BBC Music Day is the UK wide annual celebration of the power of music to change lives.
With over a thousand events across the UK, Thursday 26th September celebrates all the ways that music brings our lives meaning and joy. This year’s focus is on a celebration of music and wellbeing, and the power of music to inspire, to bring us together and make a positive impact.
Crucially, there will be a special appreciation for the role of music in the lives of people living with dementia, which includes the launch of a BBC initiative to help bring music to everyone living with dementia by 2020. Events to recognise this will include the first ever music and dementia festival co-created by people living with dementia, and the first NHS Dementia Village opening its doors ahead of its official launch.
Supporting the initiative is legendary, multiple Grammy-winning musician Nile Rodgers, an ambassador for BBC Music Day 2019. Nile has had personal experience with family members affected by dementia. He says: “I’ve witnessed my mother’s and my aunt’s experience with dementia and I know just how transformational music can be for people with this condition.”
You can join the initiative by hosting an event – even if it’s a whole home singalong or an afternoon’s festival of music with a few of your residents’ favourite entertainers. Get in touch with organisers to let them know your plans, and share what you’re doing online too.
Also launching on 26th September will be the latest versions of BBC Music Memories – the ground-breaking website that stimulates memory through music. Designed especially for people living with dementia, it uses the extensive BBC archives, including international, regional and social music, plus football and pub songs, religious songs and nursery rhymes. As part of the relaunch, a new radio station, BBC Memory Radio, will also be released, offering an immersive experience. Memory Radio features specially selected content from the BBC Radio Archives, decade by decade, to create personal audio experiences for people living with dementia. The material has been selected using focus groups of people with dementia.
Find out more here.
