KaraokeList

KaraokeList › What to sing › Karaoke songs for a high voice

What to sing Karaoke songs for a high voice

A high song is only comfortable if it lives up there. The hard ones are not the highest songs; they are the ones that sit low for three minutes and then ask for one enormous moment.

If your voice is light and sits high, low verses are where you struggle: they go quiet and breathy just when the room is listening hardest. Look for songs that start where you are comfortable and stay there. Plenty of women sit here, and plenty of men do too, and the picks below come from both.

Read the last group twice. Some of the most requested songs in any karaoke book move up again for the final chorus, and knowing where that happens is the difference between a big finish and a crack. If your voice goes the other way, the low-voice page is its mirror.

Up there all the way

Songs that live up high

The original singers sang these high on purpose and kept them there, so a light voice never has to dig for a low verse.

  • Stayin' Alive

    Bee Gees

    The whole song is sung in the high, airy voice, so if that is where you live, you never have to leave.

  • Kiss

    Prince

    Sparse, funky and high throughout; the gaps between lines are part of the song, so let them sit.

  • Sherry

    The Four Seasons

    Up in the high, airy voice almost the whole way, and done in about two and a half minutes.

  • Roxanne

    The Police

    Sung high and strained on the record, so a high voice is the right one, and the title does most of the chorus.

  • Just the Way You Are

    Bruno Mars

    Sits high and easy the whole way, with a chorus that circles the same few words.

  • Hey, Soul Sister

    Train

    The ukulele keeps it light and the tune stays up, verse and chorus alike.

Bright choruses

Big, bright pop choruses

Songs that open up high and loud in the chorus, for a voice that sounds best with the brakes off.

  • Dancing Queen

    ABBA

    Bright and high from the first chorus and stays there, with the room joining on the title.

  • Walking on Sunshine

    Katrina and the Waves

    Relentlessly bright from the first line; save your breath for the shouted bits, not the high ones.

  • Heart of Glass

    Blondie

    Breathy and high on purpose, so a light voice sounds exactly like the record.

  • Since U Been Gone

    Kelly Clarkson

    The verses are quiet and the chorus is a wall of noise that sits high; a big, bright voice gets to let go.

  • Lovefool

    The Cardigans

    Light, sweet and high, sung almost as a whisper, with nothing that needs forcing.

  • Don't Stop Believin'

    Journey

    Sits high from the first verse, so a light voice never has to dig for low parts, and the room takes the last chorus off you.

Soft and high

Soft songs that sit high

High does not have to mean loud. These sit up there gently and never ask you to push.

  • Time After Time

    Cyndi Lauper

    Slow and soft in the upper middle; the chorus lifts without ever needing a shout.

  • Kiss Me

    Sixpence None the Richer

    Light, floaty and never loud, with a tune that barely moves.

  • Somewhere Over the Rainbow

    Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

    Sung soft and light over a ukulele, sitting high without ever pushing.

  • Hallelujah

    Jeff Buckley

    Jeff Buckley's version sits high and soft — the low one is Leonard Cohen's — but it runs close to seven minutes.

  • Your Song

    Elton John

    Soft and unhurried in the upper middle, with no big finish to land.

Know where it climbs

Songs that go even higher at the end

Each of these moves up again for its final stretch. Know it is coming and it stops being an ambush.

  • I Wanna Dance with Somebody

    Whitney Houston

    Joyful and bright until the last choruses, which move up once more; save something for them.

  • Love on Top

    Beyoncé

    Sweet and easy for most of it, then it moves up again and again at the end, and the room is waiting to see how far you get.

  • My Heart Will Go On

    Celine Dion

    Quiet for three minutes, then the last chorus steps up and gets loud; decide before the drums come in whether you are going with it.

  • Man in the Mirror

    Michael Jackson

    Mid-paced and steady until the song moves up for its final section; the choir behind you helps, and the room helps more.

  • Love Story

    Taylor Swift

    Sits comfortably until the last chorus, which moves up with no warning; know it is coming and it becomes the best bit.

  • I Will Always Love You

    Whitney Houston

    Opens with nobody playing along, then climbs after the famous pause; the pause is your moment to breathe.

Where your voice sits, in plain words

Where your voice sits is easier to feel than to name, which is why KaraokeList never asks you to name it. After each song you answer one question — Too high, Just right or Too low — and give the night a star rating.

A few nights of those answers tell the app more than a label could: that your comfortable songs sit high, or that the last chorus is where things go wrong. Tag the ones you can genuinely sing as Skill, and flag the ones that ran away from you as Not again.

When you need something new, consult the crystal ball. It reads your list and your answers and suggests songs you don't have yet, each with a one-line reason, and one of the things those reasons draw on is where a song sits.

Questions

What are good karaoke songs for a high voice?

Songs that stay high rather than jump there. Stayin' Alive, Dancing Queen and Kiss live up high all the way through, and Time After Time and Your Song do it softly.

What high karaoke songs aren't too hard?

Ones where the original singer lived up high on purpose. Stayin' Alive, Sherry, Roxanne and Hey, Soul Sister sit up there the whole way, so nothing jumps out at you.

Which karaoke songs go higher at the end?

I Wanna Dance with Somebody, My Heart Will Go On, Man in the Mirror, Love Story and I Will Always Love You all move up for the final stretch, and Love on Top does it again and again. Knowing where it happens is most of the battle.

Why do low verses feel hard for a high voice?

Low verses make a light voice go quiet and breathy just when the room is listening. Songs that start where you are comfortable, like Dancing Queen or Walking on Sunshine, let you sound like yourself from the first line.

Also try

Find a bar tonight →

Know what you’re singing before you’re called.

KaraokeList keeps every karaoke song you can actually pull off — and when the list runs dry, it finds you new ones, each with a reason.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play