Jacob Collier surprises fans at his O2 Arena gig by bringing out Coldplay's Chris Martin

Jacob Collier surprised his fans at the O2 Arena in London on Monday as he brought out a very special guest.  

The 30-year-old Londoner was performing his biggest headline show to date when he welcomed to the stage Coldplay's Chris Martin. 

Chris, 47, walked out and sat at the piano alongside Jacob, before the pair performed together for the large audience.  

His appearance at Jacob's gig comes just days after he graced the same stage during Capital's Jingle Bell Ball with Barclaycard. 

Chris has become a confidante to Jacob and the two have collaborated many times - he was a special guest at Coldplay's 2022 Wembley Stadium shows and features on their track Human Heart.

Collier says: 'Chris is such an amazing person to be friends with because he's a kind soul and very fearless. He's really funny and gentle spirited.

'People like that are worth protecting, because a lot of people who get into positions of power or influence will try to overpower or intimidate.

'But he really uses his powers for good. There's a lot of joy in a Coldplay show. Everyone's welcome. And I find that really inspiring. It's glorious and I leave that show feeling like I'm alive.'

You might not think you've ever heard any music by Jacob, but the artist - who has been dubbed 'the Mozart of Gen Z' - will likely have appeared in some of your favourite tunes from A-listers like Coldplay, Alicia Keys and SZA.

The Grammy nominee, who is facing the likes of Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Sabrina Carpenter for the Album of the Year title has been making music for 12 years, starting off with viral music videos on YouTube.

Before long, he found fans in musical legends including the late Quincy Jones, composer Hans Zimmer and Chris Martin - with the latter even featuring Jacob's backing vocals in his songs.

He has also worked with British powerhouses Stormzy , and last December performed a version of Last Christmas at the Princess of Wales 's Carol concert.

His latest album, Djesse Vol 4, came out in February, and is now competing among the ranks of Cowboy Carter, The Tortured Poets Department and Short 'n' Sweet.

It's far from Jacob's first brush with the Grammies - last year he won the Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals award for In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.

He also performed at the event, wowing audiences with a rendition of Both Sides Now, alongside Joni Mitchell , Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, SistaStrings, Blake Mills, and Lucius.

Jacob, who grew up in Finchley, North London , has said that he found music as a 'second language' and was experimenting with instruments from a very young age, thanks to his mother's work as a violinist, conductor and teacher at the Royal Academy of Music.

Speaking to Red Bull earlier this year, he expressed: 'When I was coming into the world, it just made a lot of sense to express shapes, forms and sensations through sound.'

The self-taught artist has tried his hand at everything from the piano the mandolin.

In 2011, he began posting vocal arrangements of covers online. One of his first hits - a take on Isn't She Lovely - has racked up 4.6 million views on YouTube , featuring a baby-faced Jacob singing different parts on a split screen.

Just a few months later, his version of Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing got 6.7 million views.

'I've always believed that you don't need a lot to be creative, just a space where it's safe for the ideas to come to the surface, and time to mess about,' he told British Vogue last year.

'Having Logic [a music software] and a piano and a microphone was just unbelievable. How I started my YouTube career was just by extending my musical limbs in a visual way.

'My life really changed because those videos started to get picked up by people I thought of as the greatest musicians in the world, like Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones, who has been this amazing godfather figure to me.'