Choosing music for a funeral is one of the most personal decisions in the planning process. The right song can hold a room in a way that words sometimes can't — it can carry the emotion of the moment, reflect the person who has died, and give everyone present something to feel together.
The 20 songs below have all found their place in funeral and memorial services for good reason. Whether you're looking for something that reflects your loved one's taste, something that speaks to the people gathered, or simply something that feels right, this list is a place to start.
1. You Raise Me Up — Josh Groban
One of the most widely chosen funeral songs of the past two decades, You Raise Me Up has earned its place through sheer emotional honesty. It speaks to the way certain people lift us — not through grand gestures, but through their steady presence. Groban's vocal builds gradually from something quiet and intimate to something genuinely soaring. For a service that wants to close on a note of gratitude and uplift, it's hard to find a more fitting choice.
2. Bye Bye — Mariah Carey
Written as a direct address to everyone who has ever lost someone close — a best friend, a parent, a partner — Bye Bye has a warmth and directness that makes it immediately relatable. Mariah Carey delivers it with restraint and genuine feeling. It sits somewhere between grief and peace, which is exactly where many people find themselves at a funeral. For someone whose loss is felt deeply across a wide circle, this song speaks for the room.
3. Butterfly Kisses — Bob Carlisle
Originally written as a father's reflection on watching his daughter grow up, Butterfly Kisses has found its way into memorial services far beyond the context it was written for. Its tenderness — the small, specific details of a child's life, the quiet awe of a parent — translates to any relationship built on unconditional love. It's particularly moving at services for parents, grandparents, or anyone remembered for the gentleness they brought to the people around them.
4. Nightingale — Demi Lovato
Written after Lovato lost a friend to suicide in her teenage years, Nightingale carries a particular kind of grief — young, raw, and searching for something to hold onto. The production is simple and the vocal is restrained, which gives the song a fragility that feels honest. For a service where loss has come too soon, or where the grief in the room is close to the surface, Nightingale offers something that doesn't try to explain or resolve — it simply sits alongside.
5. Like You’ll Never See Me Again — Alicia Keys
At its heart this is a song about paying attention — about being fully present with the people you love, because nothing is guaranteed. Alicia Keys wrote it as a love song, but its message translates naturally to loss. It's a reminder that the moments we sometimes take for granted are the ones we reach for later. For a service that wants to leave people feeling something about how they'll love going forward, this song plants that seed gently and without preaching.
6. Sad Song — We The Kings featuring Elena Coats
Simple and direct in the way the best grief songs are, Sad Song doesn't reach for metaphor or abstraction — it simply names what it is to miss someone. The male and female vocal trade lines across the song, which gives it a conversational quality, as if two people are working through the same loss from different angles. It's a relatively recent addition to the canon of popular funeral songs but has found a genuine audience among younger generations.
7. One Call Away — Charlie Puth
Charlie Puth wrote this as a straightforward song about availability — being there for someone, no matter what. At a memorial service it takes on a different reading: the idea that the people we love remain reachable in some form, that the connection doesn't simply end. It's a gentle, accessible song that sits well in services for any age group, particularly where younger family members are present.
8. Lay Me Down — Sam Smith
Sam Smith has a gift for vulnerability, and Lay Me Down is one of their most openly emotional recordings. It's about the specific longing of missing someone so deeply that their absence is physical — the empty side of the bed, the silence in the morning. It doesn't offer comfort so much as permission to feel the full weight of loss. For a service where grief is very fresh, this song meets people where they are.
9. Hello — Adele
Hello is a song about reaching across a distance that can't be closed — about calling to someone who can no longer answer. In the context of a funeral, that reading is unavoidable and deeply moving. Adele's vocal is one of the most powerful in contemporary music, and the piano-led arrangement gives the song a stateliness that suits a formal service. It tends to land hardest in the silence after the final note.
10. Supermarket Flowers — Ed Sheeran
Written in a single sitting after the death of his grandmother, Supermarket Flowers is one of the most quietly devastating songs about grief in recent memory. It's specific in a way that makes it universal — the cheap flowers on the windowsill, the get-well cards, the small objects that outlast a person. Ed Sheeran sings it with the restraint of someone who has just lost someone, and it sounds like it. For a service honouring a grandparent or parent, it's extraordinarily apt.
