Which songs work for a bar or bat mitzvah montage?

Montage songs for each part of the film

A montage of a few minutes moves through moods, and the music should move with it. With more than one song, start each song at the beginning of a new part, so the change of song feels like turning a page in the album.

These are common picks for each part, not a ranking. They come from three public lists of bar and bat mitzvah montage songs: Mitzvah Market's 50, B'nai Mitzvah Academy's 26, and an American event company's 100.

Years from each song's Wikipedia article. Last checked October 27, 2026.

Five songs are on all three lists: “You've Got a Friend in Me,” “Never Grow Up,” “Count on Me,” “Best Day of My Life,” and “I'll Be There for You.”

Read the lyrics of an English song before you choose it: a happy tune doesn't always mean the words suit a bar or bat mitzvah film.

Jewish and Israeli songs for the montage

An American event company, a small business we don't name, publishes a list of 100 bar and bat mitzvah songs with a section of Jewish and Israeli favorites. Here they are, with what each title means and where each can go in the film, which is our suggestion, not the list's:

Salaam is sung in Hebrew and Arabic. The years, and the other details that aren't on the list, are from Wikipedia; the meanings are ours. Last checked October 27, 2026.

“Hava Nagila” is traditionally sung at celebrations such as weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, so most guests will know it. A Hebrew song can sit among English ones: the change of language marks the part about family or Israel.

What families in Israel choose

Two Israeli studios that edit slideshows publish song lists for bar and bat mitzvahs, and Glim's Hebrew guide to songs for a film drew on both. Here are Hebrew songs both of them suggest, with the mood the lists give each one:

Titles are transliterated; the translations are ours.

Both studios suggest English songs too. For moving parts: “A Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay, “Hall of Fame” by The Script, and “Story of My Life” by One Direction, the last two also on the American lists. For upbeat parts: “Wake Me Up” by Avicii, “Can't Stop the Feeling!” by Justin Timberlake, and “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson.

How many photos fit one song

To end the song and the film together, count from the song's length. In a Glim film each animation runs 5 seconds, so divide the song's length in seconds by 5. In a Classic film, where each photo comes alive on its own, that's the number of photos. In a Life Story film, where each animation is a transition between two photos, add one. For a plain slideshow, divide by the seconds each photo stays on screen, such as 4.

Not counting the opening and the closing, which add a few seconds.

B'nai Mitzvah Academy suggests “75-100 photos and 3 to 5 short 20 second video clips,” at “3-5 seconds per photo.” That's 3:45 to 8:20 of photos before the clips: one long song at the short end, two or three songs at the long end.

In a Glim film, if a song ends before its part of the film does, it starts again from the top. To keep that from happening in the middle of a moment, match the photos to the song with the table, or choose “A calmer pace,” which makes each animation run about 15% longer. Glim films run from 1 to 7 minutes, 12 animations a minute, and the montage length calculator works out the length from your number of photos.

How many songs, and where each one comes in

A film of up to about three minutes needs one song. From about five minutes on, two or three songs, one for each part, keep the pace. A Glim film takes up to five songs, played one after another. Each comes from Glim's library, from a personal song, or from a file you upload yourselves, if you have the right to use it: an MP3, M4A, or WAV file of up to 40 MB. Upload a good-quality file, not a recording made off a speaker.

For each song you choose where it comes in: from the start, when the previous song ends, from a given animation, with a chapter card, or when the closing begins. A song always plays from its own beginning, so choose one whose opening suits the part it opens. Chapter cards don't stop the music.

Instead of the AI opening, you can open with a video of your own, up to 90 seconds long, with its own sound. When the film opens or closes with a video, such as grandma's blessing filmed on a phone, you choose what the music does: play quietly underneath, so the voice comes through, wait for the opening to end, or end before the closing. A film can also have no music at all.

A personal song about your child

A personal song comes with every package. It's written for the film from what you tell Glim, and it's written and sung with AI. This is how it works:

1. Tell Glim about your child: the name, the occasion, a nickname, places that matter, a memory, a wish, and who the song is from.
2. Choose a style, such as heartfelt pop, festive, Mediterranean, acoustic, soft piano, or kids' sing-along, and a voice: a woman, a man, a duet, or a tune with no words. The song can be in English or in Hebrew.
3. Read the lyrics and change any word you like. Rewriting them costs nothing.
4. Choose the length: as long as the film (up to three minutes) or one minute. Composing usually takes about a minute, and you get two takes to choose from.

A language model writes the lyrics, and the song is sung in an AI-generated voice, not a real person's. More in how Glim uses AI.

What you may do with the music in the film

What Glim's terms of use allow depends on where the music comes from. This is what they say:

Glim doesn't promise that a personal song is unique or unlike other works. If someone claims that uploaded audio infringes their rights, Glim may remove it from the film. Last checked October 28, 2026.

Playing the film at the party is a separate question from putting a song in it. In the US, ASCAP, which licenses the public performance of music, says: “Music performance licensing is not necessary for purely private events. Personal gatherings of family and friends, such as weddings and birthday parties, do not require public performance licensing.” Music is played in public, it explains, when it's played “in a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered.” A venue open to the public usually holds its own license; outside the US, ask the venue.

Putting a song in a film is another right. ASCAP “does not license the right to … include it in an audiovisual work such as a motion picture, video or television program.” Those rights, it says, “are licensed by writers and publishers or their agents, not ASCAP.” That's why Glim's library and the personal song come licensed for the film, and a song you upload needs your own right to use it.

Posting the film in public is a third question. On YouTube, a song in an upload can match Content ID and bring an automatic claim, which can block the video, run ads on it, or track its viewing numbers, sometimes only in some countries. A claim isn't a copyright strike, and YouTube offers to cut the song or replace it. The library license covers sharing with family and friends, not posting in public, so share the film by its watch link. A film's watch link stays off until you turn it on, and then only people with the link can watch. Watch pages don't appear in search engines, you can turn the link off at any time, and deleting the film disables it.

An example: three songs in a five-minute film

The second piece runs longer than its 2:25, so it never starts over in the middle of the family photos. The last song covers 11 animations, 55 seconds, and with the closing it fills about a minute. Set to “as long as the film,” the personal song would have run three minutes, its maximum, so the one-minute version fits the last part.

When you can do it yourself

• One song is enough for a short film. If there's a song your child loves and you have the right to use it, add it in any video editing app, and check its length against the table above so it doesn't cut off in the middle of a chorus.
• A sing-along costs nothing: brothers, sisters, or grandchildren singing “Siman Tov u'Mazel Tov,” recorded on a phone, can open or close the film.