The love for music runs deep and crosses all borders, so we’ve curated a list of some of the best singing shows for you. This list includes reality singing competitions, fictional musical dramas, musical anime and even some K-dramas so that everyone reading it can find something to their taste. We’ve steered clear of overt musicals for this list and focussed more on shows that need music as one of their fuels. We’ll let the music do all the talking without wasting your time.
Best Singing Shows You Should Watch to Live Your Pop Star Dreams Vicariously Through Them
1. The X Factor (Reality TV)
2. The Voice (Reality TV)
3. Daisy Jones and The Six
4. Empire
5. Bandish Bandits
Starring Naseeruddin Shah, Atul Kulkarni, Shreya Chaudhry, Ritwik Bhowmik, Amit Mistry, Sheeba Chaddha, the Hindi Amazon Original series created by Amritpal Singh Bindra and Anand Tiwari revolves around the singing prodigy Radhe. While he feels compelled to follow the classical roots of music like his grandfather, Tamanna is a pop sensation who’s driven by her aspiration to become the nation’s first international pop star. When the two fall in love, Radhe is conflicted about helping her on her path to stardom or staying true to his own style of music.
6. Glee
Ryan Murphy’s musical comedy drama stars Matthew Morrison, Jane Lynch, Jessalyn Gilsig, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Chris Colfer and others. The shows focusses on Morrison’s character, i.e. an optimist high school teacher who wishes to revamp the school’s show choir club. A groups of misfit students from all sorts of cliques are roped in by him to participate in the challenge and form an invincible unit.
7. Nashville
With Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere leading the musical soap opera, the 2012 series witnesses the success fading away of a once legendary country musician. As a counter to that, a rising sensation hopes to overtake her position, especially since the industry prefers her instead, but this pushes the former to ensue plans of her own to bring her down.
8. Luis Miguel The Series
Netflix’s Spanish biographical series is led by Diego Boneta as the real Mexican superstar Luis Miguel. The show takes us through the life story of the singer as each chapter of the narrative contributed to his eventual rise as the Latin American hero who ruled over the audience’s hearts for decades. While the show isn’t 100% accurate, Miguel himself claimed the series to have been based on real facts.
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9. Atlanta
Streaming on Netflix, Atlanta is a comedy drama series starring Donald Glover and Brian Tyree Henry in the lead roles. Glover’s Earn manages his cousin, an up-and-coming rapper, Alfred (Henry), and together they work their way up in the music industry, while the former also struggles to earn a livelihood for his small family.
10. Heavenly Idol (K-drama)
The 2023 South Korean drama series is based on the web novel of the same name by Shin Hwa-jin. It’s more fuelled by its fantastical storyline, however, one of the major subplots running parallel to it is set in the K-pop industry and deals with music artists. Starring Kim Min-kyu and Go Bo-gyeol in the leads, the show picks up pace when Pontifex Rembrary from the supernatural world crosses over to the contemporary modern world during his fight against the Evil One.
In the present world, he finds himself in the body of a failing K-pop idol, Woo Yeon-woo, a member of the boy group Wild Animal. While Rembrary struggles to find his way back to the Other World, keep the Evil One under control and play his part as an idol, he strikes a pact with Yeon-woo, who’s crossed over to the other side, that he will continue living his life as a music artist till he rises to stardom.
11. Dream High (K-drama)
Available on Viki and Netflix, the 2011 K-drama starred some of the best known K-pop artists, who were mere rookies in the biz back then. With Bae Suzy, IU and Ok Taec-yeon as some of the leading cast members, the show charts the journey of several individuals who enrol in one of the leading performing arts school in hopes of becoming K-pop idols. The coming-of-age drama also focusses on the relationships and friendships they gain along the way while learning more and more about life.
12. Only for Love (Brazilian)
Only for Love or Só Se For Por Amor is a Brazilian musical drama series that’s set in the Brazilian state of Goiás. Só Se For Por Amor is actually the name of Deusa and Tadeu’s band that is almost always on the road to share their music with the country people. Although their true ambitions rise high, their reality doesn’t always answer the call. Soon, they bag their biggest deal yet with César Marcolo’s music label. However, dramatic turns are put into motion when Deusa is compelled to go solo. Cliches are the major building blocks of the series, but music is the true winning factor which makes you stay for it.
13. Given (Anime)
14. Angel Beats (Anime)
15. Lookism (Korean Anime)
16. The King of Mask Singer (Korean Reality TV)
17. Julie and the Phantoms
The 2020 Netflix series is centred around the life of high schooler Julie, who lost her love for music following her mom’s demise. However, all is far from over. Three ghosts of musicians from 1995 step in to reawaken her passion and form a new band. The heartfelt series starring Madison Reyes as the titular character is based on the original Brazilian series Julie e os Fantasmas.
18. Indian Idol (Reality TV)
While the Indian singing reality show of Sony TV may have become a victim of numerous cliches dragging it down in the recent years, there’s no denying that this series opened the doors for numerous Indian singers who’re now known as crowd-pulling sensations. Legendary singers like Anu Malik, Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Salim Merchant, Udit Narayan, Kailash Kher, Vishal Dadlani, Himesh Reshammiya, Neha Kakkar and others have sat in as judges for the show over thirteen long-running seasons.
19. High School Musical: The Musical: The Series
Featuring some surprising and nostalgic cameos from the original movie trilogy, the mockumentary spin-off series takes us back to East High School, where a group of students and their teachers from the drama club prepare for the opening night of their theatrical production. With all the coming-of-age drama and issues in store, only high school theatre can provide them with a comforting embrace unlike nothing else.
20. Boys Planet (Korean Survival Competition)
This is an ongoing South Korean reality survival competition featuring all male contestants. Created by the TV network Mnet, the show’s ultimate goal is to test contestants from various backgrounds to debut a nine-member K-pop boy group, which will also be the first 5th generation K-pop group. Contestants worldwide participate in the show to make it to the showdown after going through endless and rigorous rounds of evaluation that test their artistic abilities.
Which of these shows is your favourite pick? Is there any other singing show that you would like to recommend? Let us know your answers in the comments section below.