Welcome to the Black Parade

"Welcome to the Black Parade" is a song from My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade. It was released on September 12, 2006 as the album's lead single, with the studio version available on the band's Myspace on September 2, 2006. The music video for the single was recognized as MTV's "Greatest Music Video of the Century" in 2017. The cover art of the single is the only artwork where the band appears, with the exception of the cover art for "The Ghost of You", where they are shown as silhouettes. Considered a modern day classic, it was named one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. The song samples In the Evening Mist by Godiego from the soundtrack of the film House.

An early demo containing elements of the song was titled "The Five of Us Are Dying" and was part of The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts.

Music video
The video for the single was directed by Samuel Bayer, known for his work with Nirvana and Green Day. The music video was released on September 26, 2006, in the UK and Canada, and was released on September 27, 2006, in the U.S. It was heavily played on MTV. It features the Patient (the main character of the album, played by Lukas Haas) dressed in a hospital gown, and being taken by death in the form of a "Black Parade". On the main float stands My Chemical Romance playing "Welcome to the Black Parade". Behind the float are dozens of masked figures.

All the costumes were designed by Academy Award Winning costume designer Colleen Atwood. The setting of the music video transitions from a hospital room to a surreal cityscape with ash-covered wreckage, black snow and destroyed buildings. The video features four of the main characters: the Patient, Fear, Regret, and Mother War. Mother War is the woman in the Victorian-era gown and gas mask. The video tells a basic version of the story behind The Black Parade quite closely. Gerard Way has said that it is "the definitive video for the record" which "summed up the album".