Home

Welcome to Singing the News, a database of hundreds of songs about historical news events. Across Europe, from the sixteenth century until the early twentieth century, the news of disasters, miracles, executions, battles, sieges, and political conflicts was delivered via song. These ballads were often printed on cheap, single-sheet broadsides or small, book-like pamphlets, as well as passed on orally or via manuscript. Ballads were usually set to a familiar tune (often indicated at the top of the pamphlet), which allowed anyone to easily sing along. They were sold in busy streets and marketplaces by street singers, who usually sang the contents of the pamphlet in order to promote their wares.

Here you'll find ballads divided into four major news categories: Disasters & Wonders; Crime and Punishment; Political; and Military. This database contains songs in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Breton, Sardo, Sicilian, and Welsh, with transcriptions of the songs, recordings, and – where permission has been granted – images of the original songsheets and pamphlets themselves.

To give a sense of what these ballads could be like, click here to visit the collection of ballads about the Messina earthquake of 1908, the deadliest earthquake in European history.