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Studying with English Song Lyrics: 15 Popular Hits to Improve Your Knowledge

Did you know that while singing karaoke, you can learn an incredible amount of English?

If you already use songs and lyrics to learn English, karaoke will take that learning one step higher for you.

Learning English with karaoke can help you improve your fluency, become more confident in your speaking, use words and phrases you might not know well yet and help you to practice your pronunciation.

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“Let It Go” – Demi Lovato

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

Disney’s most recent movie “Frozen” captured people’s hearts, and the song “Let It Go” was one of the biggest hits from it. It’s a song about losing control and ending up in a place where no person can reach you.

Words you might not know:

  • Isolation  Being completely alone and removed from the rest of the world.
  • The wind is howling  When a wind blowing very strong, it sounds like it’s howling like a wolf.
  • Conceal  To hide.
  • Grieve  To feel sad about something that happened (like a death).
  • Hold it back  To prevent something from happening. If you hold back your emotion, you keep it inside yourself and don’t let it come out.

“Blank Space” – Taylor Swift

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

Some people have a reputation, a way that people view them because of past actions. In Taylor Swift’s popular song “Blank Space,” the girl has a reputation of being with many guys and getting her heart broken a lot. In the song, Taylor is talking to a man who might be “her next mistake,” who she believes will only date her and then leave her, instead of loving her.

Words you might not know:

  • Rumors  Stories people tell, usually about other people, that may not be true.
  • Reckless  Doing something without thinking it through, or without caring about the results, even if it’s dangerous.
  • Incredible  So amazing it’s hard to believe.

“Demons” – Imagine Dragons

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

This is a sad song about a man who sees evil, greed and bad people all around him. He believes that he is one of those bad people, and that he hides his demons deep inside of him so he won’t hurt the one he loves. He wants to protect his love, but he thinks it’s impossible because the world is so full of negative things, and even though he tries to control it, he’s a bad man.

Words you might not know:

  • Hail  Hail can mean icy rain, but in this song it’s used as a verb that means to say good things about people.
  • Shelter  A safe place to hide from nature or people.
  • Masquerade  A party where everyone wears masks.
  • Greed  Wanting more than what you have, especially when it’s something others have and you don’t.
  • Woven  Sewn together with strips of material—or in this case, just connected very strongly.

“A Thousand Years” – Christina Perri

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

This romantic song is about someone who has been waiting for their love for a thousand years, but will keep waiting for them forever if they have to.

Words you might not know:

  • Doubt  Something you’re not sure about.
  • Brave  Showing courage, doing something that might be scary even if you’re afraid.

“She Will Be Loved” – Maroon 5

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

This song is about a boy that loves a girl who sees him as just a friend. Even though he’s always the one to help her when she’s sad, and he makes her feel loved, she’s always going out with someone else.

Words you might not know:

  • Pouring rain  When the rain is so strong, it’s almost like someone is pouring it out.
  • Insecure  Someone who doesn’t feel confident about themselves.
  • Compromise  A way of resolving problems by having everyone meet halfway.

“I’m Yours” – Jason Mraz

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

Life is short, so when you meet someone you think you love, you should just go with it and tell them! At least, that’s what this is song is saying.

Words you might not know:

  • Be chill  A very informal way of saying “to be very calm.”
  • Reckon  To guess or imagine, although this word is not used that often outside movies showing southerners from the United States.
  • Scootch closer  Move a little closer.
  • Complicate  Make things more difficult.

“Hey There Delilah” – Plain White T’s

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

Delilah is living in New York City, but the singer of this song is not. The singer is sure, though, that one day he’ll be able to make a lot of money with the songs he writes, and they’ll be able to live together.

Words you might not know:

  • Disguise  When you try to look like someone or something else, using a mask or outfit. You can also disguise your feelings by making it seem like you’re feeling something different from what you really are.
  • My word is good  An informal phrase that means “you can trust what I say.”
  • To blame  To say who or what is responsible for something happening.

“Just Give Me a Reason” – Pink, featuring Nate Ruess

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

Have you ever seen a relationship fall apart? The female in this song feels like her relationship with the man is ending because of little things (he doesn’t lie close to her in bed anymore), and asks for just one reason to try and keep the relationship going. The male, on the other hand, doesn’t see anything as being wrong, and doesn’t understand why the woman feels this way.

