Music
A healing voice: the nurse who overcame stage fright to sing to her patientsFor two years, Irene Aguilar has been turning hospital wards into concert halls, using song to provide a different kind of medicine for oncology and mental health patients
Añádenos en Google Irene Aguilar, nurse and singer, with the guitarist Curro Ruiz at the SUR offices. (SALVADOR SALAS) 29/05/2026 a las 20:25h.Irene Aguilar Zumaquero works as a nurse in the Mental Health Unit at the Regional University Hospital of Malaga and as well as caring for ... her patients' medical needs, she also sings to them as part of the healing process.
Originally from Ciudad Jardín in Malaga, Irene also works on the ward at the Vithas Xanit International Hospital in Benalmádena where she often sings songs for her patients.
In one of her most recent standout performances she sang El Sol Que No Regresa by La Quinta Estación. The hospital uploaded a video to social media, SUR shared it on their platforms, and it went viral, racking up nearly 370,000 views.
“Right now I’m working in mental health; contracts come and go, but I’ve been here since November. Before that, I worked in different departments at the Clínico and the Materno hospital. I finished my degree and went to Germany; I spent five years there working as a nurse, and then, when I came back, I started at the Andalusian health service (SAS), rotating through all sorts of places,” she says.
She has a little dog she describes as “like her child” whom she adores, but her passion is singing. “I’ve been like this since I was born. My father sings too; I used to listen to him, but I never sang in front of people because I’ve always had stage fright. I’d go to my room and sing there, but when I came back from Germany I started working on one of the contracts at the Oncology Day Hospital, and there one of my colleagues let it slip that I sang.
"My father sings too, I used to listen to him, but I never sang in front of people, I've always had stage fright"
From then on, her fame grew, as did the praise she received from patients and colleagues. “The patients got wind of it and started saying, ‘Come on, let her sing, let her sing.’ And seeing their faces made me think, ‘Right then, let whatever God wills happen.’ I swallowed my fear and sang for them. And it was so lovely that I just kept doing it; it gets easier and easier for me to sing in public, and I’ve overcome that fear a little bit,” she reflects.
Singing for patients
She began singing for her cancer patients from time to time, whenever the opportunity arose. Her aim was to cheer them up and make the daily struggle of their illness a little easier to bear. Her artistic epiphany came over two years ago. “I’d do it at times when I could see that all the chemo had been administered, and I’d say, ‘Right, just for a little while now’.”
Another image of Irene Aguilar. (SALVADOR SALAS)It was difficult, however, to choose the moment, "because all the chemo pumps are going off". The viral video was recorded in Mental Health. "The colleagues love it when I sing, they say that I make their hours more pleasant and the patients, as soon as they walk in the door, say to me: 'Oh, aren't you going to sing today? So, she stresses, they ask her how long her shift lasts to see if they can listen to one of her songs.
"Sometimes there are patients who are nervous, anxious and start asking for medication and I sing them a song"
“Often, perhaps, there are patients who are nervous or anxious and start asking for medication, so I sing them a song, and whilst I’m singing and they’re there with me, they forget their anxiety a little, and in the end, there’s no need to give them a pill or use any other form of therapy,” she explains, recalling that, as a little girl, “I’d go into my room, grab my comb and imagine I was on stage , something unthinkable for me now, but I’d love to do it.”
She sings, she explains, mainly in English: “Jazz, blues, R&B. I try to learn the odd song in Spanish too. My favourite artists are Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande, Whitney Houston, Lady Gaga. The greats.”
The SUR video has now reached almost 435,000 views and has been seen by over 300,000 people on Facebook and Instagram. She’s received loads of comments, “99% lovely things, and I also get really lovely messages. The day before yesterday, a boy wrote to me and told me that his father had died in the ICU, that he’d fallen into depression, and that watching my video had made him very happy; he asked if I could follow him, as that would make him really happy. I get loads of messages like that, and honestly, that’s the best part.”
"I love nursing, but if I had to give it up one day because I was doing so well in music, I think I would"
As she chats with SUR, her patients gather round, urging her to sing again. Would she ever consider pursuing her dream to have a music career? “I love nursing, but if I ever had to give it up because I was doing really well in music, I think I would. I’d still come back to give concerts, but I would give it up because that’s what fulfils me the most,” she replies firmly.
Her father, she says, “used to sing songs by Elvis Presley and Little Richard, rock and roll, and I’d listen to him. Of course, that’s why the music I feel and like is also in English,” she explains.
Irene says she’d like to write songs in the future. “I’d like to write about personal things that have happened to me, because music has always been a way for me to let off steam and express my emotions,” she explains, adding: “If I’m sad, I’d like to tell that story; if I’m happy about something, I’d like to tell that story too,” she says.
Similarities
In her view, there are many similarities between medicine and music. “There are plenty, because both help to cure illnesses, and music, especially in the field I’m in, also helps to heal negative emotions or when we’re feeling sad and anxious; it’s therapeutic,” she emphasises.
As she feels a bit nervous about singing as a soloist, she is currently taking her first steps in the Malaga-based gospel choir ‘Verso Libre’. “I started there two or three years ago. To get rid of that stage fright, I thought that with a group of people it wouldn’t be so hard for me, and they welcomed me. With them, I’ve been able to take to the stage on a few occasions,” she explains.
She hasn’t been offered a concert yet, but she hopes that will happen in the coming months. “It would be my dream, I hope so,” she says, adding that back in 2025 she signed up for the Spanish version of The Voice (La Voz), “but I didn’t make it past the first round; loads of people sign up, but hey, you never lose hope.”