50 Greatest Movie Singing Scenes

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Top of the pipes

The Jungle Book (1967)

Little Voice (1998)

The Scene: Despite her shyness, LV (Jane Horrocks) gets up on stage for the first time ever to perform her act...

The Song: LV transforms into Shirley Bassey (at least vocally) to sing 'Big Spender' before becoming Marilyn Monroe and a whole variety of other musical divas.

Join In When: LV sings 'I Want To Be Loved By You', but only because it's fun to do the impression.

Mary Poppins (1964)

The Scene: In order to convince the kids to clean up their room, uber-nanny Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) turns to music. And a little bit of magic.

The Song: 'Spoonful Of Sugar' is so joyful it'll get anybody cleaning - it certainly works on the kids, who can't clear up their mess fast enough.

Join In When: It all starts to spiral out of control.

Empire Records (1995)

The Scene: Before she started resembling an Egyptian pharaoh, Rene Zelleweger took to the stage as Gina to sing 'Sugarhigh' and attempt to save Empire Records.

The Song: Gina looks nervous, but when she sees people thrashing around (we assume that's '90s dancing, there), she quickly relaxes into the tune.

Join In When: The guitar solo blazes up - you don't need to know the words, just grab an air guitar and ROCK.

Hocus Pocus (1993)

The Scene: Winnie (Bette Midler) and her witchy sisters gatecrash a Halloween party, then proceed to enchant all the adults so that they "dance until they die".

The Song: A witchy version of 'I Put A Spell On You' with awesome backing-singer dance moves.

Join In When: Winnie warbles, "If you don't believe, better get superstitious" before launching into a magic spell. Scary.

Dreamgirls (2006)

The Scene: The film as a whole blows, but Jennifer Hudson absolutely kills this scene, in which she unleashes her rage on stage.

The Song: 'I'm Not Going', the film's thrilling centrepiece and an emotional zinger that can't fail to induce goosebumps.

Join In When: The big moment comes. "And... I… Am… Telllllllling you…"

Adventures In Babysitting (1987)

The Scene: Albert Collins refuses to let babysitter Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue) and her young charges leave the stage without "singing the blues".

The Song: The result? Chris and the kids sing 'The Babysitter Blues', which is catchier than it really should be.

Join In When: Collins and his band take up the tune, ratcheting the soulfulness up to deadly levels.

Hairspray (2007)

The Scene: "The neighbours haven't seen me since I was a size 10," frets Edna Turnblad (John Travolta), before being dragged out shopping by daughter Tracy (Nikki Blonsky).

The Song: As the duo whirl through the streets, Tracy sings 'Welcome To The Sixties'.

Join In When: Edna gets in on the singing action. "Hey Tracy, hey baby look at me! I'm the cutest chickie that you ever did see!"

Sister Act (1992)

The Scene: It seems that Sister Mary Clarence aka lounge singer Doloris (Whoopi Goldberg) has performed a miracle when she turns the church choir into something amazing.

The Song: The nuns all harmonise for 'Ave Maria' to the delight of the Reverend Mother (Maggie Smith).

Jo in In When: The nuns break away from tradition for an upbeat lounge version of the song.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010)

The Scene: Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) has his own Jessica Rabbit moment when his ex-girlfriend's band, Clash At Demonhead, play a gig he's attending.

The Song: Envy Adams (Brie Larson) sings 'Black Sheep', sending Scott into an emotional meltdown while Ramona Flowers watches on.

Join In When: Envy sings: "Send you my love on a wire." Mostly sing along because Scott looks really upset and it’s sort of funny.

Joshua Winning

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.