I’m a father of four. The three youngest are girls. Every now and then I’ll pull out the laptop and do my own form of music education. We’ll take an electronic stroll through the classics and some of my favorite songs and artists that made great music, in what seems to be a forgotten era.
Here on BMWK we’ve run a list of songs for both men and women, but we’ve never done a list exclusively for our children. That changes today. With the help of our Facebook family we’re happy to present 6 Songs That Every Black Girl Needs To Hear. Check out our list that begins on the next page then let us know what you think about it.
Phoebe says
This is an interesting idea! A few of the songs, I didn’t know – so it was an enjoyable tour through music appropriate to young people.
For a future compilation, you might consider Doo Be Doo by world music group Freshly Ground: https://www.rdio.com/artist/Freshlyground/album/Nomvula/track/Doo_Be_Doo/
Thanks,
Phoebe
ode says
Lift Every Voice and Sing is a song that every child should learn.
Tonya says
Don’t forget Mary Mary’s “Little Girl”. Lyrics excerpt: Little girl/trying to fit in/’cuz you don’t look like/all your other friends” and chorus goes “Little girl, little girl/God made you so beautiful/little girl, little girl/I just thought that you should know”
k(Black) says
Cool list. I’d like to suggest two more songs:
1. I love my hair: sesame Street sing along
2. BabyFather: Sade
Krystle Stewart says
I loved the list! I would add Yolonda Adams’s “The Battle is the Lord’s”. Whenever I feel overwhelmed I listen to this song and remember.
Mrs. Z says
I was surprised to not see “You Gotta Be…” By Des’ree, Lamar.
Sample lyrics:
*You gotta be
*You gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser
*You gotta be hard, you gotta be tough, you gotta be stronger
*You gotta be cool, you gotta be calm, you gotta stay together
*All I know, all I know, love will save the day”
What parent doesn’t want their girl to be all these things??
Thanks for sharing Will add yours to my list for my girls
Doris says
A lot of these so FS need to be heard by little black boys too. They need to learn at an early age how precious the little black girl is, as well as, instill self pride
marcus alford says
Our children are growing so fast these days, partially because of our lack of family structure, moreover, rearing the child in the way they should go with values beyond what the t.v., internet, and peers teach them. However, I encourage each parent to evaluate the music they listen to in the car with their children or any young impressionable mind in your prescense. If the child has already reached an exposure level of hearing the degrading music our community most often promotes, and you see that they have already turned that corner, I would suggest these positive yet ‘edgeee’ life changing songs. I render this unto you, GOODIE MOB ‘BEAUTIFUL BLACK SKIN’ circa 1996, COMMON SENSE AND LAURYN HILL ‘RETROSPECT OF LIFE’ , COMMON ‘THE LIGHT’ , J. COLE ‘CROOKED SMILE’
the girl says
A few of these songs are for little Black Christian girls only. I would make adaptations to allow for alternative spiritual perspectives. But the other choices were rather inspirational.
Anonymous says
you could do a whole album i love all those songs… i have my own playlist how did you narrow it down to just 6?
Latoya Lawson says
What a wonderful list. Thanks for thinking of our little girls Lamar. Another song which can be added is by an artist who never had her chance to shine. “Can’t Play Me”, by Jamie Knight. It’s about respecting yourself and placing value on who you are.
PhilK says
Any plans on doing a list for little black boys? It seems like the more we focus on girl empowerment, the more boys are being pushed in to the background. Fair is fair.
Tonya says
I thought it was 6 songs – why can’t everyone just relax and embrace the songs for what they are worth…. every song has a message but the flavor of days gone by get right to the point and call a spade a spade. Stop looking for corrections and just enjoy.
live entertainment says
Appears browsing on the internet in excess of 3 time these days, even so certainly not found any kind of attention-grabbing post just like yours. It really is beautiful value enough to me. In person, if all world wide web entrepreneurs plus writers designed great written content since you would, online are going to be additional helpful than in the past.
Ashley says
Thanks for posting. I am compiling a list of songs to sing to my little girls. This is a nice start.