Coldplay have lavished praise on Rihanna, stating that she was always in mind to duet on their track 'Princess Of China' from the very start.

Speaking to In:Demand, drummer Will Champion said that the band's mainman Chris Martin wrote the Mylo Xyloto track "quite a long time ago", but that he always wanted Rihanna to sing on it. He said:

"Chris had written that song quite a long time ago and he had always had it in his head that Rihanna was going to be singing the female part of the song."

Champion continued: "We questioned whether we should have anyone sing on our album because we hadn't done it before, is it cool to do that? Or is it cool to get somebody who's got such a huge profile to be the other half of the duet? Or should we get somebody that has a great voice that is completely unknown?"

He concluded that they "all love" Rihanna and that she is an "incredible artist". He said: "We all love Rihanna and we came to the decision that if we are going to get someone to come and sing on it, it should be the best person and she's obviously an incredible artist. She was the original intention for the female part, so it just had to be her really!"