La Vida

"Viva la Vida" (Spanish pronunciation: ['biβa la 'βiða]), is a song by the English alternative rock band Coldplay. It was written by allmembers of the band for their fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), and was released as the second single from thealbum. On the album, this song segues directly into the next track, "Violet Hill". Viva la Vida means "Long live life" in Spanish.

The lyrics tothe song contain historical and Christian references, and the track is built around a repeating string section with a percussion background.Coldplay performed some of the song live in The Simpsons episode "Million Dollar Maybe".[2]

The song was released on 12 June 2008 as thealbum's second single, debuting to critical and commercial success. "Viva la Vida" reached the top spot of the UK Singles Chart and BillboardHot 100, becoming the band's first number-one single in both the US and UK. The song won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the 51stGrammy Awards in 2009. The song became the sixth song in digital history to reach the 4 million mark in paid downloads.[3] It has sold over 5million copies in the United States, becoming only the second song by a British act to reach this milestone.[4]

The song was played to the crewof the Space Shuttle Atlantis to wake them up on day two of mission STS-135. It was played specifically for crew member Douglas Hurley.