Search icon

Feature

10th Oct 2018

39 Songs All Irish People Know The Lyrics To – Guaranteed

admin

Ah, Irish people – famous worldwide for our hospitality, our Guinness and our inexplicable ability to memorise fairly crap pop songs (and some good ones too, to be fair).

Here’s the definitive list of song lyrics you probably know inside out – while you can’t remember what you had for luncy yesterday or your mum’s birthday.

You’re welcome.

1. The Killers, Mr Brightside

A lot of Killers’ song lyrics make zero sense to us, but that never affects our ability to memorise them.

2. Lou Bega, Mambo No. 5

You know what you need? A little bit of Monica, that’s what.

3. Robbie Williams, Angels

For the end of the night, when you’re all danced out and it’s time for the magic to happen. Ahem.

4. David Gray, Babylon

And, in fact, the whole of ‘White Ladder’. Every. Single. One of us.

5. Bloodhound Gang, The Bad Touch

This was particularly great for shocking your parents.

6. B*Witched, C’est La Vie

Bonus points for Irish dancing midway…

7. Nickelback, How You Remind Me

Ah, the start of our alt rock phase.

8. T.a.t.u, All The Things She Said

Ah, those rule-breaking Russian gals, releasing the gay anthem of a decade. Pity they, y’know, weren’t gay at all.

9. Guns ‘n’ Roses, Sweet Child of Mine

This is a favourite of ours for office karaoke parties.

10. Michael Jackson, Billie Jean

Can anyone ever listen to – or sing – this song without putting in a few verses of Kelis’ ‘Milkshake’? We didn’t think so.

11. Whigfield, Saturday Night

Has anyone ever successfully done the ‘Saturday Night’ dance, without scrapping with their mates over whether or not the wet-hands part comes before the swirly arms bit?

12. The Fugees, Killing Me Softly

This was at the height of our Lauren Hill Sister Act 2 obsession.

13. Wheatus, Teenage Dirtbag

Where is Mena Suvari, anyway?

14. No Doubt, Don’t Speak

The look of sadness in the newly-single Gwen Stefani’s eyes… We still can’t even.

15. James Blunt, You’re Beautiful

We’re frequently perplexed at how a song about a drug-addled loser spying a beautiful girl on a train and essentially stalking her did so well but, y’know, it is what it is. And why did he jump off that cliff in the end?

16. Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody

The SCARAMOUCHE bits are our faves, obvs.

17. Celine Dion, My Heart Will Go On

If we had a euro for every time we saw some idiot try to recreate the flying part from Titanic when this song came out… Well, we wouldn’t be here writing listicles about it, now would we.

18. Aqua, Barbie Girl

Just nobody mention the sexism.

19. Boyzone, Love Me for a Reason

What better reason could there be than for love itself?! DEEP.

20. Six, There’s A Whole Lot of Lovin’ Going On

Once you listen to this reality TV classic, you won’t get it out of your head for days. DAYS, we tell you.

21. Spice Girls, Wannabe

We even have the intro laugh down! DOWN.

22. All Saints, Never Ever

It’s mostly the intro, we won’t lie, but we do find ourselves singing along to the rest, too.

23. Offspring, Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)

This is when we learned life’s singlemost undeniable truth: white people can rap.

24. Cher, Believe

It doesn’t matter that this is the singlemost irritating song of the last century, we still sing along. Every. Single. Time.

25. Eiffel 65, Blue

It doesn’t really matter that no one knows what they’re singing; we still sing along, and that’s what counts.

26. Journey, Don’t Stop Believin’

Yeah, we can blame The Sopranos for the revival of Journey’s rock anthem, but we’ve always had a soft spot.

27. Bryan Adams, Summer of ’69

At a wedding, in a country nightclub – the classic air guitar tune.

28. Train, Drops of Jupiter

Do you think Train spend their time laughing, rolling around on their money and thinking about all the shit-but-catchy pop songs they’ve unleashed on the world?

29. The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl, Fairytale of New York

We know, we know – this is hardly an appropriate autumnal tune, but we couldn’t leave it out.

30. Westlife, When You’re Looking Like That

Ah, the reconciliation fantasy song everyone listens to at least twice, post-breakup. (Okay, fine, it was 15 times.)

31. Dustin, Christmas Tree

Things you probably didn’t know: Dustin has 17 songs in his ‘Greatest Hits’ and one of them is called, Never Been to Meath. #funfact

32. Nathan Carter, Wagon Wheel

We’re sorry. We had to.

33. Coldplay, Yellow

Looking at Chris Martin in this video is suddenly making us feel very old.

34. Oasis, Wonderwall

This song is the reason why you should never, EVER let someone in Ireland bring a guitar to a house party.

35. Sinead O’Connor, Nothing Compares (2 U)

*sniff*

36. U2, With or Without You

We love to hate it, but we’ll admit: every time we hear it on X Factor, we feel a little bit proud.

37. Will Smith, Fresh Prince of Bel Air

Tuuuuuuuuuuune!

38. The White Stripes, Seven Nation Army

Another one that we like to improvise on, singing the ‘Sweet Dreams’ remix like we fecking invented it. Proud.

39. Savage Garden, Truly Madly Deeply

At the end of the teenage disco, when you were just dying for the shift… You could always count on Savage Garden.

READ NEXT: It Has Never Been Easier To Take Part In Veganuary

Topics: