"So in the requisite What-I-Want-From-This-Movie Song, aside from being less small, she also expresses a desire for One-True-Love or something, and who should be conveniently listening but her One True Love?"
— The Nostalgia Chick, review of Thumbelina
The vocal counterpart to Love at First Sight. Bob instantly falls in love with Alice when he hears her Beautiful Singing Voice.
Brings to mind creatures of Classical Mythology like the Greek Sirens, who have a specialized Compelling Voice that instantly makes men unable to resist them. This trope can be compounded with Love Before First Sight if it is solely the voice that causes the attraction. Compare Duet Bonding and Love Theme.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Both this and Love at First Sight are invoked in one of the Case Closed Non Serial movies. One of the things Heiji remembers the most from his First Love is a cute child's song he heard her sing when he saw her for the first and only time (or so he thinks). He realizes that said girl was Kazuha when he hears her sing the same song at the end of the movie.
- The Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics's rendition of Rapunzel (mentioned below) keeps the "The Prince Fell For Rapunzel's Songs Before Seeing Her" detail, but instead of hearing her singing voice, he hears her playing a lyre. Some wonder how could he identify the musician as a woman, which is probably explained by lyres being similar to harps.
- In Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, almost any man who hears Yuzuki Seo singing falls in love with her. However, her singing voice sounds completely different from her speaking voice, so unless they see her singing, they'd never be able to tell it's her. They assume the singer is someone named Lorelei, and would never associate her with the rude and insensitive Seo. They often get heartbroken when they learn the truth.
- In Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live, Koji falls in love with Ito the moment he sees her debut her Image Song.
Comic Books
- Even Carl Barks' "Back to the Klondike"
has this:
Scrooge McDuck: A piano was playing over by the stage, and Goldie, the Star of the North, was singing — She was singing "After the Ball" in a voice as pretty as the crackle of new bells.
Fairy Tales
- In "Rapunzel", the Prince first hears Rapunzel's singing before he sees her and falls in love with her. Given a nod towards the end: after they become Star-Crossed Lovers, the now-blind Prince recognizes Rapunzel again by hearing her singing voice.
- "Sweetheart Roland" deserves a special mention, as the heroine's prince is bewitched into forgetting her, and she breaks the spell by singing to him.
Fan Works
- Naru-Hina Chronicles: Rock Lee meets his future girlfriend, Arekusu, when he hears her singing at a karaoke bar.
Films — Animation
- An odd variation occurs in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West: Cat R. Waul becomes enraptured by Tanya's singing to the point that he inadvertently sabotages his own master plan when she shows up at the end to warn the other mice about the giant mousetrap - she's standing on it, and he screams at his men not to trigger it or else they'll crush her. Not so much love in this case as an appreciation for fine art, even if it does come from someone he'd otherwise be trying to eat.
- In Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, King Dominick overhears Erika (whom he thinks is Princess Anneliese) singing in her room, then walks back to the audience room with a lovestruck smile on his face.
- Not the first time they've met, but in The Book of Life, Maria's Love Epiphany towards Manolo is triggered when she first hears him sing.
- In Corpse Bride, Victoria is getting ready to meet her betrothed, worried that she won't like him, when she hears someone playing the piano. She goes downstairs to discover Victor, in one of the few moments when he's not a Nervous Wreck, and from the subsequent conversation, it becomes clear that they were perfectly arranged.
- The Little Mermaid: Small catch to this one - Eric only heard Ariel (due to complications involved with being half-unconscious, he didn't remember what she looked like), which led him to initially try to marry the wrong woman, since Ursula had 'captured' Ariel's voice and, with some shapeshifting added, managed to pass herself as the girl who saved him (and it's shown that she brainwashed him with said voice).
- Sleeping Beauty has Aurora waiting for her aunts' birthday surprise and singing about love in the meantime. Prince Phillip also hears her singing, is captivated, and then joins the song.
