->''Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn\\
The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn.''

Certain musicians believe that a song is better when children sing as part of it. This trope, however, is the concept taken just a little further; the children ''are'' the credited performers.

The reasons vary. Perhaps [[{{Nepotism}} one of the parents is a musician or a producer and is getting the kids involved young.]] Perhaps a StageMom really wants it to happen. Perhaps this is tied into something commercial. Perhaps the kids themselves are DoingItForTheArt. Often, because [[TwainsObservationOnOriginality they don't know what they're doing,]] [[SturgeonsLaw they will sound bad]]; but you can find a ChildProdigy here and there.

Child popstar may join a BoyBand as they mature, assuming they can bear to give up the instrument. Indeed, several boy bands initially fit here. Others become {{Teen Idol}}s.

Not to be confused with KidsRock, in which a children's ''choir'' sings backing to a performer.

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!!'''Examples''':

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Fictional Examples: ]]

* ''TheBradyBunch'' Kids
* It is implied that the incomplete ending version of "Dreams Dreams" on ''[[NightsIntoDreams NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams]]'' is sung by either Helen or Will, depending on who you clear the game as. Even before that, Helen herself is revealed to be good at the violin.
* Exaggerated in an episode of ''FamilyGuy'', in which Stewie Griffin tries to get an appearance on Meg Griffin's album.
* An episode of ''BabyLooneyTunes'' saw the cast form a band for Granny. It went as well as could be expected of a gang of infants.
* Lil' Kunt, actually a puppet employed by British musican Kunt And The Gang.
* ''PhineasAndFerb'' does this for a sizeable portion of its numbers.
* In an episode of ''TheFlintstones'', Pebbles and Bam-Bam become singing sensations. It turns out to be a bad dream of Fred's about her little girl leaving him.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' often overlaps this with FromTheMouthsOfBabes.
* ''Film/StreetFighterTheLegendOfChunLi'' portrayed Chun-Li as a ChildProdigy at the piano.
* ''Film/TheGarbagePailKidsMovie'': featured a rather shoehorned-in musical number courtesy of the titular tykes.
* ''HomeMovies'' - in an episode highlighting guitar genius Dwayne's fretting over a competition, Brendon, Melissa and Jason start a band - and they are ''awful!''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Swedish CultClassic Arvid Tuba started at 13, although he didn't release stuff until he was 15.
* Music/JustinBieber has been playing and singing as early as kindergarten, and eventually became a TeenIdol at 15.
* {{Bjork}} started out as one.
* Black Out Band, better known for "Video Games"
* Cex, oddly enough; featured on the Starship Galactica EP was a version of said song done when he was a little kid.
* Charlotte Church
* Experimental band Ctephin comprises, for the most part, a married couple and their eldest daughter, but sometimes invoke this trope when the whole family, some of which aren't even ten, join in.
* MileyCyrus began her musical career at 12 going on 13 with HannahMontana.
* [=Dev2.0=] a one-off {{Devo}} tribute.
* Included on Dokaka's debut album were some snippets and recordings he did when he was a small child.
* HarshNoise musician Elizabeth Floersch claims she has been classically trained "from a young age."
* Girls With Attitude
* {{Hanson}}, when they started.
* [[http://www.libera.org.uk/ Libera]]
* Menudo used to be.
* The Jackson Five started as young children.
* Hailie Jade allegedly held the record as the youngest charting performer for the song "[[{{Eminem}} My Dad]]'s Gone Crazy".
* KidzBop
* LadyGaga, who started playing piano ''at age four.''
* Lil Bow Wow started when he was still too young for high school. Indeed, he was once on the Guinness Book of World Records by sheer dint of his age.
* LilWayne started when he was twelve.
* TheNakedBrothersBand, at least initially.
* Oblive admitted in a May 2011 interview for Musique Machine that when he was eleven, he tried to form a punk band.
* Two members of ThePartridgeFamily
* [[MightyWhitey Prussian]] [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes Blue]]
* [=RedSK=] started when he was ten.
* Before getting into the business as Scissor Shock in 2003, Adam Cooley spent from age 12 to his puberty as Stagedive Suicide.
* Connie Talbot reached second place in the first series of ''Series/BritainsGotTalent'' in 2007, at the age of six. She has released three albums since.
* Notoriously, there's the Tangerine Awkestra, a jazz ensemble composed of 3-7 year olds who had been played free jazz recordings and Art Ensemble of Chicago albums.
* Violent JJ
* Willow Smith
* Stevie Wonder, back when he was credited as "the twelve year old genius" -- from the beginning, he played the piano, harmonica and percussion and he was about seven in the beginning.
* CodySimpson
* GreysonChance
* Music/ToriAmos' ''Night Of Hunters'' features four songs that she sings as duets with her eleven year old daughter Natashya Hawley.
* TechnicalDeathMetal band {{Decapitated}} recorded their debut album in 1999 when every member was a teenager. Drummer Vitek was 15, bassist Rygiel was 16, guitarist Vogg was 17, and vocalist Sauron was 18.
* Death Angel drummer Andy Galeon was only ''14'' when the band's debut album was recorded. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AooZ9L6L1KU You'd never know that to listen to it.]]
* Salserín, a ''salsa orchestra'' full of these. One of their signature songs is even named "Bebé Salsero", "salsa-singing baby", always given to the youngest member (the kid who first recorded it was about four years old at the time). On first their popularity peak in the mid-to-late 1990's they got a movie and a short soap-operas; then two of their oldest singers, the brothers Servando and Florentino Primera, left the band and became a latin pop TeenIdol duo, in a move that give them another teen soap and a movie deal.
* CountryMusic has had several:
** Brenda Lee first started charting at age 12. Her most famous song, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", charted when she was 14.
** Tanya Tucker, who was 16 when "Delta Dawn" hit the charts.
** But younger than her was 14-year-old Marie Osmond, who hit in 1973 with "Paper Roses".
** A particularly tragic example is Amie Comeaux, who was barely 17 when she put out her debut album. However, her label (Polydor) closed its Nashville division soon afterward, and she died in a car crash at age 21 in 1997.
** [=LeAnn=] Rimes' career had been fostered before she hit double digits, but "Blue" broke her through at age 14.
** Lila [=McCann=] followed a year later, charting her first single at age 16, but failed to have the same success.
** Billy Gilman was 12 when "One Voice" made him the youngest solo male with a Top 40 country hit.
** Ashley Gearing was also 12 when she barely charted with "Can You Hear Me When I Talk to You?", breaking Lee's record for the youngest female to chart a Top 40 country hit. However, her career never took off.
** Music/HunterHayes had been a child prodigy who won accordion contests as early as age 4. His major label career didn't begin until he was 20, though.
* Child opera prodigy JackieEvancho.
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