History Main / SwanSong

* Music/{{Nirvana}} completed their last recording together, "You Know You're Right", on January 30, 1994, three months before Music/KurtCobain took his own life via shotgun.

* Creator/OrsonWelles' final role was the voice of Unicron in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'', his lines being recorded mere days before his death.

** Nobody was dying, but around 2010, the series had been in a steady decline and about to be cancelled, so Creator/IntelligentSystems decided to go all out with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', basically indulging in ContinuityPorn to the older series and ending on [[HappyEnding a high note]] instead of a [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet one]]. However, like the ''Final Fantasy'' example above, it instead [[NewbieBoom revitalized]] the series and brought it back into one of Nintendo's main franchises.

* Creator/SatoruIwata, the president of Creator/{{Nintendo}} from 2002 to 2015, has the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. The Switch was greenlit under his watch and he was incredibly hands-on with the system's development, serving as project lead while he was alive and giving heavy technologically input for the device's form factor and features. He also prepped the software divisions at Nintendo for future Switch projects by restructuring the company's previously disparate console and handheld development teams. Iwata would die in July 2015, over a year before the Switch would hit market.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' was intended to be one of these -- nobody was dying (contrary to urban legend, [[Creator/SquareEnix the company]] wasn't even having financial troubles), but director Hironobu Sakaguchi's last few games had flopped, so he planned to quit the company after completing one last game[[note]though it's not where the name came from--Sakaguchi just wanted a name with initials FF[[/note]]. [[Franchise/FinalFantasy It turned out not to be so final, in the end.]]

** In a case of someone tragically dying, Ferdinand von Aegir in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriorsThreeHopes'' would be Creator/BillyKametz's final role before passing away from cancer in June 2022, just a day after the game's demo launched.

* Nobody was dying, but around 2010, the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series had been in a steady decline and about to be cancelled, so Creator/IntelligentSystems decided to go all out with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', basically indulging in ContinuityPorn to the older series and ending on [[HappyEnding a high note]] instead of a [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet one]]. However, like the ''Final Fantasy'' example above, it instead [[NewbieBoom revitalized]] the series and brought it back into one of Nintendo's main franchises.

* Just about anytime the still living (and now over 90) Creator/ClintEastwood directs and stars in a film since ''Film/GranTorino'', said film will be interpreted as such. It happened again for ''Film/TheMule'' (helped by the line "This is the last one. So help me, God, this is the last one" that was seen as RealitySubtext), and again for ''Film/CryMacho''. Meanwhile, Eastwood just keeps filming and acting as long as he can.

** Their last song, "The Show Must Go On", is about Music/FreddieMercury [[FaceDeathWithDignity facing death with dignity]]. When Music/BrianMay presented the demo to Freddie, he had doubts that the latter would be able to sing due to his illness at the time. When the time came to record the vocals, Mercury drank a measure of vodka and said [[{{Determinator}} "I'll fucking do it, darling!"]], then recorded it in one take.

* Music/{{Queen}}'s last song, "The Show Must Go On", is about Music/FreddieMercury [[FaceDeathWithDignity facing death with dignity]]. When Music/BrianMay presented the demo to Freddie, he had doubts that the latter would be able to sing due to his illness at the time. When the time came to record the vocals, Mercury drank a measure of vodka and said [[{{Determinator}} "I'll fucking do it, darling!"]], then recorded it in one take.
-->The show must go on\\

