Someone recently asked whether there were any A0 songs in French for improving listening skills. There may be some learner songs. I wrote a few to go with my comic books but they are optimised for reading, not listening.

So what would be the criteria for easy songs? I think that the easiest would have a very small set of words and be repetitive. Where two songs equate in vocabulary and repetition, perhaps the one with the easiest grammar or the most standard expressions would be ranked easier.

I cannot comment on whether there are any easy popular songs. Most have extensive lyrics, with only the chorus being repetitive. However, in the collection of children’s songs (comptines) and folk songs, several can be found. Some were printed in my old Horan and Wheeler textbooks. Others I have found elsewhere. Given the above criteria, here is my list and a rough sequence of difficulty based on vocabulary size; type-token ratio, which captures repetitiveness; and a grammar scale. Beginners will probably want to read the lyrics for the first few listens.