Easy Karaoke Songs for Groups

The easiest karaoke songs share four traits: a narrow vocal range, a steady tempo, a chorus everyone already knows and plenty of repetition. Sweet Caroline, Take Me Home, Country Roads, Stand by Me and Three Little Birds all fit, which is why they turn up night after night. Pick songs like these for a group and nobody has to be a good singer for the room to have a good time.

What makes a song easy to sing

• Range: the tune stays within about an octave, with no leap into a high final chorus.
• Pace: slow or mid-tempo, so there is time to read the screen and breathe.
• Familiarity: the melody is known across ages and countries.
• Repetition: a chorus that comes round often gives a shaky singer somewhere safe to land.
• Room for others: a part where the whole group can join in takes the pressure off.

Songs for a nervous first turn

Songs the whole room joins

• Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond): the audience response is built in.
• Dancing Queen (ABBA): bright, familiar and hard to sing badly in a crowd.
• Y.M.C.A. (Village People): comes with its own arm movements.
• I Want It That Way (Backstreet Boys): made for five people sharing lines.
• Wannabe (Spice Girls): fast, but the group can split it between them.
• Twist and Shout (The Beatles): call and response, no subtlety required.

Duets for two people who have just met

• Summer Nights (from Grease): alternating lines and a chorus for the rest of the room.
• Islands in the Stream (Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton): steady and warm.
• Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Elton John and Kiki Dee): quick exchanges, low stakes.
• Shallow (Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper): starts easy; hand the big section to the braver partner.

Crowd-pleasers that are harder than they look

Some favourites are best taken on as a group or left until confidence is up. Bohemian Rhapsody is long and changes style several times. Don't Stop Believin' holds its famous chorus back until near the end. Livin' on a Prayer climbs higher than most people remember, and Total Eclipse of the Heart needs real stamina. Mr. Brightside is fast and wordy, although a room that knows it will carry you through.

Running a fair queue

1. Put the easy group songs first so nobody has to open alone.
2. Go round the room in order, and let people pass without comment.
3. Keep to one song per turn until everyone who wants to sing has had a go.
4. Mix languages if the group is international. One song from each person's home country is a good round.
5. End on something everyone can sing together.

Song rooms are usually rented by the hour, so a time limit agreed at the start keeps the bill predictable. Our account of a hostel group's night in the song rooms of Magok-Balsan shows how an evening like that tends to build, from quiet ballads to the loud finale.

Where karaoke fits into a trip

A song room is one of the cheaper nights out in many cities, because the cost is split between everyone inside. It appears among the evening options in our low-cost guide to Seoul for that reason. It is also an easy way to turn a dormitory of strangers into a group; if shared stays are new to you, our first-timer's guide to hostels explains how common rooms work.

On nights without a machine, the same crowd can be kept busy with card games that seat a dozen players, or with the singing and humming rounds in our list of games for the campfire.

Common questions

What is the easiest karaoke song for someone who cannot sing?

Choose something slow with a small range and a chorus the room will join, such as Stand by Me or Three Little Birds. Half-speaking the verse is perfectly acceptable.

How many songs does a group need for an hour?

Allow roughly four minutes per song including changeovers, so about fifteen. Queue a few extra in case some are skipped.

What if nobody wants to go first?

Start with a group number. Once the microphone has been passed around during one loud chorus, the second song is much easier to fill.