President Obama Sings 'Amazing Grace' on New Coldplay Album

President Obama is a huge Coldplay fan

Photo: AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Talk about a crossover star.

Coldplay is using a sample of President Obama singing “Amazing Grace” for a song on its highly anticipated seventh album, A Head Full of Dreams.

“We have a tiny clip of the president singing ‘Amazing Grace’ at that church. Because of the historical significance of what he did and also that song being about, ‘I’m lost but now I’m found,’ ” Coldplay frontman Chris Martin told The Sun.

Obama broke into singing the gospel anthem while delivering the eulogy for Charleston shooting victim Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney in June.

White House had no objection to the repurposing of the president’s performance and, in their private reactions to PEOPLE, seemed to be pleased with the musical turn of events. POTUS is, after all, an admitted Coldplay fan – which seemed to surprise Martin more than anyone when he met the president in 2012.

“I met Barack Obama in the summer and one thing he said to me was, ‘Oh, I have your songs on my iPod.’ But I just thought, ‘Oh, I bet he says that to every pop star he meets,’ ” Martin said.

“I can’t get my head around the notion that the president of the U.S.A. would have any of my songs on his playlist. It is just too surreal.”

Perhaps about as surreal as the president of the U.S.A. being featured on a Coldplay album.