Some celebrity duets can be powerful, and others can be unlikely, unexpected, and even cringeworthy. Whether duets are sonically pleasing or not is subjective. However, most people can agree that there's something special about a parent who decides to share the spotlight with their children. Some celebrity children, like Aimee Osbourne, decide that they want nothing to do with the celebrity spotlight. However, other children embrace it fully.
Celebrity parent-child duets are rare. It's more common to see stars on reality tv with their parents, and some siblings such as The Jackson 5, Aly & AJ, and Hanson decided to form family bands together. However, parents belting out their hearts with their children is merely something that you don't see or hear every day. Let's reminisce and take a look back at some celebs who have recorded tracks with their parents.
10 Iman Tayla Shumpert Jr.
Iman Tayla Shumpert Jr., affectionately called "Junie" by her mother Teyana Taylor, appeared on a track with her mother called Come Back to Me. You can hear her on the intro of the song adorably singing "come back" and "come back to me" with ad-libs that are impressive with her being younger than five years at the time. You also hear her asking her mother, "Can you be quiet?" at the end of the track. Taylor reported that she's leaving the music business, but one can only question if her daughter will follow in her singing footsteps or go another path.
9 Kelly Osbourne
Not only did Kelly Osbourne appear on reality TV with her dad in MTV's The Osbournes, but Kelly Osbourne also recorded a duet with her dad called Changes. Black Sabbath, the metal group that Ozzy Osbourne was the frontman of, first recorded Changes in 1993. Nine years later, Kelly and Ozzy Osbourne recorded their version of the same song. The original track's inspiration stemmed from a man who had a breakup with his wife, but in Kelly and Ozzy's version, they changed the lyrics to reflect a father and daughter drifting apart.
8 Cher
I'm Just Your Yesterday is a duet between Cher and her mother, Georgia Holt. Cher and Holt performed the song together on The Ellen DeGeneres Show back in 2013. The country song discusses lost love, a breakup, and not being able to move on from the person who has moved on from you. While this song never landed on The Billboard Charts, it's still impressive that Holt recorded an entire album when she was in her late 80s. It's never too late to follow your dreams.
7 Nas
In 2004, Nas released a song with his dad Olu Dara called Bridging The Gap. Dara sings about his son's conception, saying that he was "young and running wild" and had his first child, Nasir, in New York City. Nas talks about how his father reared him, kept him off the wrong side of the tracks, and was active in his life. The bluesy song, sampling Muddy Waters' Mannish Boy, boasts that Nas would grow up to be the "greatest man alive." Most 90s hip-hop fans would at least say that he's one of the greatest rappers alive.
6 Natalie Cole
This duet between loved R&B singer Natalie Cole and her father was rather intriguing because Natalie Cole added her vocals to her father's original song long after he passed. Jazz icon Nat King Cole released the classic love song Unforgettable in 1951 and passed away in 1965 from lung cancer. In 1991, 26 years later after her father's death, Natalie Cole released a posthumous duet with her father, one of her biggest hits. The song peaked at #14 on The Hot Billboard 100 Charts. Natalie Cole succumbed to congestive heart failure in 2015.
5 Miley Cyrus
Long before Billy Ray Cyrus hopped on the Old Town Road remix, he collaborated with his daughter Miley Cyrus. They have two songs together: Butterfly Fly Away and Ready, Set, Don't Go. Both tracks have heartfelt sentiments. In Butterfly Fly Away, Miley Cyrus sings about how her dad used to comb her hair, take her everywhere, and make her feel safe when she couldn't sleep at night. Billy Ray Cyrus comes to terms with his little girl leaving the nest. Ready, Set, Don't Go more so deals with Billy Ray Cyrus the inevitability of your children growing up and leaving you.
4 Jaden Smith
Not only have Jaden and Will Smith been in movies together, but you may have forgotten that they recorded a track together. The Icon reggaetón remix features Will Smith and Nicky Jam. The song is energetic, braggadocios, and undeniably fun to listen to if you're exercising. Will Smith proves on this track that he still has bars and can keep up with his son lyrically on a track.
3 Lisa Marie Presley
Lisa Marie Presley recorded Where No One Stands Alone in the same fashion as the late and great Natalie Cole. She harmonized with her father over a track that her father had already recorded. The original song came out in 1967, but Lisa Marie Presley added a reimagined duet on her father's compilation album in 2018. Another sweet sentiment is that Elvis's beloved song, Always On My Mind, is about his daughter.
2 Drake
Technically, Drake and his father Dennis Graham didn't record in the studio together. On his track Losses, he samples his father's vocals from an Instagram Live he had with him on the intro, interlude, and outro. Drake also sampled his father back in 2013 on the interlude of his Jodeci Freestyle with J. Cole. Uncertainty has always circled the nature of Drake and his father's relationship. In many of Drake's songs, he painted a picture of his father being a deadbeat dad, and yet Graham denied being an absentee father.
1 Blue Ivy
Jay-Z released the track Glory two days after his wife Beyoncé gave birth to their first child, Blue Ivy. You may be questioning how a newborn could appear on a song, but Jay-Z indeed sampled his daughter's cries which you can hear at the end of the song. Jay-z raps about the joys of fatherhood and the pain and heartache that ensued the couple after Beyoncé's miscarriage.
Also, Blue Ivy recorded Brown Skin Girls with her mom, Beyoncé, when she was old enough to showcase her singing abilities. Brown Skin Girls won a Grammy in 2021 for the best music video, making Blue Ivy the second-youngest person to win a Grammy, with Leah Peasall being the first at eight years old. Peasall has a country singing group with her sisters called The Peasall Sisters.