Popular Spanish Children’s Songs: With Jose Luis Orozco
Listening to Spanish music with children is one of the easiest ways to build Spanish learning into your day. You can have it on in the background, listen to it when you’re driving or practice singing along with it.
Regardless of your child’s age, listening to music in Spanish can help them to learn the language!
In this article I’ll go through the benefits of listening to music in Spanish, the ways in which it can help your child to learn the Spanish language, where to find Spanish songs for kids and introduce you to one of our favorite Spanish singers for kids: Jose-Luis Orozco.
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Table of Contents
The benefits of listening to music in Spanish
There are so many benefits to children listening to music in Spanish as a way to learn a language, regardless of your age.
Listening to music naturally lends itself to repeated listening which allows the child to learn and memorize the lyrics of a song.
Singing along with a song often helps you to speak the minority language faster. When you are speaking a non-native language, you typically slow down your cadence. When you sing along to the words in the son you naturally pick up the speed of the song. This helps you to form Spanish words faster and to practice saying them at a more natural speed.
When you’re learning a new language with your child, it can be hard to find enough time in the day to practice. Listening to Spanish music is a passive way to give your child exposure to Spanish in a flexible way. You can have these songs on in the car, while you’re at home cooking dinner or in the background during bath time.
However you choose to use it, making Spanish music a part of your day is a great way to help boost your child’s second language ability.
Where to find Spanish songs for kids
While there are obvious benefits to listening to children’s music in Spanish, it isn’t always easy to find.
I grew up only speaking English and it seemed like children’s music was everywhere: Sharon, Lois and Bram, Sesame Street, Raffi, and so many more! And these were children’s songs, not necessarily nursery rhymes. I’d hear them in school, in the car, and on TV- just fun songs, geared towards children.
When I looked for similar Spanish language resources, I found a lot of Spanish nursery rhymes. Some were translations of English nursery rhymes and others were more traditional, but that seemed to be all I could find for “children’s” music.
It took a lot of searching before I came across Jose-Luis Orozco. Orozco writes in Spanish and English and sings some traditional songs that would be considered nursery rhymes, but also just writes his own fun music, for children, in Spanish and English.
You can find his music in many places starting here on his website, or you can buy some of his most popular CDs.
You can also access his music through Amazon Music. We have a subscription to Amazon Music so we access his music there and regularly add it to the playlists that we create to listen to in the car or at home. You can also find some of his songs on YouTube.
Jose-Luis Orozco
Orozco was born in Mexico and moved to the United States at aged 19 and enrolled in college. His career has focused on bringing Spanish language and culture to children of all ages. He has many music albums but also illustrated books and a DVD.
My daughter and I love that there are so many fun songs that he makes and that they aren’t limited to lullabies or the same Spanish nursery rhymes that we’ve heard before!
While Orozco produces music in Spanish and English, we’ve only listened to the Spanish songs. Take a look at some of our favorites!
5 of our favorite Jose-Luis Orozco songs
1. Palomitas de Maiz
This is such a fun movement song for kiddos! Lots of “popping” around the living room when listening to this one!
2. El Chocolate
Apparently there are a few versions of this song that Jose Luis Orozco sings and performs. This is our favorite though because we love how fast it is!
3. Domingo Flamingo
Another fun song to dance and move to in the living room! Like several other Jose-Luis Orozco songs, this one comes in two versions. We used the Spanish version and that’s the one that I put here. There is also an English version of this song that he produces and has material online.
4. Arriba, Abajo
Many of Orozco’s newest songs encourage movement and this one is no exception. A great children’s song to get your body moving!
5. El Baile de los Colores
Here is a link to the bilingual version of this song. I love that it shows Jose-Luis Orozco and all of his energy and passion!
If you’re looking for more Spanish song resources, I recommend trying out song of these other great sources:
Spanish Nursery Rhymes
If you don’t already have some Spanish nursery rhymes for your little one, this is a great way to build music and Spanish language into your day. There are a ton of options for English nursery rhymes that are translated into Spanish so a quick Google search will probably get you what you need.
When my daughter was younger we used Little Baby Bum Spanish nursery rhymes because they were cute and catchy.
Also, they had a huge variety of playlists and included a lot of songs that went well with routines (brushing teeth, cleaning up, etc). Since I was primarily using “time and place” bilingual parenting, this helped me to build my Spanish vocabulary in a meaningful way.
If you’re looking for more traditional Spanish nursery rhymes, I’d recommend checking out Guia Infantil.
Their target audience is Latina parents so the site is in Spanish, but if you can navigate to Oso Traposo, you can see cute, traditional Spanish nursery rhymes and the little dancing bear that goes along with them.
Spanish Disney Songs
Another favorite source of Spanish music for our home is Disney. Having grown up with Disney music, our playlists often include a Spanish language version of some of my favorites.
Having Disney music in Spanish is also another way to integrate popular culture, books and movies that they’re watching. My daughter has been really into, “Encanto”, so listening to the soundtrack in Spanish has been a great way to boost our Spanish engagement time!
To read about some more of our favorites, check out this article here!
Try a few children’s songs to listen to and see what your child likes! 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!
Happy Learning!
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