What song would you like to hear in your final moments?: Marie Curie creates a playlist with the most popular end-of-life songs
The UK’s leading end-of-life charity, Marie Curie, has released the first ever playlist of its kind which has been curated by terminally ill people. This playlist is comprised of the most popular songs chosen by terminally ill people to accompany them in their final moments. And ranging from Frank Sinatra to Tina Turner, these were the top five songs that made it onto the list. The top song was My Way by Frank Sinatra. Then came I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston. This was then quickly followed by Simply The Best by Tina Turner, then Over The Rainbow by Judy Garland. Girls Just Want To Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper came fifth on the list.
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00:00This is about, you know, people wishing to be comfortable at the end of life, free of
00:07pain, surrounded by their loved ones, and identifying music that has mattered most in
00:13their lives.
00:14So I did wonder, with the songs that made the playlist, did you notice any particular
00:20patterns or trends to the ones that tended to be the most popular that people chose?
00:27No, I think it's really interesting and a very good question, Erina.
00:30I think in essence, it's very much a personal choice, and I'm looking at the playlist myself.
00:36They're very classical hits, very classical, you know, I Will Always Love You, Whitney
00:42Houston, My Way, Frank Sinatra, but, you know, there are some more perhaps easily identifiable
00:51more recent groups as well, you know, Coldplay has featured also in the list.
00:58And actually, it's a gentle introduction into what matters most to people, and quite often
01:04when people really aren't ready to talk about their end of life plans, where they want to
01:08be when they're less well, where they want to die, quite often they'll feel really comfortable
01:13to share with you, if music is important to them.
01:17It's not for everybody, but the vast majority, it certainly is.
01:22You know, some of the groups that I work with, we include, you know, Cognitive Impairment,
01:28one of our wonderful dementia groups, and it's astonishing, they all identified that
01:35they loved Queen, and it was quite an eclectic mix of ages, but Bohemian Rhapsody was number
01:43one, and every single one of the groups actually stood up and sang the words to Bohemian Rhapsody
01:50using the musical instruments that we have here in the group, and it was such a profound moment.