Words you might not know:

  • Victim  Someone who has been hurt or harmed, in this case emotionally.
  • Running wild  An idiom that means to go bad or crazy. If your head is running wild, you’re having thoughts you can’t control.
  • Come clean  Admit to something, or to doing something; to confess.

“Spell” – Marie Digby

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

This beautiful song tells the story of a girl who is just a simple girl when she’s offstage. But the moment she gets up on stage and starts to sing, she gets everyone’s attention and changes the way they think about her. She “puts a spell on them”—or charms them with her singing.

Words you might not know:

  • Spotlight  A light that shines on someone who is on stage. This can also mean to put someone in the center of everyone’s attention.
  • Wear your heart on your sleeve  To make your feelings obvious.
  • Emanate  When lights, sounds, or other kinds of forces (in this case, beauty) are created by a person or thing (like a house).
  • Eloquent  Someone who is good at using words.
  • Graceful  Someone or something that moves in a beautiful or elegant way.

“Still Into You” – Paramore

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

A lot of songs talk about relationships coming apart, but this one talks about a relationship that’s been strong for a long time and is still doing great. The singer is saying that even after all this time together, the couple still loves each other.

Words you might not know:

  • Fingers interlock  To put the fingers of two hands between each other (like clasping them).
  • Recount  To tell the story of something.
  • Into you  An informal way of saying that you like someone.

“Face Down” – Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

Abuse in a relationship is a terrible thing that can be hard to break out of. “Face Down” describes a relationship in which the man is hurting the woman. The song talks to the man, telling him that every bad thing he does to the woman will come back to hurt him in the end.

Words you might not know:

  • Crumble  Fall apart into pieces, like a cake or a wall.
  • Push around  This can mean to literally push someone, or it can mean to order someone around and tell them what to do.
  • Ripple  The wave circles that you see on water when something small hits it.

“Taking Chances” – Celine Dion

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

Sometimes when you meet a person you just want to forget everything and take a chance on being with them. “Taking Chances” is about a moment like that, where the singer doesn’t know anything about a person but wants to take a chance on them anyway.

Words you might not know:

  • Not meant to last  Something that will probably end soon.
  • Hell to pay  You can say this when something happens that will make someone very angry.

“I Got You Under My Skin” – Frank Sinatra

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

In this song, the singer talks about a woman who means a lot to him, even if she’s not the right person for him. Every time he tries to move on he can’t, because the woman has become a part of him—she is “under his skin.”

Words you might not know:

  • Sacrifice  – To give something up that means a lot to a person in return for something that’s for the better.
  • Give in  – To resist, but finally say yes without really wanting to.
  • Mentality  – The way you think about something.

“Shattered” – The Rolling Stones

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

New York City is a huge city of opportunities for some, but to The Rolling Stones it was a place full of people wanting to steal your money. This song describes NYC’s darker side.

Words you might not know:

“Dumb Ways to Die” – Tangerine Kitty

Hear it: Original version | Karaoke version

This song is actually a commercial! It was created for Australian Metro Trains, and it’s supposed to teach train safety. It does this by listing different dumb ways to die, and then saying that one of the dumbest ways to die is by not following safety rules when waiting for the train.

Words you might not know:

  • Psycho  – Crazy, insane.
  • Boom gates  The gates meant to stop cars from driving over train tracks when a train is coming.

 

Now you’re ready to sing along! Start with any of the songs listed, or find your own on YouTube or Vimeo by searching for a song with the word “karaoke” after the title. You can also use FluentU to find English videos with subtitles that you can follow along with.

If you haven’t grabbed a hairbrush or marker as your microphone yet, go ahead and get started! There are so many songs waiting to be sung—by you. So start singing karaoke to have fun improving your English today!

And One More Thing...

If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials, as you can see here:

learn-english-with-videos

If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.

The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.

learn-english-with-subtitled-television-show-clips

FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.

For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:

learn-conversational-english-with-interactive-captioned-dialogue

FluentU lets you tap to look up any word.

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.

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FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.

The best part? FluentU remembers the vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a truly personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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