There has always been something rather exhilarating about a group of people spontaneously bursting into song together. At a concert, in a chain gang, at a football match, in the check-out queue at Waitrose, at an anti-Brexit demo or a sea shanty on a Tall Ship while hoisting the sails etc etc

But what are the modern songs that are most likely to get people bursting into song?

At this year’s Roskilde Festival there were two rather surprising examples. When Johnny Marr began to play There is a light that never goes out, the enormous audience in the Arena Tent sang along. It is a unique frisson to hear ten thousand people singing along to the chorus.

On the even larger Orange Stage, Robyn had 60,000 or so young Scandos joining in for that anthem for dumpees across the globe: Dancing on my own. Great, Danes! What a stupendous pop song it is. If Robyn is still touring when she is 80, the audience will doubtless expect to hear her sing about being dumped.

Over to you. What uplifting singalong experiences have you had or have you heard about?

I’ll confess I have some prejudices here about who is » Continue Reading.