kala Asi

my top 10 favourite Toki Pona songs

There are a lot of talented musicians in the Toki Pona community! I’d like to highlight some of their work that I particularly enjoy. A couple rules:

  • I can only feature one song per artist.
  • Both original songs and translations are allowed!
  • Sound quality matters… but I personally care about the lyrics much more!

I’m biased by my own musical tastes, and by what mood I find myself while writing this! On another day the ranking would have been quite shuffled, so don’t think too much about the placement :p

Honorary mentions

nanpa LL: kasi ike mute by jan Minasa

It’s ‘99 bottles of beer’, but instead of bottles it’s kasi ike! The lyrics are quite simple, but very fun, catchy, and make for a great meme. I remember humming kasi ike mute li lon ma mi to myself days on end.

nanpa LTT: kulupu jan tenpo by jan Misali

I mean what can I say. It’s a classic, and the most listened to Toki Pona song of all time! It’s nice.

nanpa LTW: mi o moku e seme by jan Alin

I love folk songs, and ‘Son ar chistr’ in particular. It’s nicely done!

nanpa LT: lanpan pan by jan Temili

This song is delightful, from the original song, to the lanpan-pan-pun that started it, and all the way to how its all put together. And I love that Jay Foreman knows about it!

nanpa LW: Ultra (lon e mi) by jan Kepe

A lot of jan Kepe’s songs use a sort of… abstract approach to lyrics. It’s hard to understand them literally, but you can tell the meaning is there! It’s very satisfying to ponder. And the music production is out of this world.

nanpa L: o lape by kala pona Tonyu

o lape is just so sweet. It feels like a warm hug. We all need a reminder to sleep well and everything will be alright. And the feeling of staying up all night talking to a friend and not wanting to part ways is something to treasure.

nanpa TT: lipu mani musi by jan Jami

‘Monopoly Money’ is of course very topical, and a great song by itself. jan Jami has taken it to the next level with a great translation and by using sitelen pona in such new and creative ways . Like, what even is that? A lyric video? A kinetic typography video? An animation? All at once?? Amazing work.

nanpa TW: olin li tawa jan ale kin by jan Sotan

A bit of a tonal shift from most other songs on this list. I hope for the day everyone understands this. And I hope for the day jan Sotan can sing it in Hungarian.

nanpa T: kiwen suwi by jan Usawi

Oh jan Usawi. It’s next to impossible to pick a favourite from such a selection of absolute bangers. They have a most powerful voice, incredible production skills, and they have mastered metaphor in this language of direct communication. Storytelling more vivid than my dreams.

nanpa W: ale li ante by jan Nikoleta (kqa)

I’m a sucker for rock songs. ale li ante is such a great example of how Toki Pona can plainly talk about difficult things in life. And I love what it’s saying. This is how it makes me feel:

An angry autism creature looking at the ground with a red background. There is text in a spiky text bubble that reads 'FUCK IT! i WILL THRIVE, REGARDLESS'

Where to find more Toki Pona songs