Yes, learning Spanish through songs and music is totally a thing.
In fact, it’s a lot of fun to learn Spanish with music videos!
Many songs have hidden Spanish lessons in their lyrics. Whether they’re pop, rap, alternative or even Disney songs, they’re a great way to remember even the trickiest of Spanish grammar rules.
These easy Spanish songs will help you learn and remember grammar rules and vocabulary, all with a catchy tune.
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Easy Spanish Songs for Beginners
1. “Los Meses del Año” by mindymarissa
“Los Meses del Año” (“The Months of the Year”) is intended for children, but it’s also great for adults.
The song will teach you the months of the year, while the video shows animations to indicate what each month is like. The lyrics also appear on the screen so you can connect the written and spoken words.
The soothing tune might even help you achieve a zen-like state—ideal for learning!
2. “¡Colores, colores!” by Calico Spanish Songs for Kids
“¡Colores, colores!” (“Colors, colors!”) is a catchy song that’ll help you learn not only the colors but also some professions, how to use me gusta (I like) and basic question structure.
Each verse offers animation to help you understand any words you’re not familiar with. All the words also appear on the screen to help you follow along.
This song might be designed for kids, but don’t let that fool you. Anyone will fall for its enjoyable, upbeat melody.
3. “La granja” by Calico Spanish Songs for Kids
“La granja” (“The Farm”) is another children’s song. The video offers animations of animals to go with the song, along with the corresponding names and sounds they make. Additionally, all the lyrics appear on screen for easy learning.
This is a great option for learning, because even if you know a good amount of Spanish, there’s a strong chance you haven’t learned animal noises. Yes, animal noises are different in each language, and they’re easy vocabulary words to overlook!
For example, did you know the rooster says, “¡Quiquiriquí!” instead of “Cock-a-doodle-do!” in Spanish?
4. “Spanish Verb Conjugation Song with Basho & Friends” by Basho & Friends
“Spanish Verb Conjugation Song with Basho & Friends” sounds vaguely like rap.
It may seem repetitive, but you’ll never forget these common present tense verb conjugations again. Additionally, all the lyrics appear on screen so that you can see the conjugations, too.
5. “Interrogative Pronouns with Basho & Friends” by Basho & Friends
Basho & Friends are back at it again, but this time the song has a more jazzy vibe.
This number will help you remember interrogative pronouns, which are the words we use to ask questions (in English: who, what, where, when, why and how). There are also example questions to help you see the words in context.
All the lyrics appear on screen along with animation to illustrate meaning.
6. “¡Buenos días! Greetings and Daily Routines” by Rockalingua
“¡Buenos días! Greeting and Daily Routines” (“Good morning! Greetings and Daily Routines”) is a rock song. It’s offered as an audio file along with the lyrics and cartoon images of their meanings.
The song focuses on basic greetings and daily activities, as you can tell. This is a great way to get down these common and very useful phrases.
7. “Pasos de Gigante” by Bacilos
“Pasos de Gigante” (“Giant Steps”) is not a learning song but a smooth tune by Miami-based band Bacilos.
This video, made by the Visual Spanish YouTube channel, helps you go through the lyrics with helpful grammar information and color coding for the different types of words.
The verb tenses are mostly basic, but you’ll see infinitive, present tense and preterite tense, so it’s a great way to cover the basics.
8. “Sale El Sol” by Shakira
You can never go wrong with some Shakira—this Colombian singer is an international sensation.
“Sale El Sol” (“The Sun Comes Out”) is a good song for any level of Spanish learner. It’s slow, so it shouldn’t overwhelm beginning students, either.
The song primarily uses present tense verbs and general vocabulary. By following the song link above, you can read the lyrics right next to their English translation while you watch the music video so you don’t get lost.
Songs for Intermediate and Advanced Learners
9. “Learn Spanish Vocabulary with Songs” by WORDPIE
WORDPIE offers a lot of vocabulary videos. This is the first one, but if you like it, there’s plenty more to check out. It’s a great way to build up your vocabulary.
The song has a sort of Latin hip-hop vibe. The lyrics move pretty quickly, but they do all appear on the screen. Due to the speed, you might need to listen to it a few times to catch everything. It’s alright, though—the tune will make it enjoyable!
10. “Spanish Por vs. Para Rap” by SlusionProductions
Sure, the video was made by students as a project for Spanish class—that doesn’t make it any less helpful.
This rap is primarily in English with a few Spanish examples throughout. It can be hard to tell when to use por (for) and when to use para (for), but this rap can really help you memorize them.
The video is captioned (mostly) to help you follow along. And if you enjoy a little humor mixed in with your Spanish lesson, this is a great option.
11. “Spanish Preterite vs. Imperfect Rap” by SlusionProductions
Again, SlusionProductions gives us this rap in English with some Spanish examples. The lyrics are pretty fast, but the video is captioned so that you can read along.
