

On 29 April 2021, Coldplay confirmed on their social media its title and release date, on 7 May. Similar posts would follow, which all teased the lead single, "Higher Power". The characters were quickly decoded by fan sites and said "Coldplay Higher Power May Seven".

The post included a photo of an advertisement at these coordinates with unknown bright neon purple characters set to a blue background. On 23 April 2021, a post from an account titled 'Alien Radio FM' on social media released a set of coordinates (51☃0'24.6"N 0☀8'34.4"W) that led to Green Park in Piccadilly, London. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Martin sent material regularly to the rest of the band, who were working together with Max Martin, but he later joined the group, and most of the track was recorded during this time, later being properly recorded at MixStar Studios, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. During its first stages, the song was recorded at Hansa Studios, in Berlin, Germany. The song was produced by Max Martin, whom the band called "a true wonder of the universe". The singer later told Zoe Ball that the track had intergalactic origins, saying: "We've been trying to imagine what music might sound like on other planets, and try to imagine being those other acts, so we're not thinking of ourselves as being the band Coldplay from England", he explained. He also explained that "the song is about trying to find the astronaut in all of us, the person that can do amazing things".

and then I went to the piano keyboard, and the song just landed in one go". And so I started hitting the sink this beat. Then one day I was staying in this place and the sink was very resonant. During an interview with Mark Savage of BBC News, lead vocalist Chris Martin, who is in no relation to Max, said that the song just dropped out the sky: "I came up with the title first, but struggled to find the melody and lyrics to go with it.
