In a couple of weeks I'm doing a disco for about 100 kids aged from 11 to 14, including my 13 year old daughter, which as you can imagine she's not pleased about. Anyway she has insisted on certain tracks like McFly and apparently all the kids love M C Hammer but she's also wants me to play some slow numbers at the end. What songs would you pick, because to be honest I haven't got a clue what slow songs this age group will dance too.

I've always found they don't dance to slow songs, I've tried a couple of times and usually get about 3-4 girls dancing together and the rest of the party telling me to turn it off.

Some of the slow stuff currently in the charts including:

Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love

Take That - Rule the World

Westlife - Home

McFly - The Heart Doesn't Lie

Plain White Ts - Hey There Delilah

Equally, as she's quite in vogue at the moment (and no not Madonna) Rihanna with Unfaithful...

Or the Candlelight Mix of Cascada and Everytime We Touch

I have a 13th birthday party on Thursday, and she hasnt asked for any slowies - her requests are:

Akon - Belly Dancer
Beyoncé - Deja Vu
Beyoncé & Shakira - Beautiful Liar
Black Eyed Peas - Shut Up
Bob Sinclar - Rock This Party
Bob Sinclar Feat. Gary Nesta Pine - Love Generation
Cascada - Everytime We Touch
Cassie - Me & U
Eve - Who's That Girl
Fedde Le Grand - Put Your Hands Up For Detroit
Feeling, The - Never Be Lonely
Fergie - London Bridge
Gwen Stefani Feat. Akon - The Sweet Escape
Gym Class Heroes - Cupids Chokehold/Breakfast In America
Justin Timberlake - Love Stoned/I Think She Knows
Justin Timberlake - Sexyback
Kanye West - Gold Digger
Pharrell ft. Gwen Stefani - Can I Have It Like That
T-Spoon - Sex On The Beach
Timbaland Feat. Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake - Give It To Me
beyonce - green light
Eve - tambourine
Gwen Stefani - Now that you got it
Gym class heroes - clothes off
Jennifer Lopez - Do it Well
kanye west - Stronger
Kanye west ft. T-Pain - Good Life
rihanna - shut up and drive
Scouting For Girls - it's Not About You
Scouting for girls - she's so lovely
Sean kingston - beautiful girls
sugababes - about you now

So, for a three hour party, I already have about 2 hours!!

They do at the big school we work regularly at. They always ask for a couple of smoochies and last week we played Leona Lewis (Bleeding love) and Bill medly (time of my life) their choices. Why not ask them early on and then decide.

I'd also say don't play any slowies, but no harm in taking a couple of the higher profile tunes in case you're asked for some.

Play any funky house/dance from the last 3 years or so - Fedde Le Grand, Mason etc, also a good spread of urban material - Rihanna and so-on; Some of the better indie offerings would possibly go down well with the lads.

Don't forget to take along your oldies, as you are likely to get asked for such stuff as Village People, Cindi Lauper & Guns & Roses. (These people get to hear their parents' music as well, you see!)

Once you have a decent backbone of music prepared, you may well find that requests help you steer the night.

Don't be disheartened if not too many do any actual dancing - they are most likely to stand around in groups jigging about a bit, with maybe only a handful of girls doing any real dancing.

Good luck - have fun!

Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
Try that for a slowie.....

I have done a number of partys for this kinda agegroup and a few times when it gets to the "if I lay here" line.....they all right on cue lay on the floor......that might be a local tradition or somthing, who knows LOL

Thank you so much for all your replies. I'll try a slowie and see what happens. I'd prefer not to do any because the parents are coming to pick all the kids up and I'm not sure what their reaction will be to seeing their darling son or daughter smooching with another kid.

Also I'd rather them arrive to an upbeat song with the kids actually dancing. Makes them look like they've had a better time too!

Ah!! The old trap;
I wouldn't bother - if the kids have had fun, they'll tell their parents.

But if you decide to do that, you'll have to keep stuff like 'Cha Cha Slide' until the end, but that may prove difficult!

I wouldn't waste waste good songs by keeping them until the end, as this is a difficult time to judge anyhow, as some parents will be early and others late. Better to decide beforehand what 'upbeat' tracks you are going to play, and to spread them out during the evening;

It's all to easy for a newcomer to fall into the trap of discovering a particular style goes down really well, then frantically playing a load of similar tracks one after another to please the audience only to find you've played yourself out of good stuff with perhaps an hour still to go. Beware!

Oh - and don't be worried by parents seeing their little boys & girls having a smooch - most parents accept that this kind of thing is likely to happen at a disco, and tends to begin at around this age.

I've witnessed some real eye-openers over the years where discos for young teenagers are concerned, but I can't elaborate as this is a public forum; If you start doing a few parties for the 13 - 17 year age groups, prepare to be shocked, or rather make sure you aren't!

You don't necessarily have to save it to the end... If I'm doing that aged function, I would (if it had been requested) play a smoocher and then play one of the big party dances again.. Like the Cha Cha Slide, inviting all the kids to grab their parents/guardian and bring them up to join in and show them how well they can do it...

Obviously stating that if the parents don't want tojoin in, they don't have to...

It gets the kids real excited to show off infront of mum/dad....

Oh, and play Sex On The Beach by T-Spoon... That's a real eye opener with the "dance" they do to it...

I Don't play this one with younger crowds.

Why not rob?

I think it goes down pretty well

I just don't feel happy playing a song with the tittle 'Sex on the beach' to 12/13 year olds, maybe i'm a bit old fashioned!!

Great track though

Yeah I wouldn't play Sex on the beach for the same reason. Also this disco is in being held in a church hall so I have to be a little careful. I'm risking it playing Sexyback as it is.

Tonsk. I like your idea of playing the Cha Cha Slide at the end again and getting the kids to get their parents/guardians to join in.

Andy, thanks for the advise. Yeah I think it would be easy for me to suddenly feel I got some people up dancing so panic and play all the good tracks and have nothing else at the end!

Slow finish? Time Of My Life! All age groups love Dirty Dancing.