Drinking, Dancing, Loving, and Birthing to 'You’re My Angel'

Written for Annie Kapur’s ‘Sing Us the Song of the Century’ Challenge.

'You’re My Angel' by Darren Styles has been comfortably weaving its way through my life over the last 16 years.

In my 20s, I loved clubbing. I’d be out every Friday, Saturday, or both. There was even a cheeky Sunday afternoon event that I’d often go to.

I met some of my oldest and best friends just by going to these events regularly and bumping into them.

This track (as the seasoned ravers would say) became iconic and would be played nightly.

I still remember the feeling of being in a club: the music pulsing, the strobe lighting in your eyes, the hissing of the smoke machine followed by the acrid smell… and everyone just letting loose and having an amazing time.

You’d be walking back from the toilets and hear this track. A smile would creep across your face. With an excited, “Woo!”, you’d run to the dance floor, fling one arm drunkenly around your best friend, throw your other arm in the air, and sing at the top of your lungs. Everyone around you was doing the same thing, and it didn’t matter that we were all too drunk and couldn’t sing properly, because we were all just living in the moment.

In my 30s, I met my husband on a party cruise. I’d slowed down on the clubbing but still loved to have a night out every now and then. I loved that he enjoyed going out and having fun, but also liked to have lazy days at home watching movies. I quickly learned that this was one of his favourite tracks as well. Why wouldn’t it be? I think it was everyone’s back in the day.

On the last day of my 30s, I gave birth to our son via caesarean. We were told we could make a birthing playlist. I was too nervous and stressed to even think about this, but my husband made it his priority. He sat me down and we started adding tracks to our playlist. We joked that we might be one of the only couples with a mix of trance and happy hardcore on their birthing playlist.

There was no way we could know at what point in the playlist our son would be born, so we waited in anticipation to see which track would be the one to welcome him into the world.

And wouldn’t you know it, this track had just started playing, and then we heard our son’s cry. We both looked at each other and smiled.

With lyrics like:

You’re my angel.

You’re the only sunshine in my life.

Feels like heaven when you take me in your arms.

There isn’t a more perfect track.

I can’t wait to play this track for him one day and tell him that whenever I hear it, I’ll always think of him.