* Music/JDilla's last two albums he recorded, ''Music/{{Donuts}}'' and ''The Shining'', were recorded as he was dying from both lupus and an incurable blood disease, and were consciously crafted as his goodbyes to his family and colleagues. ''Donuts'' was all-but completed while he was in the hospital (he produced 29 out of the album's 31 tracks while completely bedridden), but Dilla eventually got too sick to complete ''The Shining'', which was 75 percent complete. So he entrusted friend and producer Karriem Riggins to finish it.
** Dilla's ''true'' swan song, however, was something he never officially released: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG6qQCjKCiY The very last beat he created mere hours before dying]]. According to Questlove, who played the beat during a Red Bull Music seminar, Dilla had gotten so sick, he couldn't speak, and instead expressed himself through music. Sampling "[[Music/GeorgeClinton America Eats Its Young]]", the instrumental's claustrophobic and heavy atmosphere reflected Dilla's thoughts during his last moments on the mortal coil.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' was intended to be one of these -- nobody was dying (contrary to urban legend, [[Creator/SquareEnix the company]] wasn't even having financial troubles), but director Hironobu Sakaguchi's last few games had flopped, so he planned to quit the company after completing one ''final'' project, a ''fantasy'' RPG. [[Franchise/FinalFantasy It turned out not to be so final, in the end.]]

* Similar to ''Abbey Road'' , when Music/{{Sentenced}} recorded their GrandFinale ''The Funeral Album'' no one was actually dying, but the band itself was very much falling apart due to personal conflicts as well as the lead singer Ville Laihiala's growing disinterest, but the group ultimately decided to make one last album with a limited tour and go out in a blaze of glory rather than simply fade out.

* Sylvester's 1982 single "Do You Wanna Funk" was the final song produced by Patrick Cowley, who died of AIDS in November of that year. Sylvester himself lived for six more years before succumbing to the disease, with the album ''Mutual Attraction'' being his own swan song.

* Music/KlausSchulze died in April 2022 following a long battle with renal failure, during which he managed to record a final album, ''Deus Arrakis'', [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents whose release was subsequently delayed to July]].

* Music/KlausSchulze died in April 2022 following a long battle with renal failure and the recording of his final album, ''Deus Arrakis'', [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents whose release was subsequently delayed to July]].

* Music/KlausSchulze died in April 2022 after a long battle with an undisclosed illness, having just completed his final album, ''Deus Arrakis'', [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents whose release was subsequently delayed to July]].

* Sylvester's 1982 single "Do You Wanna Funk" was the final song produced by Patrick Cowley, who died of AIDS in November of that year. Sylvester himself lived for six more years before succumbing to the disease, with "Sooner Or Later" being his own swan song.

* ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'': Pedro Armendáriz Sr. (Ali Kerim Bey) was dying of cancer during filming. He knew this, but kept going in order to assure his family financial resources. In various scenes, he simply couldn't walk and had to have a body double. Shortly after finishing all of his scenes, he committed suicide four months before the release of the film.

A Swan Song is the last work a creator created before they died. Usually made while possessing enough foresight to realize that it would be the last thing they will ever make before [[DiedDuringProduction they die]] or they retire. It can also be the last performance of an actor. Either way this is for when a creator or thespian decides that if they're gonna stop by choice or not, they they might as well go out with a bang.

Not to be confused with ShapeshifterSwanSong, which is just a shapeshifter's pre-mortem cycling of their previous forms. Compare and Contrast PosthumousCredit and FatalMethodActing.

Not to be confused with ShapeshifterSwanSong, which is just a shapeshifter's pre-mortem cycling of their previous forms. Compare and Contrast FatalMethodActing.

* The original English release of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOverTwo'' has the very last performance Creator/WayneAllwine recorded, both as WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and in general, before he died.

* The original English release of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsThreeFiveEightDaysOverTwo'' has the very last performance Creator/WayneAllwine recorded, both as WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and in general, before he died.

* ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'': This was the final role was Creator/JimVarney, the voice of Cookie, who died more than a year before it came out. He was dying of lung cancer at the time, and he performed the role knowing full-well he wouldn't live to see the finished film.

* The 1948 Christmas cartoon ''[[WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer1948 "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"]]'' ([[Literature/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer a direct adaptation of the original 1939 story/poem]]) is not only the final cartoon directed by [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Max Fleischer]]. But is also the very last time Max Fleischer ever got involved with animation.

* The 1948 Christmas cartoon ''[[WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer1948 "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"]]'' ([[Literature/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer a direct adaptation of the original 1939 story]]) is not only the final cartoon directed by [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Max Fleischer]]. But is also the very last time Max Fleischer ever got involved with animation.