Your Perfect Bar Mitzvah Playlist: Songs for Your Honor Dance
A mitzvah celebration is full of ceremonies and traditions. These traditions can include a candle lighting ceremony, hora, and even an honor dance.
The honor dance - also commonly referred to as a parent-child dance - is a special moment that demonstrates the connection and bond between the guest of honor and their parent.
Much like at a wedding, the bar mitzvah child will traditionally dance with his mother while the bat mitzvah child will traditionally dance with her father. If a parent isn’t present, the guest of honor might choose to dance with a sibling, grandparent, step-parent, aunt, uncle, or any other family member that is important to them.
Photo credits: Peter Fotolux
For those families that choose to partake in this custom, it’s important to find a song that the guest of honor and their family member can comfortably dance to and signifies their relationship.
Honor dance songs are typically clean, happy songs that describe familial or parental love. While these types of songs seem difficult to find, we’ve compiled a list of popular songs that could be fitting for your and your child’s dance, including old favorites and new hits:
1. Photograph - Ed Sheeran
“You won’t ever be alone, wait for me to come home.”
2. What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
“I hear babies cry, I watch them grow. They’ll learn much more, than I’ll ever know.”
3. Never Grow Up - Taylor Swift
”I won’t let nobody hurt you, won’t let no one break your heart.”
4. Daughters - John Mayer
“Fathers be good to your daughters, daughters will love like you do.”
5. Isn’t She Lovely - Stevie Wonder
”Isn’t she lovely, isn’t she wonderful?”
6. My Girl - The Temptations
“I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day with my girl.”
7. God Only Knows - John Legend
“God only knows what I’d be without you.”
8. My Wish - Rascal Flatts
“My wish for you is that this life becomes all that you want it to.”
9. Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynrd
“Mama told me when I was young, come sit beside me my only son.”
10. Father and Daughter - Paul Simon
“I’m gonna watch you shine, gonna watch you grow.”
Photo Credit: Photography by Jen Davis
When choosing a song, it’s most important to pick something that you and your child enjoy, even if it might not be seen as “traditional” or “typical.” If your event’s theme, for example, is Broadway, then you could tailor your song even more and choose a song from a musical, like “No Matter What” from the Broadway version of Beauty and the Beast.
While many song choices, such as the ones listed above, are sentimental, you can choose any song that has meaning to you. If the guest of honor is a dancer, you could even consider choreographing a dance routine to perform for your guests.
Our experts at Xtreme Event Group can discuss your ideas and provide suggestions while going through your event details, making sure that each aspect of your event - including your honor dance - is a perfect fit for you and your child.
Choreographing your own moves can make for a fun and unique twist on an honor dance.
If you’re looking to plan your child’s bar or bat mitzvah, Xtreme Event Group will take care of all your event entertainment needs. Schedule a consultation with one of our mitzvah planning experts today.
