10 Songs To Get You Through the Quarantine

Is your Coronavirus quarantine leaving you discouraged, disheartened, maybe scared? Here are 10 songs that can bring some levity, some hope, and some peace and get you through the quarantine in one piece.

Sometimes it's helpful to stare defiantly into the face of danger. This classic Queen victory anthem does the trick, and is a great tune to get you through any obstacle or adversity.

Wash your hands, lock the door, and keep yourself alive!

Take you all your time and money honey
You will survive!

Okay, so this is technically a song about coming to terms with unrequited love, but if you're stuck at home alone and feeling lonely--this might be a cathartic, self-affirming reminder to love yourself, and throw a socially-distant party for one!

While we hunker down in our homes it's easy to become fearful and individualistic. It's important to remember to find ways to show love and reach out to our friends and family. We all need some love right now! This chill, feel-good, country-R&B-fusion-from-that-is-not-Old-Town-Road tune by Childish Gambino is the perfect reminder.

Have a word for your brother
Have some time for one another
Really love one another
It's so hard to find

I like to sit back and listen to this song and contemplate the brave men and women on the front lines working in health care, or grocery stores and restaurants, during this pandemic. They are the heroes today (and every day!). I really love Peter Gabriel's rich, emotional, rendition of the song.

Cool story about this song--David Bowie was inspired by seeing one of his producers trying to connect to his lover, with the Berlin Wall between them. The song was about two people reaching out in love against a cruel, inhumane, situation. Bowie performed the song in Berlin in 1987, and many believe it helped in the cause of bringing down the wall. In 2016, the German Government called David Bowie a hero and thanked him for his role in inspiring people to tear down the wall.

Here's that famous performance, and the Peter Gabriel cover below:

Speaks for itself.

'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times, come again no more
Many a days you have lingered all around my cabin door
Oh, hard times, come again no more

Somehow both mournful and uplifting, Nina Simone makes this classic tune soar as a proclamation of hope and a future.

It's a new dawn

It's a new day

It's a new life

For me

And I'm feeling good

Having trouble with Zoom connectivity? You might relate to this long-lost ditty.

Can you hear me
I've been calling all day
Can you hear me

Feeling existential while stuck at home staring at the wall? Charlie XCX can feel you.

Why do we keep when the water runs?
Why do we love if we're so mistaken?
Why do we leave when the chase is done?
Don't search me in here, I'm already gone, baby
Why do we keep when the water runs?
Why do we love?

This song is great for two reasons. It's just got an incredible, feel-good, complex, rhythm that can get you dancing and is the great pick me up we need right now.

But the deeper meaning of the song also seems timely. Vampire frontman Ezra Koenig gives this interpretation of the song: "I got the idea for the song from a book my Dad gave me called Giving Up The Gun. It’s a history book about the time when Japan expelled all the foreigners from the country, closed off all trade, and stopped using guns and reverted back to the sword. It seems unimaginable now that humanity could willingly go back to an older technology. It got me thinking about whether you could give up the things that you have and go back to a simpler way of life."

As we are living and working at home, spending more time with our loved ones, maybe there's something worth pondering, even cherishing, about returning to a simpler, quieter, mode of life.

Gosh, who could think of a more powerful combination than Beyonce, Bruno Mars, and Coldplay? This whole show is fun, inspiring, and upbeat. But I end here especially because of the very end--I get a shiver every time I watch Chris Martin, Beyonce, and Bruno Mars proclaiming "we're going to get it, get it together" from the Coldplay song Up & Up.

This is the energy we need in the world right now. Love well. Hope strong.

"Whoever you are, wherever you are, we're in this together!" - Chris Martin

[I recommend jumping to 10:40 in the video]