22 Easy Songs To Sing That Sound Impressive

Whether for a talent show, gig or audition, you may be searching for songs in your vocal range. But how do you find easy songs to sing that make you sound good and show off your voice whether you are male or female? In this article, we’ll reveal what we believe to be the easiest songs to sing, plus then some shortcuts to finding songs that showcase your abilities, whether you’re a beginner, seasoned singer, under 16, or maybe just fancy having a go at some karaoke for fun. Learn about your voice type, musical preferences and how to have that wow factor.

Easy songs to sing for beginners

To get you started, here are some easy songs for beginners that make you sound good.

One way to spot an easy, hit number, is if it’s been covered many times by different artists. A simple song will enable you to add your own stamp. Here are some places to start for easy-to-sing, popular and well-known songs.

1 Imagine by John Lennon

2 Run by Snow Patrol

3 Fields of Gold by Sting

4 Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen

5 Mamma Mia by Abba

What if you’re a really good singer but find it hard to learn complicated songs and melodies? It’s true that a complex or technically advanced song can sound impressive, but actually many really big hits that have stood the test of time, are really simple. Sometimes artists have added in some vocal acrobatics or unusual rhythms, making them sound more challenging than they actually are.

The best way to learn a song is to get the sheet music and go from there. Even if you can’t read music, it will give you an idea of where the notes go up and down. With this, listen to the song and see where the singer has diverted from the written melody. You don’t have to sing these extra bits. Just focus on the basic tune and sing that. If it’s a good song and you have a nice voice, it’ll still sound impressive in a more paired-back style.

How to find easy songs to sing that sound impressive

If you’ve chosen to get up on stage, in front of an audience then it’s likely you want to really shine as a singer. But there’s so much that contributes to performance other than just your singing ability. How you present the song, the accompaniment, whether you use backup singers or dancers, your emoting and of course your song choice all contribute to the overall effect.

Audiences will often have a more pronounced reaction to songs they already know and like. There’s an instant recognition that helps them get on board. So the first step in sounding impressive easily is to sing something that’s already successful and familiar. But there is a caveat. Sing something too familiar and overused and you might bore them – particularly if it’s judges at competitions and auditions. More on that later.

What is the easiest song to sing for you?

While we do give examples (here and in other articles) for good songs to sing, do always bear in mind that we’re all different. It’s about finding the right fit for your sound. This is why you must seek the easiest song for you in particular. Try out the songs we recommend and see what works. If you’re not great at learning words, pick something with simple lyrics.

What is the hardest song to sing for you?

Here are some indicators to look out for that indicate a song is hard for you.

You have to reach out with your range for notes that feel very high or very low
You struggle to get the rhythm
It takes forever to learn
You find you make mistakes a lot when practising it
It requires sustained notes and you taper off too soon
You can’t keep up with the tempo (it’s too fast)
The words seem impossible to remember
You keep coming in at the wrong point in the music
There are some songs that are universally considered to be hard though, due to tricky intervals, off keys, super speed and crazy ranges.

Good solo songs to sing

Let’s take a look at specific songs that work really well if you’re singing by yourself without any backup and really want to show off your voice.

What are good songs to show off your voice?

Here are some songs that allow more experienced singers to show off vocal prowess.

6 One Moment in Time by Whitney Houston

7 You and I by Ingrid Michaelson

8 Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’Roses

9 Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones

10 Happy by Pharrell Williams

11 Rocket Man by Elton John

What genre fits my voice and style?

What one person loves another will hate and vice versa. So ‘impressive’ is a subjective thing. If the type of song suits your voice and performance style you’ll have a much better chance of passing it off as impressive. Types and groupings of musical styles are referred to as a genre – for example, rap, hip-hop, house and so on.

Your voice will lend itself to a particular genre, as will your personality and vibe. But what is that? Find out more about identifying your musical genre in this article about song choices, including apps and quizzes to help you.

Easy karaoke songs for beginners

Karaoke can be another thing entirely. With this type of singing it’s not so much about how easy a song is to sing, but rather what the backing tracks are like. For some reason, many karaoke tracks are created in a way that makes it really hard to pick out the melody. So if you don’t know a song inside out and note-perfect, there’s a good chance you’ll struggle to pick it up and sing in time. It may also be in a different key than the one you’re used to.

This is all great if people want to see someone doing badly at a number, for entertainment value (a big part of the karaoke attraction). But what if you want to really sing and sound good?

Usually, those who impress most at karaoke always sing the same songs. This is because they’ve practised and perfected those specific tracks. Ahead of your karaoke night, go online and practice with some tracks. YouTube has lots of karaoke, many from Sunfly, one of the biggest karaoke providers.

Choose one of the easy songs we’ve mentioned in the article, or ideally, a song you already know and can sing well. An upbeat song will often be more popular like Cher’s Jessie James, or something uplifting like You Raise Me Up.

