A Butterfly’s Sound Journey

“Butterflies are like angel’s kisses sent from heaven.”

— Malia Kirk

Let’s embark on a musical journey through the world of butterfly songs. The butterfly – a symbol of transformation, fragility, and freedom.

I’ve put together a Spotify playlist with 26 songs from five decades (1950s to 2020s). The sounds we will come across on our journey range from candy-colored Eurodance, heartfelt ballads, indie pop gems to Latin rock vibes – performed in four different beautiful languages.

All of them celebrate the butterfly as a symbol of change, longing, and fragile beauty.

Please enjoy your journey.

A beautiful butterfly rendition by award-winning Dutch pop singer and dancer Loona. From her 1999 debut album Lunita which generated the gold- and platinum-selling singles “Bailando” and “Hijo de la Luna”.

Australian singer, songwriter, and actress Delta Goodrem with an amazing acoustic performance of “Butterfly” (a song from her 2003 debut album Innocent Eyes). This version is included on the 2013 Ten Year Anniversary Acoustic Edition of Innocent Eyes.

… that the monarch butterfly travels up to 4,500 km from all over North America to spend the winter hanging from oyamel fir trees in central Mexico’s mountain forests?

“Butterflies” by American country singer–songwriter Kacey Musgraves was the second single from her fourth studio album, Golden Hour (2018). The song won the Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance at the 61st annual awards ceremony in 2019.

Papillon is a 1973 historical adventure drama prison film starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. The movie tells the semi-fictional story of Henri Charrière’s time in the penal system in French Guyana in the 1930s. Charrière befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil’s Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape. Papillon was nominated in 1974 for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score (Jerry Goldsmith) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actor, Drama (Steve McQueen).

Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus performing “Butterfly Fly Away”, a gentle father-daughter ballad, full of warmth and quiet sentiment, on US television (Good Morning America) in 2009.