Being a nurse isn’t just a job. It takes someone with compassion, strength, patience, and a truly caring heart. Long hours. Hard work. Silent sacrifice. And every single day, nurses around the world hold up the people around them — often when they themselves are exhausted.
Today, on International Nurses Day, Secret Garden — the Norwegian‑Irish duo behind the global anthem “You Raise Me Up” — wants to say thank you.
“You Raise Me Up” was never written as a pop song. Composer Rolf Løvland wrote the melody after losing his mother, as a quiet, personal expression of grief and, eventually, hope. Over the years, that same melody has been sung in hospital corridors, oncology wards, aged‑care homes, and countless moments when words simply were not enough.
For many nurses, the song has become an unofficial anthem — not just for the patients they care for, but for themselves, after long shifts and heavy hearts.
“I used to play ‘You Raise Me Up’ in my car after night shifts,” says Melissa, a registered nurse from Melbourne. “Some nights I cried. Some nights I just sat there. That song reminded me why I became a nurse.”
“We hear stories like Melissa’s all the time,” says Fionnuala Sherry, violinist of Secret Garden. “It’s humbling. Nurses are the people who quietly raise the rest of us up. This is the smallest way we can say thank you.”
This November, Secret Garden will perform in five Australian cities for the first time in 22 years. To mark Nurses Day, the tour is offering a 5% discount to all nurses and healthcare workers using the code: VSTAR.
Tour dates (November 2026):
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Perth – 6 November | Riverside Theatre
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Sydney – 8 November | Darling Harbour Theatre
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Melbourne – 13 November | Palais Theatre
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Adelaide – 14 November | Adelaide Entertainment Centre
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Brisbane – 15 November | Great Hall, BCEC
Ticket links:
Perth / Sydney / Adelaide / Brisbane – Ticketek.com.au
Melbourne – Ticketmaster.com.au
Discount code: VSTAR (5% off)
“Every night, nurses walk into rooms where people are scared, in pain, or saying goodbye,” says Benny Wang, Director of Wise N Rise, the tour’s exclusive presenter. “They don’t just treat symptoms. They hold hands. They sit in silence. They raise people up. Secret Garden’s music has done the same thing in its own quiet way for three decades. This partnership just makes sense.”
The tour is presented under the honorary patronage of the Royal Norwegian Embassy.
A portion of every ticket sold also supports the Inspiration Forest project, restoring native forests in bushfire‑affected regions.
“Nurses raise us up every single day,” Wang adds. “This is our chance to raise them up — just for one night.”
And on that night, there will be a moment when the music stops, the lights dim, and thousands of voices rise together in a united sing‑along of “You Raise Me Up.” For the nurses in the room — and for everyone who has ever been held by one — it will be a moment of gratitude that no words alone could ever fully express.
