Music about journeys and travelling often falls under two broad categories. The concept can refer to either a physical journey across land and sea, or the personal adventure of self-progression and self-acceptance.
When you’re trawling through life’s adventure with no end in sight, it’s impossible to notice your blessings along the way, or gather the positivity you need to keep pushing forwards.
Our list of songs about taking a journey crosses the genres and covers it all, collecting the most uplifting and inspiring pop songs on the concept to carry you through the most treacherous paths.
Songs About A Journey
1. Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’
Immortalised to the modern audience through its exclusive feature on the TV show Glee, Journey’s 1981 hit single, Don’t Stop Believing is anchored in the search for the perfect partner and the adventure it takes to reach them.
Journey’s overarching message is one of perseverance through whichever heaven or hell life casts upon you, and keeping faith for the future despite the lot you’ve been given;
“Some will win, some will lose, some were born to sing the blues … Strangers waiting up and down the boulevard, their shadows searching in the night, street-lights people living just to find emotion, hiding somewhere in the night … Don’t stop believing, hold on to that feeling, street-light people.”
Don’t Stop Believing is flooded with the pure and positive driving force of any nostalgic 80s rock anthem, tied together by the free-spirited energy of escaping misery’s grasp and enjoying life’s journey while it lasts.
2. Alaine – Journey
Alaine’s 2019 single, Journey, is a summery pop track about enjoying every moment of your personal adventure whilst opposing the threat of negativity dragging you back to where you came from.
Alaine’s track is fuelled by a breathtaking feminist drive of overpowering your opposition with untouchable grace, realising the mountains you must climb but refusing to feel defeated by them.
Laced with themes of a higher power guiding her steps, Alaine’s empowering performance is crowned with a stunning verse about being patient through whichever journey you’re taking, whether you’re treading the road to self-empowerment or embarking on a physical adventure;
“Sometimes to avoid disaster you must take the longer road, makes no sense to get there faster.”
3. Doris Day – A Sentimental Journey
Doris Day’s 1945 single and first #1 hit, A Sentimental Journey, is a vintage orchestral pop track about finally returning back to the place which stores your memories.
Whether you perceive its lyrics to refer to returning to your home country, home town, your lover’s arms or the house of God, this warm-hearted track is a time capsule of the deathless, nostalgic feeling for a place you’ve somehow, shamefully drifted away from;
“Gonna set my heart at ease, gonna take a sentimental journey to renew old memories.”
Some sources note this track’s coincidental end-of-war release as offering a second layer of lyrical meaning under the context of soldiers returning home from WWII; “Got my bag and got my reservation, spent each dime I could afford, like a child in wild anticipation, long to hear that ‘All aboard!’”
Under this WWII lens, Doris’ hides a morbid sentiment within her third verse, including the journey of soldiers returning to heaven rather than returning home;
“Seven, that’s the time we leave, at seven, I’ll be waiting up for heaven, counting every mile of rail-road track that takes me back.”
4. Harrysong – Journey
Harrysong blends a stunning mix of pop, R&B, gospel and Afrobeats inspirations into his clear-headed track about self-progression; Journey.
With a crystal clear sense of positivity and peace pervading his soundscape, Harrysong relays his search for contentment and the continuous journey of overcoming personal struggles in a beautifully uplifting fashion, his character shedding light like sunbeams shredding the storm clouds apart, revealing the clear skies hidden beneath the haze.
This is an undiscovered anthem for anyone lacking the motivation to push forwards through their traumas and troubles, inspiring faith in the future whilst demonstrating the importance of each individual journey of self-betterness; a lonely walk travelled by every person on Earth;
“How long I’ll travel I don’t know, don’t look for me, I must travel this road, I’ll keep on, I won’t stop till I get home, through the wire, through the rain and the snow, through the fire, I will never say no … I’m on a journey of discovery, it’s a lonely road but I made out to win.”
5. Lea Salonga – The Journey
This old-school R&B track by Lea Salonga captures a mesmerisingly soft, dreamy ambience that could slide right into the soundtrack of a 90s Disney animation.
The Journey details every up and down experienced through the narrator’s lifetime of travels, all bound together by the burning motivation to move forwards and progress, both physically and on a personal level.
Lea Salonga shapes her song with abundant amounts of optimism for the unknown future alongside acceptance of the bleak past, whilst gracefully trusting in the universe to continue leading her through thick and thin;
“What a journey it has been, and the end is not in sight, but the stars are out tonight, and they’re bound to guide my way … I have been to sorrow, I have been to bliss, where I’ll be tomorrow, I can only guess. Through the darkest desert, through the deepest snow, forward, always forward, I go.”
6. Ayo & Teo- Journey
Ayo & Teo’s 2021 release, Journey, is a hip-hop/pop track with an addictively fresh and quirky sound. The rap duo mould their lyrics around the concept of appreciating your blessings accumulated upon life’s journey and revelling in your found fortune.
Ayo & Teo tackle their topic with a slight sense of humbleness when compared to the usual fame flexing found abundantly within their genre; “F*** it I think we the s***, look at my neck, wrist, not tryna flex we do this, feeling so blessed, we won’t miss.”
Journey is a song for any shameless, gold-digging musician who refuses to stand still and blend in even after securing their place in history;
“Fill the passport so fast at the embassy knowing our face, they giving high fives, if we keep this s*** up, we praying for Grammys and things, so let us pass by, we locked in forever, you n***** don’t fit in the schedule.”