Graduation Slideshow Songs: 45 Picks for the Party, the Ceremony and the Last Photo

There are two graduation slideshows and they want different songs. The one at the party plays on a loop on the TV while people eat, and it wants something warm that can come around three times without wearing thin. The one at the ceremony or the senior breakfast plays once to a room that is sitting still, and it wants something that rises.

This list is sorted that way, with a set for the parents, a set the graduate would actually choose, and a few for the last photo. One rule sits above all of it: if there is a song they played in the car every morning of senior year, that is the song. Nothing here beats it.

How to choose

• One song for a slideshow of three to five minutes; two if it runs longer. Let the song set the length rather than squeezing photos to fit.
• Warm for the party, rising for the ceremony. A loop on the TV and a room sitting still want different things.
• Read the lyrics through. Half the songs people reach for are about leaving, and a few of those are about leaving someone.
• Let the graduate pick one. They know what their year sounded like. Put theirs under the senior year photos and yours under the early ones.

If you are still gathering the photos, our guide on collecting photos from kindergarten to cap and gown covers where thirteen years of them are and how to get them in one place.

Warm, for the party loop

• Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) (Green Day)
• Photograph (Ed Sheeran)
• I Lived (OneRepublic)
• Home (Phillip Phillips)
• Count on Me (Bruno Mars)
• Best Day of My Life (American Authors)
• Here Comes the Sun (The Beatles)
• Rivers and Roads (The Head and the Heart)
• Unwritten (Natasha Bedingfield)
• You've Got a Friend in Me (Randy Newman)
• Story of My Life (One Direction)
• Three Little Birds (Bob Marley)

Rising, for the ceremony or the senior breakfast

• The Climb (Miley Cyrus)
• I Hope You Dance (Lee Ann Womack)
• My Wish (Rascal Flatts)
• Brave (Sara Bareilles)
• Hall of Fame (The Script)
• On Top of the World (Imagine Dragons)
• Beautiful Day (U2)
• Unstoppable (Sia)
• Don't Stop Believin' (Journey)
• Firework (Katy Perry)
• Wide Open Spaces (The Chicks)
• Seasons of Love (from Rent)

For the parents

These are the ones that get the mother of the graduate in the first eight bars. Use them under the early photos, and put something lighter under the senior year.

• Slipping Through My Fingers (ABBA)
• Never Grow Up (Taylor Swift)
• You're Gonna Miss This (Trace Adkins)
• Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
• In My Life (The Beatles)
• The House That Built Me (Miranda Lambert)
• Humble and Kind (Tim McGraw)
• Daughters (John Mayer)
• Boy (Lee Brice)
• Forever Young (Rod Stewart)
• 7 Years (Lukas Graham)

The one the graduate would pick

Ask them. If they shrug, these are the ones the class of the last few years has been choosing for itself.

• See You Again (Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth)
• Vienna (Billy Joel)
• The Middle (Jimmy Eat World)
• Closing Time (Semisonic)
• Here's to Never Growing Up (Avril Lavigne)
• Graduation (Friends Forever) (Vitamin C)

For the last photo

If the slideshow ends on the cap and gown portrait, or the one with the grandparents after the ceremony, these are the songs families choose for that final thirty seconds.

• Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)
• What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong)
• My Way (Frank Sinatra)
• Let It Be (The Beatles)

Graduation slideshow ideas

The song carries the feeling; the structure carries the story. These are the ideas that make a graduation slideshow feel like it was about one person rather than a folder of photos.

• Open with then and now. The kindergarten photo beside the cap-and-gown photo, side by side, before anything else. The room laughs and then goes quiet, which is the mood you want for the next three minutes.
• One chapter per school. Elementary, middle, high school, each with a short title card. Thirteen years reads as a life when it has chapters; without them it reads as a scroll.
• The first-day-of-school series. If someone took a photo on the porch every first day, run all thirteen in a row at two seconds each. It is the single most-remarked-on thing in any graduation slideshow.
• The people who were there the whole time. A section for the same three friends at ages six, eleven and seventeen. Ask the friends' parents for their versions; they have the ones you missed.
• What they did, not just who they were. The team, the band, the play, the science fair, the job. One or two photos each, in the years they happened.
• The teachers. One photo with a teacher who mattered, if there is one. It gets the biggest reaction in the room after the porch series.
• Let the graduate pick a chapter. Give them senior year to arrange and caption themselves. Their version of the year is different from yours, and the slideshow is better with both.
• End on today. The last photo is the one that looks most like them right now, in the gown or at the party, so the room finishes looking at the person in it.

For the party loop, keep it to 40 to 80 photos and three to five minutes, and let it run; people who missed the start catch it on the next pass.

How to make a graduation slideshow

Six steps, and the first one is the only hard one.

1. Collect the photos, from everyone. Thirteen years are spread across your phone, your spouse's, the grandparents' albums, the friends' parents, and the school. Send one link and let everyone add theirs from their phone; our guide on collecting graduation photos covers where they all are.
2. Choose 40 to 80. Three to five minutes at a few seconds each. More is fine if it loops all party; fewer if it plays once at a ceremony.
3. Put them in order by year, oldest first, with the then-and-now pair up front. Photograph the printed ones with your phone rather than scanning; on a TV it looks right.
4. Pick the song, from this list or theirs, and let it set the length.
5. Watch the whole thing before you pay. On Embrance the preview is free and it is the actual film, not a sample.
6. Download the MP4 and play it from a laptop or a stick on the party TV; the share link plays on any phone for the relatives who could not come. Test it on the actual TV the day before.

Bringing the song in

On Embrance you add your own song as an MP3 or M4A and it plays under the whole slideshow, or you pick from a small library of instrumental tracks if you would rather not choose. The song plays at the party and at the ceremony from the file you download. The one place to be careful is posting the finished video online afterward, where Facebook, Instagram and YouTube may mute a popular track; for that copy, an instrumental from the library is the safe choice.

Common questions

What is the best song for a graduation slideshow?

There is no single best one, but the songs parents come back to are "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day, "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack, "Photograph" by Ed Sheeran and "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus. If your graduate has a song they played all senior year, that beats all of them.

How many songs does a graduation slideshow need?

One. A slideshow of three to four minutes fits one song, and a song that ends where the photos end feels finished. For a longer party loop, two songs is enough; more than that starts to feel like a playlist.

Should the song be sad or upbeat?

Match it to where it plays. At the party, on a loop while people eat, warm and upbeat wears better than a tearjerker on its third pass. At the ceremony, with the parents seated, the rising songs land. Many families use one of each: reflective under the childhood photos, rising under the last year.

What are good ideas for a graduation slideshow?

Open with the kindergarten photo beside the cap-and-gown photo, give each school its own chapter with a title card, run the first-day-of-school porch photos in a row, include a section for the friends who were there the whole time and one for what they did (the team, the band, the job), and end on the photo that looks most like them today. Keep the party loop to 40 to 80 photos.

How do I make a graduation slideshow?

Collect the photos from everyone with one link, choose 40 to 80, put them in order by year with a then-and-now pair up front, pick the song and let it set the length, watch the whole preview, then download the MP4 and play it from a laptop or a USB stick on the party TV. Photograph printed photos with your phone rather than scanning.

Can I use a popular song in the graduation slideshow?

For playing at the party or the ceremony, yes, use the song you want. On Embrance you add your own MP3 or M4A and it plays under the photos. The one place to be careful is posting the finished video online afterward, where Facebook, Instagram and YouTube may mute a popular track.

If you would rather hand the photos over and have it made for you, someone can make it for you.