The cabaret style involves the narrative use of song in an intimate performance environment. Cabaret blends into the genres of musical theater on the one hand, and vocal jazz on the other. The style is generally held to have begun at the Le Chat Noir nightclub in Paris, France, in 1881. Modern English-language cabaret owes a great deal to the "Kabarett" style of 1920s Germany, where influential performers such as Lotte Lenya arose.

In cabaret, the singer is the star to a degree not typical of other styles. Typically, the singer is accompanied only by a pianist, and there are no lengthy instrumental passages.
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