Funeral Music Chart

2019 funeral music chart

Based on the data and insights of our Funeral Directors and Funeral Arrangers, who conduct up to 100,000 funerals a year, we can reveal that our 2019 chart winner is... 'My Way' by Frank Sinatra.*

Frank’s no stranger to our charts and has come out on top in the past, but in 2014 we were surprised to see Monty Python’s comical 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life' (now at number ten) knock him off the top spot. See the full top ten below or read the full report here.

For the first time ever no traditional hymns have made it into our top ten, suggesting that there's been a shift in funeral music trends.

Other music categories and choices

We also took a look at specific genres of music, and spoke to people about what they’d like at their own funeral when the time comes. We interestingly found:

• The 'Game of Thrones theme' song may make it into future funeral charts, as 1 in 20 UK adults voted it as a song they would consider for their own funeral.
• Humour is key as over 42% of UK adults said they ‘want to raise a laugh’ amongst guests at their funeral.
• 1 in 10 UK adults said they’d consider having 'Another One Bites The Dust' (Queen) at their own funeral. 1 in 20 said they’d have ‘Going Underground’ (The Jam) and 1 in 15 said they’d go for 'Highway To Hell' (ACDC). Others said they’d consider 'Stayin’ Alive' (The Bee Gees) and 'Disco Inferno' (Trammps).
• When looking into specific music genres, new entrants to Contemporary Pop funeral music charts include Ed Sheeran's 'Supermarket Flowers' placed at number 3 and Abba's 'Dancing Queen' which has come in at number 6. Wiz Khalifa’s 'See You Again' dedicated to the late Paul Walker, which was new to the 2016 chart is now placed at number 4.
• Pop is now the most requested music genre with 25% of people saying they would choose pop songs for their funeral.
• Over half (54%) of funeral directors and arrangers stated that hymns are declining in popularity the quickest, a fact backed up by this year's top ten, as no hymns made our list.
• 59% of our funeral directors and arrangers have had requests for music to be played via digital devices including smart phones, tablets and laptops with a further 11% saying they expect to see more of these types of requests in the future.
• More than a fifth of people who have actually arranged a funeral say they were given explicit instructions from their loved one on what music they wanted, while almost 30% plan on giving their family a CD with our favourite songs on it.

Funeral Music Top Ten

Top Ten Overall Chart 2019

Previous Top Ten Charts

Top Ten Overall Chart 2016

Top Ten Overall Chart 2014

^*Research was conducted among 300 of Co-op’s Funeral directors and arrangers in April 2019 based on funerals conducted in the last 12 months Also conducted among 2,000 UK adults with ICM on behalf of Co-op Funeralcare in April 2019