Earlier this week, Coldplay unwittingly stepped into some kind of Romanian cultural divide while playing two shows at Bucharest’s Arena Națională. Coldplay are in the middle of rolling out new music, and they’re also in the middle of a seemingly-endless global stadium tour. They debuted the new song “All My Love” in Athens earlier this week and the single “feelslikeimfallinginlove” is coming on Monday. While they’re on tour, Coldplay often bring out special guests who represent the places hosting them, whether that means Bruce Springsteen in New Jersey, Stereophonics’ Kelly Jones in Cardiff, or Bryan Adams in Vancouver. But some portion of the Romanian crowd voiced disapproval of the Romanian performer who joined Coldplay this week.

As Romania Insider reports, Coldplay played to 50,000 people at the first of their two Bucharest shows on Wednesday night. Midway through their set, they introduced Babasha, a 22-year-old performer who represents the hybridized Romanian pop genre known as manele. Manele is popular in Romania, but apparently a whole lot of people hate it, for reasons that seem to have a lot to do with class and race. This is all new to me. If we have any readers from Romania, maybe they can give a little more context in the comments section. But here’s how Romania Insider describes the furur around manele:

Manele has always been one of the most controversial music genres in Romania. It is mainly played by Roma musicians, and some dislike this style because they say it comes with a rather superficial message. The incorrect use of grammar in texts is another aspect mentioned, which resulted in manele being also often associated with a low level of culture. Lyrics often make reference to the use of violence, money, and luxurious cars and include blatant sexism and misogyny.

Nevertheless, manele are still popular in Romania, being usually played at weddings or other family celebrations and parties, and the artists gather large crowds at concerts. The trending music section of YouTube in Romania is also dominated by manele at almost every point.

This sounds like Coldplay bringing out NBA YoungBoy in Salt Lake City or something. While introducing Babasha, Chris Martin reportedly told the crowd, “When I landed yesterday — well, two days ago — I wandered the streets and heard this man singing so beautifully on the street. Then I looked at the music charts in Romania and was impressed because there are so many wonderful artists. Maybe you don’t understand what kind of people you have in Romania, it’s incredible.” Coldplay then backed Babasha up on a performance of his recent single “Păi Naa,” and a good portion of the crowd booed.

After the show, Babasha posted an Instagram video, blaming racism for manele’s reputation in Romania and describing how he ended up onstage with Coldplay: “Coldplay wanted to have a moment with a Romanian artist for their concert… and they looked at the music charts and saw me. They personally contacted my agents… Regardless of all the boos in the world, I still would have accepted because something like this is once in a lifetime.”

Last night, during Coldplay’s second Bucharest show, Chris Martin addressed the boos while going out of his way to avoid condemning the crowd:

I felt shocked, and I felt sad, and I felt guilty somehow, that I did something bad. Then I went to bed and tried to sleep, and I realized that you are our audience, and we just love you unconditionally. There’s nothing you can do that makes us unhappy. Please forgive me speaking so much English. We travel all over the world. We may not understand what you’ve been through individually or what your culture is going through, but one thing I know is that we love all humans equally, and that means all Romanians, too. So yesterday was so beautiful for us because we realized you can do whatever you like and we’re still going to love you and we’re still going to come back to Romania…

But I would like to change one thing, which is yesterday there were some people booing, and the booing was not that good. So I would like you today, just for five seconds, to boo better and louder than yesterday so I can hear it. Go now! Boo! Let’s go!

Later in the show, Coldplay once again brought out Babasha, reportedly telling the crowd, “If you don’t like it, go to the bathroom, text your friends, or do whatever you want, but be kind. We like that music and those people. We like all people.” Apparently, this performance went better.

Fortunately, Coldplay’s next show is Sunday night in Hungary, a very normal place.