Easy songs to sing that sound impressive: 2018 hits

Many of the numbers we’ve mentioned so far are classics. Let’s take a look at what your options are for recent easy-to-sing songs. 2018 supplied us with a fantastic and very impressive duet.

12 Shallow from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

Put your heart and soul into this one and it’ll blow the crowd away.

13 Shotgun by George Ezra

George Ezra has some great easy singalong hits, like this one, Shotgun.

14 All I Am by Jess Glynne

For a mid-tempo mid-range perky number, Jess Glynne’s All I Am is super happy and fun.

15 2002 by Anne-Marie

A gentle easy going toe-tapping number from Anne-Marie is 2002.

Easy songs to sing: 2019 options

If you want something bang up to date, check out our hot hits picks from 2019.

16 Lost Without You by Freya Ridings

This is actually a very simple ballad, so an easy one to sing if you stay on each note.

17 Blinded By Your Grace by Stormzy

Although it was released in 2017, Blinded By Your Grace really made its mark when Stormzy headlined at Glastonbury with it. It has a nice easy melody.

18 Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi

Another great (and surprisingly easy to sing) ballad from 2019 is Lewis Capaldi’s moving Someone You Loved.

What song to sing for a competition in 2019

If you’re singing in a competition opt for something that hasn’t been a recent super hit, as you’re likely to pick the same one as many other people. Here are some of our favourite songs to sing in competitions, with more advice on acing that talent show.

Easy songs to sing for kids

Many of the songs we’ve listed aren’t suitable for younger voices, and/or have inappropriate lyrics. Finding the right song for a child will depend on their age. If it’s just a really fun song for a primary-aged kid, consider a novelty option like What Does the Fox Say? Or Baby Shark (it doesn’t get much easier than that). These certainly won’t be suitable for gigs and auditions though.

Here are some fun pop songs that are suitable for kids don’t have complicated or hard-to-learn lyrics.

19 Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake

20 Hold Back the River by James Bay

22 Shake It Off by Taylor Swift

How to find your singing voice when you’re young

Your voice changes as it matures. Around puberty, it lowers. For girls, this may just be a couple of notes and hardly noticeable, but with boys, the voice ‘breaks’ resulting in a significantly lower sound. It’s, therefore, trickier for males in particular to find their long-term voice pre-teens.

Many schools have choirs and taking part in one can be a useful way of identifying your range as a kid. Listen to others of the same age, and work out where you’re comfortable, be it the low, mid or high notes. As with adults, this then helps you to find songs that won’t be too much of a strain on your vocals. It’s especially important with kids that there isn’t too much of a stretch placed on the voice, damage done at this age can have a lasting impact.

In terms of finding your genre, you’re likely to have a lot of versatility and room for moulding when you’re young. So it’s more about finding the kind of music you enjoy most.

Searching for songs in my vocal range

It’s easy to find songs in your vocal range – once you know what it is. So the first step is to find out if you’re a soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone or bass.

What is my voice type and how does it impact my choice?

Your voice type basically just identifies you as a high, low or mid-range singer. It’s helpful to know as you can search for songs that match your range. In opera and musical theatre, all songs are grouped according to these categories. But even with pop and other genres, you’ll find many listed this way and a Google search will bring up suitable options (that won’t be too high or low for you) straight away. It’s a shortcut to finding suitable music.

If you have a really good band or pianist accompanying you, let them know your voice type and they might be able to transpose a song to fit your range.

What song should I sing for an audition in order to stand out?

If you want to stand out from the crowd, don’t sing what everyone else is singing. If you have an upcoming audition or open mic night, read our article on the best kinds of songs to sing for these specific events, with suggestions for the sorts of numbers that go down well.

Songs for beginner singers: female and male numbers

As well as searching for suitable songs on your voice type, you can search for songs by ‘male’ or ‘female’. The reason songs are separated out like this, is because the biological make-up of men and women gives us different sounding voices – which is why the voice types have names relating to male and female voices.

It is, of course, possible for a woman to sing a man’s song and vice versa, but it might need to be transposed (have the notes re-positioned higher or lower) to make it comfortable to sing. If you have a soprano voice you’ll match better with tenor songs, and if you have a bass voice you’ll probably find alto songs easier to master.

We hope this has given you lots of inspiration for easy songs to sing that’ll make you sound great. Do bear in mind if you’re picking songs for a competition that many other people may have the same ideas as you, so try and use the guidelines here to find your own choices.

Singing definitely doesn’t have to be hard and choosing a straightforward song can make life a lot easier for yourself. If you forget words when you’re nervous opt for something with simple lyrics. If you’re not confident with the nuances of complex musical compositions, choose something with a simple melody. But most of all, choose something you enjoy and have fun with it.

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