I first played Right From The Very Start to him, he said it wasn’t strong enough and I should exclude it from the EP,” Kelly said. “I said ‘It’s staying, man.’

“He said ‘All right, man. I love you. It’s your decision. I love the decision whatever you choose, but I’m just telling you, it’s probably not strong enough, but I love you, man.

“He was basically telling me it was crap in the nicest possible way. I told him why it’s important to me because it’s about the person that I am most grateful for and that’s my mum.”

The determined songwriter kept working on the reggae-flavoured pop song and finally got Martin’s approval.

Their friendship bloomed after the singer, who competed on X Factor in 2011, went viral when he was invited on stage to perform Imagine with Coldplay at their Melbourne concert in December 2016.

He and Martin have since worked together on music and their Outlyer film and TV production company and the Coldplay frontman is an executive producer of his No Zodiac EP, released as the Music of the Spheres tour kicks off on Wednesday at Marvel Stadium.

The title of the EP references the fact that Kelly, who was born with severely underdeveloped limbs due to chemical warfare and discovered abandoned on an Iraqi battlefield, has no birth certificate.

“I was found with no birth certificate, I don’t know my birthday, I don’t know my zodiac,” he said.

Kelly will release his No Zodiac Ep this week which was executive produced by Chris Martin. Picture: Mark Stewart

Kelly said he loves touring with his mates, who he jokes are “a bunch of dads in their forties.”

And while he is working on an elaborate tour prank, the traditional after parties will be a sober affair after a battle with drugs and alcohol abuse several years ago when his music dreams were shattered by endless rejections by record labels and industry executives.

“The only time I’ll be partying … I won’t be drinking or anything … is on the last night of every city on tour Coldplay like to do a little gathering afterwards,” he said.

“Pretty much the whole band is sober … at the end of the day, the biggest rock band is the world is a bunch of dads in their forties.”

No Zodiac is out on October 30.

Originally published as Aussie muso shares new Chris Martin-produced EP ahead of joining Coldplay tour