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From A Distance: Songs for a Covid-19 soundtrack

Bette Midler's ballad is a perfect addition during this time of the coronavirus

Music is always there to soundtrack people's lives, through the heartbreaks and triumphs. And it is still here for us in this time of Covid-19.

Even before the pandemic, there were already new songs appearing on Kiss92's playlist that were eerily prescient. A young upstart from New Zealand calling herself Benee released her debut hit single Supalonely and man-of-the-moment Lauv has been emo'ing across the airwaves with his latest song Modern Loneliness.

But it is certainly not only the new tracks which fit nicely into a megamix to accompany the current life people are all living.

It was 1996 when Celine Dion released her version of All By Myself, a song which at that time was already 20 years old.

You can Google an adorable video of a four-year-old boy called Bryson from America - who is secretly being recorded by his mum - singing this song to himself while stuck at home, mournfully making the world's saddest peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich.

There are other reports from around the world of a spike in the popularity of certain songs during this troubled time.

R.E.M.'s It's The End Of The World As We Know It is apparently shooting up the streaming charts. I find it truly bizarre that people would want to hear a gloomy song at this depressing time, but, hey, apparently 2011 thriller film Contagion is a big hit on the television screens too.

Personally, I prefer to roll up my sleeves and forge ahead with some real life, with practical songs people can apply to their everyday behaviour.

Bette Midler deserves a career resurgence with her evergreen ballad From A Distance. I also think they should programme the stereo system on the MRT to blare Don't Stand So Close To Me by The Police on repeat.

And it would be wise for the still-busy supermarkets to loop MC Hammer down the aisles. Hey, if you can play the Chinese New Year ditty Gong Xi Gong Xi every minute, every day, from Christmas, you can just as easily pummel our ears with the 1990's rap classic U Can't Touch This.

Do take note that while some songs make great additions to your Covid-19 playlist, some famous tracks should be avoided at all costs.

American singer Gloria Gaynor, with her award for Best Roots Gospel Album for Testimony during the Grammy Awards in January, was behind the hit, I Will Survive. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

The Beatles' I Wanna Hold Your Hand? No, sir, offer rejected.

Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline isn't so sweet when you realise how many hands are touching hands, and reaching out and touching more hands.

As for 1980s band Divinyls, they have always courted controversy with their best known hit, I Touch Myself. I'll allow it for now, but I would warn against touching your face. Maybe you can update the lyrics to "I touch myself, after sanitiser".

Alanis Morissette famously proclaimed that she's got "one hand in my pocket" - okay, permissible - "and the other one is giving a high five" - there you've gone and crossed the line into a Covid-19 infraction. Definitely no high fives. A bump of elbows if you absolutely must have some human touch, but ideally no contact at all.

You Oughta Know better, Alanis - you have another song called Hands Clean, for goodness' sake.

It's a bizarre time to live in, with an unprecedented use of the word "unprecedented" in global media. You might be bored of the Fifth Harmony hit Work From Home or you might be a parent getting red in the face to Alice Cooper's School's Out while you yell algebra at your 12-year-old.

But try to remember that this mysterious, off-beat, improvised jazz interlude in the Broadway score that is mankind's history will one day pass.

And for now, I advise you to throw on an old vinyl of Gloria Gaynor and sing loudly from your balcony: I Will Survive.


  • Shan Wee is a Kiss92 DJ with SPH Radio.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on April 16, 2020, with the headline From A Distance: Songs for a Covid-19 soundtrack. Subscribe