29 Songs for Grandma From Granddaughter or Grandson

Grandmas are hard to shop for and easy to sing to. Most of them already have the scarves and the photo mugs. What they rarely get is someone telling them, plainly, what they meant.

Here are 29 songs for grandma, from songs actually about grandmothers to the standards she danced to and, further down, gentle songs for saying goodbye. Each one comes with when to play it and why it fits.

Pick one in 30 seconds

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  A song that's actually about grandma

  Grandma's Hands · Bill Withers
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  A thank-you from her granddaughter

  Kind and Generous · Natalie Merchant
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  Her birthday or a Sunday visit

  What a Wonderful World · Louis Armstrong
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  Her funeral or memorial service

  We'll Meet Again · Vera Lynn
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  Missing her afterward

  Nana · The 1975

Songs about grandma

There are fewer songs about grandmothers than you'd think. These are the ones worth knowing.

Short, soulful and built around a single image: all the things a grandmother's hands did, seen through a grandson's eyes. If you only send one song, send this one. It works for a living grandma, and later it works at a service too.

A joyful, foot-stomping romp about piling into grandma's enormous feather bed with all the cousins. For the grandma whose house was always full. Play it at the family reunion and watch the little kids bounce.

Technically about a mother, not a grandmother: a little girl wearing a coat stitched together from rags, and wearing it proudly because of the love that went into it. It belongs here for every grandma who sewed, mended or quilted something you still own.

Someone goes back to the house they grew up in, just to stand in it for a minute. For grandmas whose house was the center of everything: the holidays, the summers, the porch. Send it the year the family house is sold.

Songs for grandma from a granddaughter or grandson

Thank-you songs, for the grandma who gave more than she ever let on.

A thank-you song, plain and simple, that keeps saying thank you until it sinks in. For the grandma who never wanted credit. It's the best one here to play at a party where she's in the room, because it's grateful without being sad.

For the grandma who stayed in the background so you could shine: the babysitting, the school pickups, the folded bills slipped into birthday cards. It's a big ballad, so save it for a moment that can hold some tears.

A thank-you to someone who believed in you before anyone else did. It's ideal under a granddaughter's toast at a milestone birthday, when you want the music to finish the sentence you started.

Grand and almost hymn-like. For a grandma of faith, or for a moment with candles: an 80th birthday, a 60th anniversary, a church celebration in her honor.

A wish to save up time and spend it all with one person. It's about the visits you wish lasted longer. Play it on the drive home from hers, then call her the next day anyway.

A short, quiet song that looks back over everyone who mattered. For the grandma who waves off a fuss, it tells her she's the one who mattered most without anyone making a speech.

Cheerful and a little corny, for the grandma who's also your best friend: the one who taught you card games and still gossips with you on the phone. It's bright enough for a birthday.

Songs she already knows by heart

Grandmas often love the songs they grew up with, and you'll get more out of a song she can sing along to. If it's her birthday and you want her name in the chorus, try a birthday song with her name.

Short, warm and full of small good things. It's about the safest song in the world for a grandma's birthday, and it works just as well as background to Sunday lunch.

There's a good chance she has a story about Elvis. Play this and ask her to tell it. It's also the sweetest pick for a grandparents' anniversary dance.

Dreamy and slow, a standard plenty of grandmothers can sing from memory. Put it on during a visit and you may hear her hum along before the first chorus.

Velvet-voiced and exactly what the title says. A way to tell her she's unforgettable without either of you having to say it out loud.

Sweet, swaying and a bit playful. For the grandma who still dances in the kitchen when she thinks nobody's watching.

Bouncy, big-band nostalgia about the joy of heading home. Good for a party with her friends, or a slideshow of old black-and-white photos.

A gentle invitation to grow old together. It's here for grandma and grandpa: play it at their anniversary dinner, or for a grandma who still holds her husband's hand on the couch.

Songs for grandma's funeral or memorial service

If you're here because she's gone, we're sorry. These songs are gentle enough for a service. When in doubt, choose a song she would have liked over one that simply sounds right; the family will feel the difference. And if you'd like a song that carries her name and your memories of her, a memorial song can be written from what you tell us.

A much-loved old promise to see someone again, sung with quiet confidence. It comforts because it doesn't say goodbye; it says later. Grandmas of a certain generation often knew every word.

The ukulele version is soft enough to bear in public. It's a common choice for walking in or out of a service, because it holds the room without breaking it.

For a grandma whose faith sat at the center of her life. This version is spare and clear, which makes it easy for a room full of people to join in.

A country gospel farewell that tells someone their work is done and they can rest now. For a grandma who worked hard her whole life and never sat down at family dinners.

A song that wonders what it will be like to finally arrive in heaven. If she believed, it lets the whole family picture her there.

A piano ballad about the small jobs that come after a loss: the flowers, the cards, the tidying up. Its details are so ordinary and specific that it feels like it was written about someone's grandma, which is why it fits so well.

Songs for missing her afterward

Not every song is for the service. These are for the car, the first holidays without her, and the anniversary nobody else remembers.

A hushed, acoustic song addressed to a grandmother who's gone. It's for headphones on a long walk, or the first anniversary, rather than for a crowded room.

A soulful song about the words you wish you'd said, with Nana right there in the title. For when regret is the hardest part of missing her.

It doesn't explain grief or try to fix it. It just sits with you in it. For the quiet drive home after the service.

Simple, direct questions to someone who's gone, about what it's like where they are now. It says plainly what's hard to say out loud.

Grief with its chin up: a promise instead of a farewell. For her first birthday without her, or the first Mother's Day after.

How to give a song to grandma

Plenty of grandmas don't stream music, and a link in a text may never get opened. Three ways to make sure the song actually reaches her:

1. Play it for her, in person. Bring a small speaker, or just your phone, to Sunday lunch. Tell her you found a song that made you think of her, then sit with her while it plays. That's the part she'll remember.
2. Write the song name in a card. Add two sentences about a memory: "This one reminds me of falling asleep in your spare room while you watched the news." She'll keep the card on the fridge long after the song has finished.
3. Send it as a gift page. If you make her a song of her own, you can send it as a gift page: it opens like an envelope, plays the song, and shows your message underneath. Help her open it on her phone, or put it on the TV at the next family dinner so everyone hears it together.

When no song is about her

Every song above was written about another family. They'll get close, but none of them know that she kept your drawings on the fridge for twenty years, that she taught you to play cards, or that her house always smelled of the same soap.

That's what a song written from your stories can do. On SongStory, you tell us about your grandma the way you'd tell a friend, and AI writes the lyrics. You pick from more than 20 styles, a male or female voice and more than 40 languages (possibly including the one she grew up speaking), and you can change any line of the lyrics before it's recorded. You get two full versions, with a free 60-second preview of each, and one free redo if it isn't quite right. Unlocking the full song is $9.9, including the MP3 download and the gift page.

Start your grandma's song here. It takes a few minutes, and the only part that has to be good is the story. If she has already passed, the same goes for a song in her memory, and our memorial song page walks you through it gently.