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has a scene where Snow White, forced into menial work by her Wicked Stepmother, sings to entertain herself during her chores. The Prince hears her singing and cheerfully joins in.
Films — Live-Action
- This happens to Shane when he hears a work in progress by Mitchie in Camp Rock.
- Enchanted: Edward hears Giselle singing off in the distance and immediately rushes off to go find her. After their Meet Cute, he joyfully declares that they'll get married first thing tomorrow morning. The movie goes on to deconstruct the idea, as it is pointed out how bad an idea it is to enter into a marriage without knowing anything about each other except that they have a nice singing voice. Edward and Giselle do not end up together in the end, as they both fall in love with other people.
- High School Musical has a rather subtle version. Watch Troy's face as he first hears Gabriella sing. The guy just totally lost his heart.
- The title character of The Killer (1989) falls for Jenny this way. Then he accidentally blinds her during a shootout, and the plot happens.
- In Letter from an Unknown Woman, Lisa falls hopelessly in love with Stefan the first time she hears him playing the piano, prompting her to spend the rest of her life trying to win his love.
- In Sense and Sensibility, Colonel Brandon first sees Marianne while she's playing a harpsichord and singing, visibly falling in love with her in that instant.
- Prince Fabious in Your Highness fell in love with his bride-to-be Belladonna before he even saw her due to her beautiful singing voice.
Literature
- Ciaphas Cain, THE HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, met his long-time Love Interest Amberley Vail when she was undercover as a lounge singer. While he professes not to believe in Love at First Sight, he admits that, a hundred or more years later, he can still remember every moment of that meeting.
- In the third set of Dinoverse books, Aaron falls for Claire, not at first sight, but because he heard her voice. She's known for being spectacularly beautiful, and for some reason when she hears that he fell for her voice before he ever saw her, she thinks it's more meaningful.
- Eight Cousins: Archie and Phoebe in Rose in Bloom — They've known each other for years, but it's her singing the night after her return from Europe that makes him instantly fall in love with her. Archie even notes the exact time when he feels it happen.
- In the Galactic Milieu series, Paul Remillard met and fell in love with his wife during her opera performances. After her voice started failing (due to the psychological strain of multiple miscarriages), Paul's love for her waned, and he started cheating on her, repeatedly, with numerous women, some of whom were already married.
- In The Hunger Games, Peeta claims he's been in love with Katniss ever since he first heard her sing — back when they were little kids.
- Apparently the same was true with Katniss' mother and father. Peeta first saw Katniss when his father pointed her out to him on the first day of school. He wanted to marry her mother, but she fell in love with a coal miner — Katniss' father. When Peeta asked why, his father stated that when Katniss' father sang, even the birds stopped to listen. On that same day, when Katniss volunteered to sing in front of the entire class, even the birds stopped to listen — and at that moment, Peeta was a goner. There wasn't going to be anyone else for him after that.
- The eponymous hero of Krabat falls in love with the Kantorka (means: daughter of the cantor) when he hears her singing at the Easter procession.
- Erik of The Phantom of the Opera is basically a Gender Flipped Siren — the Persian even calls him "the Siren" several times!
- Also shows up in several adaptations, where Erik is shown falling hard for Christine the minute he hears her voice. For that matter, adaptations often have Raoul falling for Christine this way, too, leading to accusations that he's a Satellite Love Interest, whereas he's a Victorious Childhood Friend in the book.
- During the Tourney of Harrenhal in A Song of Ice and Fire Lyanna Stark seems to have fallen in love with Prince Rhaegar when she heard him sing during the feast.
- Hans Christian Andersen's "Thumbelina", as well as Don Bluth's movie adaptation see Thumbelina's one true love hear her singing about finding love.
- Downplayed in C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces. As soon as Orual dons a veil for good, a man tries to get a kiss because anyone with a voice that sweet has to be pretty. He's not much put out at refusal, though.