11. There You’ll Be — Faith Hill
Written for the film Pearl Harbor, this Faith Hill ballad has found a lasting second life at memorial services around the world. Its central message — that the people we lose remain present in the moments that matter — is delivered simply and without sentimentality. The production is sweeping without being overwhelming. For a service that wants something with an American country influence that still feels broadly accessible, this is a reliable and moving choice.
12. Fix You — Coldplay
Few songs capture the experience of watching someone you love suffer and being unable to help as honestly as Fix You. Chris Martin wrote it for his then-partner Gwyneth Paltrow after the death of her father. The song builds from something quiet and tender to genuinely transcendent — the guitars that arrive in the final third feel like the moment when grief stops being private and becomes shared. It's one of the most consistently requested funeral songs of the past two decades.
13. When September Ends — Green Day
Written by Billie Joe Armstrong about the death of his father, this song carries a grief that is specific and autobiographical, which is exactly what gives it its power. September becomes a metaphor for the period of loss — the season you simply want to sleep through until it passes. It's a song that understands the particular exhaustion of early grief without trying to resolve it. For a service honouring someone whose loss has left people needing time, it says what many people in the room are feeling.
14. My Heart Will Go On — Celine Dion
However inseparable this song may be from its film, the music itself is a genuinely great piece of orchestral pop about enduring love and the refusal to let go. Celine Dion's vocal is among the most recognisable in popular music, and the song's scale — the strings, the pan flute, the building final chorus — makes it feel like a formal occasion. It has been played at more funerals than perhaps any other song of its era, and it continues to resonate across generations.
15. I Will Follow You Into the Dark — Death Cab for Cutie
Gentle, fingerpicked, and almost whispered, this song is about love that refuses to be separated even by death. It's quiet in a way that can feel startling at a service — no production, no strings, just a voice and a guitar making a very simple and sincere promise. For a service that wants a moment of stillness, or for someone remembered for a devotion that was quiet rather than loud, this song is deeply affecting.
16. The Best I Ever Had — Gary Allan
Written and recorded in the aftermath of Allan's wife's suicide, this song carries a weight that goes beyond its country pop production. It's a love song built on loss — the kind that only makes sense in retrospect, when the person is gone and you understand what you had. For a service honouring a partner or a deeply loved companion, the emotion in Allan's vocal is unmistakable and the message is one many people in the room will recognise.
17. Hold Back The River — James Bay
This is a song about the frustration of distance — physical, emotional, temporal — and the wish to simply be near the people you love before it's too late. At a memorial service it resonates in a particular way: the people in the room understand that feeling of wanting to hold back something that couldn't be held. James Bay's voice has a raw quality that suits grief, and the song's build from intimate to expansive mirrors what many people experience at a service.
18. See You Again — Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
Originally written as a tribute to the late actor Paul Walker, See You Again has become one of the most played funeral songs of the past decade, particularly at services for younger people. The combination of rap and melodic chorus gives it a contemporary quality that sits well with a mixed-age congregation. Its central message — that separation is temporary, that reunion is coming — offers a particular kind of comfort that more traditional songs sometimes can't reach.
19. Stars — Grace Potter and The Nocturnals
A lesser-known entry on this list but one worth knowing. Stars is about the way grief makes everything associative — how after a loss, the ordinary world becomes full of reminders. The stars themselves become a kind of presence, a way of feeling connected to someone who is no longer there. Grace Potter's vocal is powerful and the song's emotional arc is genuine. For a service that wants something a little less familiar, this is a discovery worth making.
20. Waves — Dean Lewis
Dean Lewis has a particular talent for writing about emotional pain with specificity and restraint, and Waves is one of his finest examples. The metaphor of grief as a tide — arriving and retreating, never fully gone — is both accurate and comforting. It says: this is what grief feels like, and it's survivable. The song has found a wide audience at funerals in Australia and the UK particularly, where Lewis has a dedicated following, but its emotional honesty translates anywhere.
When choosing funeral songs, you can pick from a variety of genres. Whatever you’re after, the options are countless. If you focus on your loved one’s tastes and life, you will choose the right song to help commemorate your loved one.
The right song is the one that feels true to the person and the moment. Once you've found it, the Memories Tribute Video Builder lets you build it into something lasting — a tribute video that layers the music over photos and clips gathered from family and friends, ready to play at the service and keep forever. For more inspiration, see our guides to uplifting funeral songs and songs to play at a memorial service. Start for free — no credit card required.