Spanish Songs For Teens
My daughter and I have been learning Spanish together for about 5 years now, and Spanish songs are still one of our favorite ways to get Spanish language practice in. I’m always working on a new playlist for our car rides or that we can put on in the background while we’re in the house.
Spanish songs are a great way to practice your Spanish, regardless of what level you’re at. In this article, I’m going to share the benefits of listening to songs in Spanish, our favorite Spanish artists, where we get out Spanish music and some of our top Spanish singles that we’ve been listening to recently!
When I look for popular Spanish music or just Spanish music in general, I usually start with YouTube and Amazon Music. Both of these channels have great ways to find artists and songs based on the type of music that you typically listen to.
For example, since I often download Disney music for my daughter, I can easily search for related Spanish music on Amazon Music. This is one of the ways that we found more popular Spanish hits by TINI and others.
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Table of Contents
Benefits From Listening To Songs In Spanish
1. You get an ear for the language
Some people have asked me, will listening to Spanish music actually help me get better? While listening to music in Spanish is a more passive form of learning, it has lots of benefits!
Listening to Spanish music can help you get an ear for the language. Getting an ear for Spanish is really about boosting your listening skills and understanding Spanish spoken at a fluent rate.
As a Spanish language learner, music is a great way for me to practice my listening skills because I don’t have regular contact with anyone who is a native Spanish speaker. And while there are many ways to practice your Spanish listening skills, original Spanish songs offer a few particular benefits.
My daughter and I also listen to books on tape and podcasts which are another great way to practice our listening skills. These often feature voices that are slightly slower than “conversational speed”, are pre-recorded and often have low noise backgrounds. They are ideal for starters and to practice understanding all of the words that you hear in Spanish!
Spanish songs offer a different type of listening benefit. Most popular Spanish songs have a fast-paced rhythm, the lyrics are less formal, sometimes slurred together and often more conversational. The lyrics are over a background of noise, so your ear has to distinguish between the music and the language.
This kind of listening practice works on your ability to understand the language at a native pace, and to appreciate the phrasing and expressions that are used more in oral conversation and less often in written texts.
2. You memorize new vocabulary and grammar
There’s no way that you can listen to a good amount of Spanish music without memorizing it! Memorizing and singing back the lyrics to a popular song is another great way to boost your language skills.
It can be hard to listen to the same podcast or Spanish conversation on repeat, but it’s easy to listen to your favorite Spanish songs on repeat. Repeated exposure to Spanish music will improve your comprehension and allow you to add new vocabulary, expressions, and phrases to your repertoire.
One of our favorite Alvaro songs, “No Te Vayas” repeats the phrase “no te vayas” (don’t go) which quickly became a phrase that we learned from music. Another phrase that I use with my daughter constantly “te quiero con locura” (I love you like crazy) I picked up from Alvaro’s song “Loca”.
Learning these phrases and expressions is easy when you hear them repeated in music. They also have a “feel right” quality about them since they’re more natural and conversational phrases.
3. You build muscle memory and speed!
Repeatedly listening to Spanish songs will also allow you to memorize the expressions and phrasing that a native Spanish speaker would use. When you sing along, you’re building that muscle memory and speed to speak Spanish more like a native because you’re singing with the rhythm and accent of the song.
That muscle memory and speed will help your actual Spanish speaking skills when you’re in conversation with someone. You’ll feel more comfortable using the words that you’ve practiced saying many times and you’re conversational speed will increase from having sung those words at a natural pace.
Over the years I have played many Spanish songs for my daughter, starting with nursery rhymes and working through Disney songs and some more popular songs from the Spanish shows, “Soy Luna” and “Violetta”.
This list is based on some more popular and current Spanish music that we’ve listened to. Since I’m listening with my young daughter, I try and look for lyrics that are relatively free from swears/vulgar expressions/mature themes, but also songs that are upbeat and feel “cool” for her to be listening to!
Our Favorite Spanish Songs By Artist
Alvaro Soler
Alvaro is probably my first go to artist when looking for popular Spanish music for teens or listeners of any age! He has a lot of hits and is often featured with other popular artists.
His songs are usually upbeat and fun to sing and dance along to. Our favorite song is probably “Puebla” but we love tons of his songs including, “Sofia”, “No Te Vayas”, “Loca” and “La Libertad”. Definitely check him out and his new album, “Magia”.
TINI (Martina Stoessel)
TINI is another household favorite. We first heard her as Martina Stoessel when she did the pop version of “Libre Soy” (Let it go) on one of our Disney albums. She is also the voice of “Violetta” in the Disney series of the same name.
Since then, we have listened to several of her songs under her name TINI as well. Our favorite is “Siempre Brillaras”. When looking for Spanish music for teens or older kids, adding a TINI song is a must!
David Rees
Like most of the music in our home, we first heard of David Rees through our Disney searches. One of his hit songs is called, “De Ellos Aprendi” where he sings about growing up on Disney movies and uses key phrases from each of his favorite movies to sing about the important lessons he drew from Disney songs. He also released a poignant song last year called “Dos Mil Viente” about the struggles of living during the year 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you’re looking for trending or popular Spanish songs, definitely check out David Rees. His YouTube roots make him popular with pre-teen and teen audiences.
Prince Royce
Prince Royce was an artist that I was introduced to through a friend. Most of his music is in the style of Bachatta, which I had never heard before. My daughter and I really like the sound and general theme of the bachata songs and I have several of his songs on our playlists. Our favorites are, “Corazon Sin Cara” and “Darte Un Beso”.
Morat
Our first introduction to Morat was through Minions. Morat and Alvaro Soler come together in the song, “Yo Contigo, Tu Conmigo” for the movie Despicable Me 3. Since then we have explored several Morat songs and enjoyed many of them. Our favorite is definitely, “A Donde Vamos”.
Our Favorite Spanish Singles
Other than the Spanish artists above, we also have a lot of popular Spanish single hits that we like by a variety of artists, though we haven’t sufficiently explored the rest of their music yet. Here are some of our “singles” recommendations!
“Soy Yo” – Bomba Estereo
“Don Dinero” – Aterciopelados
“Manos al Aire” – Nelly Furtado
“Conocerte” – Patty Cantu
“Lo Siento” – Beret feat. Sofia Reyes
“Lo Bailado” – Ximena Sarinana
“Fotografia” – Juanes feat. Nelly Furtado
“Humano” – Chocquib Town
“Mi Momento” – Isabella de la Torre
Learning Spanish with teens or kids who like upbeat and popular music? Try a few Spanish songs to listen to and see how it can help improve your Spanish language skills!
Singing them will help both you and your child get a feel for the language and help to build a foundation for learning more Spanish!
Which ones did you like best? Have any suggestions to add? Let me know in the comments!
Happy Learning!
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