Cantonese Music for Kids

Music is a fun and powerful language learning tool for kids. Not only can it help expand a child’s vocabulary and phonetic awareness in a language, it is presented in a fun and enjoyable way that encourages more learning. Children songs are repetitive and often can be accompanied by actions which strengthens and reinforces the vocabulary. This applies to all language, not just Cantonese. With Cantonese, you may find lyrics more difficult to understand depending on how the song was written. This is because how the Cantonese language is spoken is different than how it is written. With that being said, don’t worry about your child not understanding the lyrics of the song fully. Music can still be used to introduce the sounds of the language, the culture and introduce some key vocabulary.

I have compiled a variety of Cantonese songs for children. These includes: nursery rhymes based on English melodies, traditional Cantonese nursery rhymes, Cantonese children song written in recent years, Cantonese translated Disney songs and more. You can view the full list here which includes links to downloadable lyric sheets and mp3 if available. Continue below to find YouTube playlists for some popular Cantonese songs.

Cantonese Nursery Rhymes Based on English Melodies
Traditional Cantonese Nursery Rhymes
New Cantonese Children Songs
Cantonese Disney Songs
Cantonese Songs for the Holidays
Our Favourite Cantonese Songs

Cantonese Nursery Rhymes Based on English Melodies

These songs will hold a familiar tune if your first language is English. The melodies of these songs follow popular nursery rhymes such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and London Bridge is Falling Down. Many of these songs were written by James Wong 黃霑, a famous Hong Kong song writer. With these songs, you will find that the tune of the lyrics do not always follow the tone of the actual Cantonese words. They are still fun to listen and sing to.

Traditional Cantonese Nursery Rhymes

These are songs that the older generation will be familiar with. It would be great for parents or grandparents to sings with their child or grandchild. A good one to start with would be 小明 or 點蟲蟲.

New Cantonese Children Songs

New songs! These are songs written within the last 10 or so years. Many of these song writers are still active today and continue to write new Cantonese songs for children. They have many songs so I have linked a playlist of their work. Some of these songs are written in spoken Cantonese and also follow the Cantonese tones. This will make learning Cantonese easier.

Locy Lee Learning

嘉芙姐姐 Ka Foo Music Land

TVB Hands Up Songs

Music Therapy In Class Hong Kong _CNCMS樂在課中

Che Che Music

Thanks 2 Music

Cantonese Disney Songs

A lot of Disney movies were translated to Cantonese. You can find a lot of them available on Disney+. There is much more songs available but here are a few of the songs that are available on YouTube to listen to. Frozen songs have been on repeat in our home.

Cantonese Songs for the Holidays

These songs are for Chinese holidays like New Year, Mid-Autumn festival and Dragon Boat festival. There are also some songs for western holidays like Christmas.

Our Favourite Cantonese Songs

If you are overwhelmed with the amount of Cantonese songs that are available, you can just start with this list. These are my children’s favourite songs that they will sing over and over again. They are 5 and 6 years old when I created this list. My kids enjoy upbeat songs that they can dance to and also songs that they can be silly with.