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Celebrating Mom in Music: Mighty Girl Songs for Mother's Day

My+Fathers+Only+Son[1]By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, you may be looking for a few more things you can do to make Mom’s day a little more special. Music is amazingly evocative -- there are few things that can capture complex emotions so quickly -- so why not look for the perfect song to describe your relationship?

A Mighty Girl is proud to present our top ten songs for Mighty Girls and their Mighty Moms: songs that are loving, sweet, and powerful in their depiction of one of the foundational relationships in a girl’s life.

We will describe each song here, but for more details, including information about concerns parents may have about content in either lyrics or video, and to preview songs via embedded YouTube videos, please follow the links to our full entries. Each of these songs, like all of those featured in A Mighty Girl's music collection, is also available through either iTunes or Amazon.com’s MP3 download service via the links on each song's page. By using the links on A Mighty Girl, you also help to support the site at no added cost to you, and can have your Mother’s Day playlist set up in no time!

And, to discover wonderful books celebrating Mighty Moms, check out our previous post entitled: A Mother’s Day Special Feature: Celebrating Mighty Moms and Their Daughters.

Music Celebrating Mighty Moms & Their Daughters

1. Amelia Almost 13, Carrie Newcomer (My Father’s Only Son); all ages

“I wish I had the answers
But the best that I can give
Is to be a safe place for you
As long as I live.”

Carrie Newcomer, an American folk singer-songwriter, captures all the contradictions a mother sees in her tween or teen daughter: grown up one moment and child-like the next. She meditates on the strength that her own mother gave her, and promises to give her own daughter the safe, loving place from which she can grow and discover who she really is. Mothers will enjoy sharing these thoughts with their daughters, while grown daughters will love getting to share their newfound understanding of a mother’s wish for her child at this difficult time of her life.

cd-cover[1]2. Good Mother, Jann Arden (Living Under June); 10 and up

“I've got a good mother,
and her voice is what keeps me here.
Feet on ground,
Heart in hand,
Facing forward,
Be yourself.”

Jann Arden, a Canadian pop/rock singer-songwriter, celebrates the value of being happy with yourself and what you have, and the role that loving parents play in giving a child the strength to be her own person. Good Mother was one of her most successful singles, and the video received a Juno Award for Video of the Year in 1996. Any Mighty Girl -- or grown woman -- who gets her strength and self-confidence from Mom will love this song.

3. Julie Through The Glass, Carly Simon (Anticipation); all ages

”We want you to love the world
To know it well and play a part
And we'll help you to learn to love yourself
'Cause that's where loving really starts.”

Carly Simon, an American pop/rock singer-songwriter, wrote this song after visiting her niece, Julie, at the maternity ward in a New York hospital. She found herself wondering where this amazing little girl would go with her life, and wanted to promise her the support and love she needed to be a good person in the world. The sweet, gentle tone of the song beautifully captures a parent-child relationship, but can also be shared with any woman — aunt, sister, or friend — who has been significant in your Mighty Girl’s life.

Brave_soundtrack_cover_art_1[1]4. Learn Me Right, Mumford & Sons ft. Birdy (Brave — Original Score); all ages

“We will run and scream
You will dance with me
We’ll fulfill our dreams and we’ll be free.”

Fans of the Disney-Pixar film Brave will recognize this song, performed by English folk-rock band Mumford & Sons and featuring Birdy, a British musician and singer. In the film, this song accompanies the dawning realization on the part of Merida, the main character, and Queen Elinor, her mother, that as they give one another more understanding and compromise, they can heal their damaged relationship and find more freedom and joy within it. Just like the movie itself, this song is likely to speak strongly to teen daughters and their mothers, as they struggle to find a new balance to this not-childlike but not-yet-adult relationship.

5. Strong Women, Meg Braun (Broken Places); all ages

“I come from a line of strong women
They taught me everything I know about this life I am living
Their blood runs deep in my veins
They're in every step I take, every joy, every pain.”

Meg Braun, an American singer-songwriter currently working out of Brooklyn, New York, captures how character can be passed on through generations of women, helping to support each of them through the difficult times in their lives. In Strong Women, Braun refers to the challenges her grandmother and mother experienced in their lives, and how their determination and strength allowed them to succeed and move through good times and bad. Listening to this song is sure to prompt discussion about your own family’s strong women and the stories they have to share.

cd-cover[1]6. In My Daughter’s Eyes Martina McBride (Martina); all ages

“In my daughter's eyes,
I am a hero,
I am strong and wise,
And I know no fear,
But the truth is plain to see,
She was sent to rescue me,
I see who I want to be,
In my daughter's eyes.”

Martina McBride’s double-platinum album Martina celebrated womanhood throughout; In My Daughter’s Eyes, the second single from the album, was very popular, reaching the top 5 in both country and adult contemporary charts. In it, McBride marvels at how her daughter’s view of the world — and her mother — has changed the way that she sees everything around her. Any mother who has seen life through a different lens thanks to her child will love this song — and so will any daughter who wants her mother to know that, whatever she may think of herself, she is a hero to her children.

7. I Hope You Dance, Lee Ann Womack (I Hope You Dance); all ages

“I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger...
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance.”

Lee Ann Womack is an American country singer-songwriter who achieved crossover popularity with this single, which encourages taking the risky but rewarding path, rather than playing it safe and missing out on the best that life has to offer. I Hope You Dance is empowering and inspiring, great for sharing with a mother, a daughter, or anyone special in your life.

1279965964_50000-mark_masri-la_voce-2010-front[1]8. A Mother’s Love, Mark Masri ft. Jim Brickman (La Voce); all ages

“There's no power like it on this earth
No treasure equal to its worth
The gift of a mother's love “

This lovely ode to mothers from Mark Masri, a Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist, and Jim Brickman, an American songwriter and pianist, celebrates all the ways that a mother supports her children: everything from sitting up with them at night to knowing when to let a child find their own way. This gentle tribute is particularly meaningful to older children, who will be starting to understand just how many ways their mother’s love supports them, and of course, to moms themselves.

9. How You’ve Grown, 10,000 Maniacs (Our Time In Eden): all ages

“No little girl can stop her world to wait for me.
Every time we say goodbye
you're frozen in my mind
as the child that you never will be,
you never will be again.”

Folk-rock group 10,000 Maniacs provides a sweet and slightly melancholy look at mother-daughter relationships, as the daughter’s impatience to grow up contrasts with the mother’s wistful realization about just how fast the time is passing. This song is a wonderful starting point for talking about the relationship between parents and children — and how differently they view the world. It’s also perfect for a mother who’s feeling meditative about how quickly her children are growing and changing.

MUDD1624[1]10. Child of Mine, Carole King (Writer); all ages

“You don't need direction, you know which way to go
And I don't want to hold you back, I just want to watch you grow
You're the one who taught me you don't have to look behind
Oh yes, sweet darling
So glad you are a child of mine”

This beautiful song about the joys that parenting can bring is from Carole King, one of the most successful women songwriters of all time. Lyrical and sweet, this song is one of the hidden treasures from King’s first album, Writer. The song simultaneously reminds parents of what their children can teach them and children that, even when things are difficult, it is more important to be doing what is right and meaningful than to walk an easy road.

Sharing music is a wonderful way for mothers and daughters to bond together! A Mighty Girl would like to wish all the mothers out there a very musical Mother’s Day.

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