Prom Songs
Thirty-four songs for prom. Three different things get searched under this: music to ask somebody with, music for the night, and the one slow dance. They want different records, and the promposal one is the highest-stakes three minutes of the lot.
Updated September 202634 songs
Ten that turn up every year
- Can’t Help Falling in LoveElvis Presley · 1961
Two minutes and it never fails. The safest slow dance on this page by a distance.
- PerfectEd Sheeran · 2017
The default slow dance since about 2018. Everyone knows it, which is both the strength and the problem.
- Thinking Out LoudEd Sheeran · 2014
The previous default. If you want something everybody knows but not the current one, this.
- At LastEtta James · 1960
Older and far better than most of what will be played. Three minutes and it is finished.
- UnwrittenNatasha Bedingfield · 2004
Twenty years of leavers’ videos and still working. Corny, and corny is fine on this night.
- Mr. BrightsideThe Killers · 2003
Older than everybody in the room and screamed word for word anyway. Non-negotiable.
- Blinding LightsThe Weeknd · 2019
The most-streamed song of its era. Anyone at a prom now grew up with it.
- Time of Your LifeGreen Day · 1997
The last song of the night for three decades running. Written bitter and heard as generous.
- I Wanna Dance with SomebodyWhitney Houston · 1987
Older than the parents chaperoning it and it will still fill a floor.
- Sweet CarolineNeil Diamond · 1969
The shouted part means nobody has to know the verses. It closes every kind of room.
The promposal is the only high-stakes part
Everything else about prom music is low risk — a bad dance record lasts three minutes and then there is another one. A promposal is different: it happens once, in front of people, and the person being asked has to react in public. That is worth thinking about properly, and the single most useful piece of advice is to make it easy for them to say no. A gesture nobody can refuse without humiliation is not a request.
Choose from their music, not from what is popular. This is the whole trick and almost nobody does it. A song from their own playlist says you have been paying attention, which is the actual message of a promposal. A current chart song says you know what is on the radio.
Keep it under two minutes and do it somewhere small. Enormous public promposals mostly serve the audience rather than the person being asked, and the video is not the point. A corridor, a car park after practice, or their driveway is better than a gymnasium, and the answer is more likely to be honest.
For the night itself, hand the playlist to the students and take the one slow dance seriously. That is the only moment of the evening anybody will remember in ten years, and it should not be whatever was highest in the charts that March.
By which part of it
For asking somebody
Under two minutes, from their own music, somewhere small. Make it easy for them to say no.
- Can’t Help Falling in LoveElvis Presley · 1961
Two minutes, unambiguous, and old enough that it is charming rather than heavy.
- First Day of My LifeBright Eyes · 2005
One guitar and an admission that this is all a bit strange. Disarming rather than grand.
- EverywhereFleetwood Mac · 1987
Bright and warm without being a declaration. Good if you are not certain of the answer.
- I Wanna Be YoursArctic Monkeys · 2013
A whole generation knows precisely what this means. Only use it if you mean it.
- Better TogetherJack Johnson · 2005
The low-pressure option. Affectionate and completely deniable.
- Put Your Records OnCorinne Bailey Rae · 2006
Warm and unthreatening. Good for asking a friend rather than a crush.
- SunflowerPost Malone & Swae Lee · 2018
Light, familiar and nobody has to interpret anything. Good for a casual ask.
- Kiss MeSixpence None the Richer · 1997
The prom song of the late nineties, which now reads as charmingly old-fashioned.
For the dance floor
Hand this list to the students. They know what their year will dance to and no adult does.
- Uptown FunkMark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars · 2014
Gets everybody up at once, including the teachers, which is either good or a problem.
- LevitatingDua Lipa · 2020
Reliable floor-filler that the chaperones can also tolerate.
- Yeah!Usher · 2004
Older than everyone dancing to it and it works every single time.
- Cupid ShuffleCupid · 2007
A line dance with the instructions in the lyric. Solves the problem of who goes first.
- Party in the U.S.A.Miley Cyrus · 2009
Everybody in the room was small when it came out and knows every word regardless.
- Shut Up and DanceWalk the Moon · 2014
Bright and uncomplicated. Good for pulling people back onto a thinning floor.
- Dancing QueenABBA · 1976
Literally about being seventeen. It has never once failed at a school dance.
- Mr. BrightsideThe Killers · 2003
Save it for the point where you want the whole hall screaming. It will happen.
For the slow dance and the drive home
The only three minutes of the night anybody remembers in ten years. Take it seriously.
- At LastEtta James · 1960
Better than anything else that will be played all evening, and only three minutes long.
- PerfectEd Sheeran · 2017
The current default. Safe, familiar, and it will be at every other prom this year too.
- Make You Feel My LoveBob Dylan · 1997
Adele’s version is the one they will know. Larger than a prom needs and lovely anyway.
- The Way You Look TonightFrank Sinatra · 1964
For a prom with any kind of formal theme. Nobody has ever regretted this choice.
- IrisGoo Goo Dolls · 1998
Enormous, and exactly the right amount of enormous at seventeen.
- Time of Your LifeGreen Day · 1997
The last song. It has closed proms for nearly thirty years and there is no reason to stop.
- Rivers and RoadsThe Head and the Heart · 2011
For the car park afterwards, when everyone realises this was the last one.
- ViennaBilly Joel · 1977
For the drive home. Slow down, you have time — the most useful thing anyone can say that night.
Three demonstration songs
What a promposal song sounds like
We wrote these from made-up answers to the same five questions you would fill in. They are not customer work. A promposal built on a chart song has been done at every school this year; one with their name in it has not been done anywhere.
Start the song- Marguerite at the StopFolk · forty years from a bus stop in the rain2:19
- Priya at DawnPop · the first in her family to finish2:27
- Danny On The RiverAcoustic · to a brother, after eleven months of silence3:15
How it works
Three steps. The first one is the only hard part.
- 1Tell the storyFive questions. Who it’s for, the occasion, three details only you two know, the feeling you want, and the names that have to be in it.
- 2Pick the soundCountry, pop, acoustic, R&B, gospel or rock. A man’s voice or a woman’s.
- 3Listen, then unlockA 30-second preview in about two minutes. Pay only if you love it. You get the full song, the lyrics, and a page you can send.
Common questions
- What is a good promposal song?
- Something from their own playlist, under two minutes, somewhere small. A song they already love says you were paying attention; a current chart song says you know what is on the radio.
- What is the best prom slow dance song?
- “At Last” is better than anything else likely to be played and only three minutes long. “Perfect” is the current default, which means it will also be at every other prom this year.
- How big should a promposal be?
- Smaller than the internet suggests. Enormous public ones mostly serve the audience, and a gesture nobody can refuse without humiliation is not really a request. Make it easy for them to say no.
- Who should choose the prom playlist?
- The students, for everything except the slow dance. That is the only three minutes anybody will remember in ten years and it is worth an adult thinking about.
- Can I get a promposal song written?
- Yes, and it is one of the few gestures at a prom that will not have been done at every other school this year. Answer five questions and you will hear a 30-second preview in about two minutes. The full song is $19.