Death Song

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Death Is Dramatic. So is musical theatre. Therefore it should come as no surprise that major deaths are often accompanied by a final musical exclamation by the dying character—and frequently another, for extra duet points. The Death Song is often followed, fittingly enough, by a Grief Song. Sometimes the two even overlap. Frequently a Tear Jerker or a Dark Reprise. In some works can attract Killed Mid-Sentence/Musicalis Interruptus.

It should be noted that this can describe a song a character sings as he or she dies, or a song building up to (and ending with) the singing character's death.

Examples of Death Song include:

Anime and Manga

• "Blue" from Cowboy Bebop.
  • But we're not quite sure he is dead...
• Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury manages to turn "Happy Birthday" into one for multiple characters.

Film

• "I'm Goin' Home" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, though Frank doesn't die during it, but afterwards, and isn't even aware he's going to be killed until afterwards.
• The reprise of "Somewhere" is Tony's Death Song in West Side Story. *sniffle*
• "Mother Earth and Father Time," from the 1973 film of Charlotte's Web.
• "The Mole's Reprise" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
• "Qui Gon's Noble End" from Star Wars
• "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's Life of Brian.
• In one of its departures from the stage version, "The Flesh Failures/Let the Sun Shine" in the film adaptation of Hair is Berger's Death Song.

Live-Action TV

• Parodied in The Bachelor when Jimmy notes that Mariah Carey's character is singing even while she's dying.
• Infamously,and memetically, the violent death scene from the finale of The OC.

Music

• Neil Young's Birds has been interpreted as this.
• "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Canadian singer and songwriter Gordon Lightfoot is based on an actual ship wreck and was done as a memorial.

Theatre

• "How Glory Goes" from Floyd Collins.
• "Tell Her I Love Her" from Urinetown, a duet which is half this and half Grief Song.
• "A Little Fall of Rain", "Come To Me", "Javert's Suicide", and the epilogue from Les Misérables.
• "Eva's Final Broadcast" and/or "Lament" (depending on production) from Evita.
• "Sh'ma" from Parade could be argued to be this, as Leo is about to die.
• "I Didn't Know I'd Love You So Much" from the film version of Repo! The Genetic Opera.
• The reprise of the titular song in Man of La Mancha - but a surprise, as Don Quixote does not know he is dying.
• "Some Things Are Meant To Be" from Little Women, The Musical, acts as Beth's Death Song, even though she doesn't actually die at the end. She dies afterwards, off-screen.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ends with the title character singing a reprise of "A Barber And His Wife" which is both one of these and a Grief Song given that he unknowingly killed his wife, who he had spent the entire plot seeking to avenge, because he did not know she was still alive, just before Toby uses Sweeney's own razor to slit his throat.
• Judas's Death from Jesus Christ Superstar.
• Now It's Just The Gas for Orin and Somewhere That's Green Reprise for Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors. Two other characters die, but they either do not die immediately after a song or die immediately after a song sung by someone else.
• In Children of Eden Abel sings a few lines of 'The Wasteland' as he dies
• The Crucifixion from Godspell certainly counts.
• The Flesh Failures from Hair is Claude's death song. He even gets a Dark Reprise of his "I Am" Song in.
• Last Midnight for The Witch in Into the Woods. Of course, we're not quite sure if she's dead...
• "No One Mourns the Wicked" from Wicked. Subverted, as we later find out she's just hiding.
• The reprise of "Out to the Sea" for Robert in "Kristina", as well as "I'll Be Waiting There" for the titular character.

Video Games

• "Farewell at the Foot of the Hill" from Clannad After Story