Carrie Underwood celebrated a lot of firsts last week. Not only did the country superstar play her first headlining gig in the U.K. when she took the stage at Royal Albert Hall in London, but it was there that she tacked a beautiful country music version of Coldplay‘s ‘Fix You’ onto her setlist.

Underwood impressed her fans from across the pond by singing older hit songs like ‘Jesus Take the Wheel’ and new chart toppers like ‘Good Girl’ and ‘Blown Away’ — a surefire way to expand country’s popularity overseas. Naturally, concertgoers were touched that Underwood tipped her hat to Coldplay, whose four members hail from London.

“I wanted to basically pay homage. It was kind of a respect thing and I know that there are so many amazing artists here [in the UK],” Underwood told MTV.co.uk.

Underwood expertly applied her powerhouse vocal abilities to the song, which was written by the members of Coldplay and released as a single in 2005. Since then, the original version of the song has made waves on music charts all over the world.

“You guys don’t need us coming over and bringing our music, as you guys can live for days, all day every day, listening to your new artists that come from here,” Underwood added. “It made it even more special that I got to be here and got to sing.”

Underwood already knew every word to ‘Fix You’ by heart, but it took her a while to settle on an appropriate U.K.-original tune to sing at her first headlining gig across the pond.

“The challenge was finding a song, but I love that song, it was one that I already knew, front to back, and the band were really excited about playing it too,” she said. “It just kind of happened, once I thought of that one – it was the one that we were going to do.”

This week, Underwood continues her Blown Away Tour outside of her homeland, with three shows in Australia before she returns to the U.S.

Watch Carrie Underwood Cover Colplay’s ‘Fix You’

 

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