- In Wody Głębokie jak Niebo by Anna Brzezińska, Dulio falls in love with Sirocco after hearing her playing the flute and seeing her image magically preserved in water. This is a pretty big step forward considering that before he intended to kill her for stealing his trophy. Sirocco lampshades this and is distrustful at the beginning. They end up Happily Married anyway and their love story becomes a legend. One character later suggests that Dulio was attracted to her thanks to the magic he felt in her singing, since Sirocco can control demons through her music, and mages are always hungry for more power.
Live-Action TV
- Glee: Happens a few times, which isn't surprising considering it's a musical show. Most notably, Kurt clearly falls head over heels for Blaine when Blaine sings "Teenage Dream" for him two minutes after they meet. In turn, Blaine finally has his Love Epiphany several episodes later when he sees Kurt sing "Blackbird".
- The Last of Us (2023): Frank falls for Bill when Bill has a chance to play "Long Long Time" on the piano and sing it.
- A variation in The Phantom of the Opera (1990) Mini Series, where Erik is clearly enthralled by Christine's voice the minute he hears it, but he falls in love with her over the course of their singing lessons.
- Victorious: Andre falls for Jade upon hearing her sing. Thanks to Tori, he eventually snaps out of it.
Music
- Cole Swindell's "She Had Me at Heads Carolina," an homage to Jo Dee Messina, about a guy who falls for a girl after hearing her sing "Heads Carolina, Tails California" at a bar's karaoke night.
''Heads Carolina, tails California"
Maybe she'd fall for a boy from South Georgia
She's got the bar in the palm of her hand
And she's a '90s country fan like I am
Hey, I got a Chevy, she can flip a quarter
I'd drive hеr anywhere from herе to California
When this song is over, I gotta find her
'Cause she had me at "Heads Carolina"
Mythology and Religion
- The Exile of the Sons of Uisnech from Irish Mythology has a rare gender inversion, where Naoise, King Conchobhar's best warrior and hunter, is also a talented singer and harpist. Deirdre, upon hearing his voice for the first time after months of smitten visions of him, is enchanted by his voice and music and follows it to him, thus meeting face to face.
Theater
- In Into the Woods, Rapunzel's Prince falls for her when he hears her singing from her tower before he even knows what she looks like.
- Of course, Act 2 shows this is a rather shallow reason as Rapunzel's prince was shown to have fallen for another woman (This was changed for the movie)
- In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bottom has just been transformed into an ass when all of his friends run away from him. Bottom decides to sing a song that isn't about Titania as they've never met, but he happens to be outside her bower. She's under a spell to fall madly in love with the first being she sees once she opens her eyes, and as such is entranced by Bottom and his song.
- Phantom: The Phantom, beneath the Opera House, falls in love after he hears Christine singing above - "this prodigy, who sings to only [him]". Christine also catches Philippe's notice by singing and selling songs in the streets.
- The Phantom of the Opera. Especially mentioned in the lines "He was bound to love you when he heard you sing..."
- In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Anthony falls in love with Johanna in this way.
Video Games
- Fire Emblem: Awakening, Donnel walks into Olivia practicing one of her songs. They can potentially fall in love, depending on whether their supports are pursued to the end or not.
- In Psychonauts 2, a memory vault only accessible with a late-game ability or with clever use of Pyrokinesis implies that this is how Bob Zanotto fell in love with Helmut Fullbear.
Webcomics
- In Disney High School, mimicking The Little Mermaid (1989), Ariel is far too shy to speak in front of her crush Eric but one day he hears her singing along in a classroom and is obviously smitten. Unfortunately, he still doesn't know who she is.
- Erstwhile added this to the fairy tale King Thrushbeard.
Western Animation
- American Dad!: Roger has a short-lived crush on Hayley when he hires her to sing at his nightclub and hears her fabulous voice.
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold had the Villain of the Week - The Music Meister - become infatuated with Black Canary upon hearing her lovely singing voice.
- DuckTales (2017): During Donald and Daisy's first meeting, Donald is hit with Love at First Sight, but Daisy warms up to Donald considerably after she first hears him sing.
