The nineties are the most productive decade for karaoke and it is not close. The songs are old enough to be universal and recent enough that most of a room has a first hand memory attached to them, which is the exact combination that gets people singing along instead of politely waiting.
It also spans an unusually wide set of moods. The same decade produced arena britpop built for a crowd to bellow, grunge that rewards a limited voice with attitude, pop that is genuinely difficult to sing, and country that is genuinely easy. There is something here for whatever kind of singer you turn out to be.
If you are picking blind, the britpop and post grunge end is the safer bet. Those songs were written for singers with more attitude than range, which is a description most of us fit at eleven o'clock at night.
- 1 I Want It That Way Built for several voices, which means nobody is ever alone for long. The chorus is the most reliably known line of the entire decade. 3:33
- 2 WonderwallGroupTalk-sing Five notes, a shouted chorus, and a room that will sing it whether you do or not. The nearest thing to a guaranteed result. 4:19
- 3 CreepTalk-sing The verses are almost spoken and the chorus is a shout rather than a sing. Attitude does most of the work, which is why it survives voices that should not attempt it. 3:59
- 4 Zombie The verses are almost monotone and the chorus is a wail you can throw yourself into. Precision is not the point and never was. 5:06
- 5 Friends in Low PlacesGroupTalk-sing The best group song in country music. The verses are conversational and the chorus is designed for a bar to shout back at you. 4:20
- 6 Man! I Feel Like a Woman! Opens with a spoken line, which is the friendliest possible way into a song, and the chorus is pure celebration. 3:54
- 7 That Don't Impress Me Much Half of it is delivered as an eye-roll rather than a melody, and the joke does the work. 4:27
- 8 Neon Moon Slow, low and unhurried. The closest country gets to a song you can sing while thinking about something else. 4:21
- 9 A Whole New WorldDuet Familiar to everyone under fifty, and the two parts hand off cleanly rather than overlapping. 4:06
- 10 I Will Always Love You The most attempted and least survived song at karaoke. The a cappella opening is exposed, and the last chorus is a genuine feat. 4:27
- 11 Believe The vocal effect on the record does something no human does, which paradoxically frees you: nobody expects you to match it. 4:00
- 12 Torn Conversational verses, a chorus that never climbs far, and a melody nearly everyone can already hum. 4:05
- 13 Don't Speak The verses are soft and controlled and the chorus is a plea you can throw yourself into. 4:24
- 14 WannabeGroup Mostly rhythm, half of it spoken, and every person in the room over thirty knows every word. 3:58
- 15 Say My Name The harmonies are the song, and without them the melody is trickier than it sounds. Fast and rhythmically unforgiving. 4:31
- 16 Genie in a Bottle The runs are the point on the record and the trap for everyone else. Sing the straight melody underneath them instead. 3:39
- 17 ...Baby One More Time The vocal sits low and breathy, which is much easier than the song's reputation, and the chorus is universally known. 3:31
- 18 VogueTalk-sing Almost entirely spoken. The famous section is a list of names, delivered deadpan. 4:51
- 19 Baby Got BackGroupTalk-sing Entirely spoken, and the room delivers the opening dialogue for you. Requires no singing whatsoever. 4:23
- 20 Ice Ice BabyGroupTalk-sing Spoken start to finish over a bassline everyone recognises in two notes. 4:31
- 21 I'm Too SexyTalk-sing Seven semitones, mostly spoken, and utterly ridiculous. It only fails if you look embarrassed. 2:44
- 22 Barbie GirlDuet A novelty duet where both parts are deliberately silly voices, which removes any question of singing well. 3:20
- 23 Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of...)GroupTalk-sing A list of names over a horn riff. Barely sung, extremely fast, and the room shouts the names with you. 3:40
- 24 All StarGroupTalk-sing Every single person knows the first line, which means the room is with you before you have really begun. 3:20
- 25 Semi-Charmed LifeTalk-sing Very fast talking over a bright riff. The words are the difficulty, not the notes. 4:28
- 26 Under the BridgeTalk-sing Half-spoken verses and a chorus with a choir behind it. The gentle opening is the exposed part. 4:24
- 27 Smells Like Teen SpiritGroupTalk-sing Mumbled verses that nobody knows the words to anyway, and a chorus that is pure shouting. 5:02
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90s karaoke songs: your questions answered
What are the most popular 90s karaoke songs?
Wonderwall, Zombie, ...Baby One More Time and I Will Always Love You appear on nearly every public karaoke chart for the decade.
Are 90s songs easy to sing at karaoke?
The rock ones generally are, because they were written for attitude over range. The big pop ballads of the decade are among the hardest songs at karaoke.
Keep looking
plays a 30 second preview from Apple, and the video button opens a karaoke version with the words on screen. Range shows where the melody sits across roughly two octaves and how far it travels. It's an estimate, and the quickest way to tell whether a karaoke song suits your voice. Difficulty is our own 1 to 5 rating.
Key, tempo and release data come from MusicBrainz and TheAudioDB. Difficulty, vocal range and the note against each song are ours. We don't reproduce lyrics.
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