# What Song will They Play When the Queen Dies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [September 3, 2021, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062 "2021-09-03T21:41:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/1 "2021-09-03T21:41:13Z")
I see that the British media is reporting on the “secret plan” for the Queen’s death. The last time this came around, at least one news outlet mentioned a specific obscure instrumental that would most likely be played. The title had a set of brackets, something like “Riot in the Nursery (Reveb Mix)” or the like. At that time, I found it on YouTube and many people commented on the report that this piece of music was the one mentioned in the press. Now I cannot find trace nor remembrance of it. Anyone recall the title? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/2 "2021-09-03T21:45:42Z")
Haunted Dancehall (Nursery Remix) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/3 "2021-09-03T21:45:43Z")
From an [article](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/16/what-happens-when-queen-elizabeth-dies-london-bridge) in The Guardian, “Every station, down to hospital radio, has prepared music lists made up of ‘Mood 2’ (sad) or ‘Mood 1’ (saddest) songs to reach for in times of sudden mourning. ‘If you ever hear Haunted Dancehall (Nursery Remix) by Sabres of Paradise on daytime Radio 1, turn the TV on,’ wrote Chris Price, a BBC radio producer, for the Huffington Post in 2011. ‘Something terrible has just happened.’” So it’s not as if that’s the official music to play when it happens, but an example of music that sets the right mood. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/4 "2021-09-03T21:49:42Z")
I imagine they’d avoid The Smiths and the Sex Pistols for w while. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/5 "2021-09-03T21:51:15Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Haunted Dancehall (Nursery Remix) Thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/6 "2021-09-03T22:09:50Z")
Didn’t Freddie Mercury have a song about The Queen…? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/7 "2021-09-03T22:11:40Z")
The Brits seem to take this sort of thing seriously. I read somewhere that newly hired newsreaders are expected to get a black suit tailored and to keep it ready in their office. And one newsreader got shit for not wearing a black necktie on the event of a royal death ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/8 "2021-09-04T00:31:42Z")
It isn’t “The Brits” who take this seriously, it’s the people who control the mainstream broadcasting and print media who will make sure that this is the biggest news story since VE Day. Tens of millions of UK citizens will actually not give a shit. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/9 "2021-09-04T00:38:22Z")
To be fair, when the queen dies, it’s going to be a massive story in virtually every country. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/10 "2021-09-04T00:48:47Z")
It definitely will be, I’ve been saying for years that the vast majority of people in the UK can’t imagine how strongly it will affect them (which, to be fair, totally contradicts what I wrote in my previous post). But what I’m really trying to say is that the BBC et al will impose an extremely heavy sombreness (witness their response to the death of Prince Philip) which will absolutely fail to reflect the wide variety of emotions that people are actually feeling. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/11 "2021-09-04T02:48:25Z")
“Killer Queen” might not be deemed appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/12 "2021-09-04T03:59:01Z")
“God Save the King”. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/13 "2021-09-04T04:13:24Z")
“[Dancing Queen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s)” instead? It’s Swedish and not performed by Queen but it was written for an actual queen IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/14 "2021-09-04T05:38:20Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > “God Save the King”. That’s what I was thinking. After singing “God save the Queen” for their whole lives, I wonder if anyone will slip up and sing it that way after she dies. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/15 "2021-09-04T07:08:29Z")
In 1952, the BBC simply [made the announcement and stopped broadcasting for the rest of the day](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-16767149) apart from short news bulletins at the usual times. There was a deluge of criticism that they responded to Philip’s death by switching radio to a single common news stream, which necessarily became very repetitive and full of the usual rolling-news speculative dross. TV schedules were also re-jigged around obituary biographies and the like. Commercial channels dropped a lot of its daytime ads for cheap funerals and the like, but mostly kept to their scheduled programming. So I would guess there’s been some re-thinking going on at the BBC. I’d imagine the formal announcement will indeed close with the (instrumental only) national anthem, but after that who knows. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/16 "2021-09-04T07:35:14Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > Tens of millions of UK citizens will actually not give a shit. I imagine a lot of them will spend a fair bit of their day explaining how much they really don’t care, even if nobody asks. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/17 "2021-09-04T08:43:01Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > “Killer Queen” might not be deemed appropriate. And as for _Another One Bites The Dust_… ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/18 "2021-09-04T10:25:39Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > Tens of millions of UK citizens will actually not give a shit. And tens of millions of U.S. citizens will actually give a shit. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/19 "2021-09-04T10:47:08Z")
The asked question has been answered. As far as I am concerned, we can close this discussion. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062/20 "2021-09-04T13:59:28Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > “Killer Queen” might not be deemed appropriate. How about “I Hate the Bloody Queen” by the Queen Haters? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ThrkJKxRNXo/hqdefault.jpg "The Queen Haters "I Hate The Bloody Queen"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThrkJKxRNXo) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-song-will-they-play-when-the-queen-dies/950062.md?page=2)