“Spanish Preterite vs. Imperfect Rap” will help you remember when to use the preterite and when to use the imperfect. It will also teach you their basic conjugations.
And again, there’s some humor infused in the video, so this is probably the most fun you’ll have conjugating.
12. “Irregular Spanish Verb Songs: Participles for Perfect Tenses” by Common Ground International
This calm, soothing song to the familiar tune of “Alouette” will help you remember the irregular participles for perfect tenses.
In Spanish, perfect tenses are the verb forms we use with haber (to have). This song includes the irregular participles, meaning the conjugations don’t quite follow standard rules.
The song is simple and short, and the words appear on screen, so this is an easy, low-stress learning option in spite of its intimidating name.
13. “Preterite – Irregulars – Song!” by Señor Jordan
This simple song, to the tune of “La Cucaracha” (“The Cockroach”), will help teach you the irregulars (words that don’t follow standard conjugation patterns) in the preterite tense.
Since you generally need to memorize these irregulars instead of just relying on common patterns, this song is a helpful way to remember which verbs act a little differently in the preterite.
14. “Irregular Spanish Verb Songs: Conditional Tense” by Common Ground International
This song to the tune of “The Mexican Hat Dance” is a super short, easy way to remember which verbs have irregular conjugations in the conditional tense.
The words appear on screen to aid your studying. With any luck, you’ll get this stuck in your head and have no trouble conjugating these tricksters when you need to.
15. “Felices los 4” by Maluma
The Colombian singer Maluma’s “Felices los 4” (“The Four of Us, Happy”) features a nice mixture of beginning-to-intermediate verb tenses and general vocabulary.
The song is a moderate pace, so it challenges listeners without being totally overwhelming. Once you think you know the lyrics, you can try playing the game for this song on LyricsTraining to really test yourself.
16. “Mis ojos lloran por ti” by Big Boy
“Mis ojos lloran por ti” (“My Eyes Cry for You”) by Puerto Rican rapper Big Boy is a good song for advanced Spanish students.
While the beginning is slow and heartfelt, the middle section includes some pretty fast rapping. It also contains more future tense, past tense and conditional tense verbs than most other songs.
Trying to get your tongue around this one is a great way to practice both your pronunciation and memorization skills.
Why Listen to Spanish Songs?
Some Spanish songs are specifically designed for learners. This means they’re designed to address your concerns, needs and language learning struggles.
Spanish songs—even Spanish learning songs—are also catchy, so it’s easier to remember the grammar and vocabulary within. It’s no secret that music and language learning go hand-in-hand, after all.
Finally, listening to Spanish songs is fun! Memorizing vocabulary words and grammar patterns can feel tedious, but listening to music doesn’t. You can study and still have a good time.
How to Learn Spanish With Music Videos and Songs
- Employ targeted learning practices. That means you should look for songs that teach the grammar and vocabulary you struggle with the most to help ensure you find the memorable song you need to finally nail down that tricky topic.
- Memorize the songs through repetition. If you listen to these Spanish songs frequently, you’ll never forget them. In fact, they’ll probably even get stuck in your head!
- Sing a song when you get stuck. Whenever you need to remember a grammar rule or vocabulary you learned from a song, simply replay it in your head until you find the information you need.
With great songs, learning Spanish will be your forte!
Resources for Finding Spanish Songs
This free website provides popular Spanish-language music videos to help you practice all the key elements of language: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
The lyrics and English translations are displayed next to each video and highlighted as the song progresses.
FluentU
FluentU is a language learning program that uses authentic Spanish content, including a diverse collection of music videos and other native media clips.
The interactive subtitles, flashcards and personalized quizzes can aid you in understanding every Spanish lyric you hear. FluentU is available on the web or in app form (iOS and Android).
After registering to this free site, you can select a Spanish song that interests you and choose between four levels of game play.
In the game, you’ll be shown some of the lyrics and need to fill in the missing words based on what you hear. You can replay the music as well as skip ahead to see answers you just can’t figure out.
Though geared towards teachers, this site is helpful for anyone seeking Spanish learning materials.
You must purchase songs to listen to them in their entirety, but there are a tremendous number of tunes from a variety of sources, all grouped thematically.
Rockalingua is a unique Spanish learning website with a variety of learning activities, including songs, games and worksheets.
While aimed at children, that makes the material simple and easy to follow and understand, and the grammar and vocabulary benefits learners of any age.
YouTube
You can look for Spanish videos on your own, or check out the following YouTube channels for more Spanish songs and other Spanish learning content:
Once you feel confident with these tunes, go ahead and start jamming out to others.
There’s a whole world of music that can serve as your Spanish study material. So let your ears ring and your voice sing!
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
