149 Songs About Heartbreak: Songs To Forget Your Ex
Written by: Bobby McNeill
Table of Contents
Music is among the best kind of medicine to cure your heartbreak. If you’re just having a Separation you can always count on the right songs to comfort you.
If you’re heartbroken, we’ve got two messages for you. The bad news: it’s never easy. The good news: You are not alone with your aching heart. Almost everyone in the world has been through a painful breakup.
At first, you will be deeply sad about your situation, you will be upset, and eventually, you will find the courage to move on.
For centuries, heartbreak has motivated many artists to write songs. Early on, it was recognized that music is a balm for our souls and can help you dry your tears.
Some people may not want or know how to express themselves during difficult times. So it’s nice that musicians like Herbert Grönemeyer or Selena Gomez have written some songs about heartbreak. For many singers, making music is also part of dealing with their heartbreak.
There are also some timeless classics when it comes to heartbreak, such as “Irreplaceable” by Beyoncé, “Someone Like You” by Adele, and “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. These three songs are among the most popular songs against heartbreak.
The song “Call Out My Name” by The Weeknd is a depressing song that is frequently found on various heartbreak playlists. Some powerful songs from the past year come from the pop stars such as St. Vincent, Lorde, Miley Cyrus, Kesha, and Pink.
Heartbreak songs can be divided into two categories: tender, quiet songs that delve into the fragility of the human heart or dismissive, I-don’t-care songs. Interestingly, many of the most popular themes for heartbreak come from big music stars. We turn to trusted, beloved artists to help us get through a tough time.
Below we have compiled 149 English and 20 German songs against lovesickness. We hope you like our lovesickness playlist.
(At the end of the article we have created for you a Spotify playlist with all the songs listed here.)
1. Frankie Goes to Hollywood – The Power of Love
The third № 1 hit by Holly Johnson and his Frankies belongs to the classics among the Love songs.
The song reached high positions in the charts worldwide. Here the power of love is sung about so beautifully and angelically that the piece can be like a balm for the soul in any status. Even if you are not happy in love but rather drowning in heartbreak, it reminds you of the beautiful sides of love. The song develops an atmosphere in which tears are allowed to run, which can be very cleansing, especially in a state of heartbreak.
The Power Of Love has power over all people.
2. Cindy Lauper – Time After Time
A piece about a Farewell, to cry beautiful. Anyone who has been through heartbreak is guaranteed to find themselves in the lyrics and the atmosphere the song creates. However, the track, which quickly reached number one on the American Billboard Hot Charts when it was released in 1984, is not an ode to hopeless love.
It is rather about the fact that nothing is final, and that love, in spite of separation can continue to exist. And then, when it comes down to it, it can possibly flare up again or simply unfold its power. A beautiful track that keeps hope alive in any state of heartbreak.
3. Natasha Beddingfield – Soulmate
Almost every person who has a penchant for romance dreams of a soulmate. Those who have already found him or her can consider themselves lucky, but there are many people who have not yet found this soulmate Happiness not yet had.
Even after a breakup within an intimate relationship, the feeling of losing the soulmate can arise. If then the Longing becomes too big, the piece by Natasha Beddingfield is just the right companion. With a melancholy voice, Natasha sings about all the doubts and questions that arise when your soulmate doesn’t show up or has disappeared from your life.
Her melody gives a little comfort in difficult times.
4. Natalia Imbruglia – Torn
Torn. This is how Natalie Imbruglia feels, and sings about this state in her song “Torn”. The Australian’s first single hit like a bomb, reaching number one in the British singles chart when it was released in November 1997.
In her first № 1 hit, she sings about what it’s like when all the beautiful relationship ideas turn out to be just an illusion when the loved one turns out not to be who you saw at the beginning.
With “Torn,” Natalie still hits a nerve today, and so the title should not be missing in any list of music pieces on the subject of heartbreak even today. While it is sad in theme, catchy, and easy-going in melody, it doesn’t leave you too much pain.
5. Adele – Someone Like You
The first № 1 hit of the British pop singer Adele deals with the saddest subject ever. While one person’s relationship and love are a thing of the past, the other can’t forget and carries its pain in her heart all these years.
This sustained piece of music of the singer reached 20—February 2011 number one in the British single charts. With enthusiasm, she sings about how the feelings flare up again at a reunion and with them the pain and disappointment.
For those who still have feelings for their partner(s) in heartbreak, this is a fitting sentiment and perhaps a way to ease the situation a bit with some cleansing tears.
6. Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares To You
This song was originally penned by the late US musician Prince, who wrote it for his band The Family. In 1990, Irish singer Sinead O’Connor covered the song, quickly becoming a worldwide success. Number one rankings in several countries confirmed that “Nothing Compares To You” had struck a nerve.
Sinead knew exactly how to reproduce the pain that a breakup can cause with her ethereal voice. And the combination with the lyrics about the time after the breakup makes the title one of the most important musical heartbreak arrangements par excellence. This is the perfect way to wallow in nostalgic pain.
7. Bill Withers – Ain’t No Sunshine
What a special person can mean for one’s life – becomes very clear in this song. In this case, it’s you that brings light into life, without which all days are just dark. The song “Ain’t No Sunshine” was released in 1971 and marked the breakthrough for Bill Withers with its high chart positions in the Billboard Hot 100 and the American R&B Charts.
It sings about the on/off relationship, an eternal interplay in love characterized by love and suffering. The theme is always topical that the song was covered very often, u.a. by Michael Jackson, who celebrated great success with it.
8. Andreas Bourani – On other paths
It is the fate of many relationships: you have grown apart at some point. And when these relationships come to an end, it’s sad, but life goes on. Andreas Bourani knows how to convey exactly this scenario in such a beautifully sad and, at the same time, hopeful way that you want to listen to it again and again and share it with others.
That’s what many people thought when the track was made available for download before its release. The song reached the charts even before the official release due to the high download numbers. The record company describes the song as a “farewell song to a failed love” and thus exactly reflects the core of the title.
9. Sam Brown – Stop
He suddenly discovers that his partner betrays him; it quickly tears the heart as well. And even though this doesn’t end the relationship, the feeling of heartbreak makes itself felt.
British singer Sam Brown sings about this condition in her track “Stop.” The first release of the title flopped, only the re-release in 1989 brought the breakthrough, and Sam held with the way for weeks in the charts worldwide. Her urgent appeal to the cheating partner to stop his deceitful game appealed to people because many know the feeling and still find themselves in Sam’s call today.
10. Marillion – Kayleigh
Here the singer of the British progressive rock band Marillion processes very personal experiences. In “Kayleigh” he dedicates himself to all the women he has broken the hearts of in the past.
The song is a beautifully sultry tribute to the romantic follies of infatuation and the bitter sides that come with the end of the relationship. How strongly this theme appealed to people is shown by the successes Marillion could celebrate with it. The track was released in 1985 as the first single from the album “Misplaced Childhood.”
The song reached number 2 on the charts.
11. Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
The track was released in 2012, and quickly became Taylor Swift’s first number one hit in America. She also celebrated chart successes with it in Canada, New Zealand, and Great Britain.
The light and catchy melody, which falls under the pop music category, contrasts somewhat with the heavy theme. Taylor sings about the definitive end of a relationship that has become exhausted in the constant on/off play. The apparent lack of reliability of the male part has been exhausted. Many teenagers indeed find themselves here, so the title finds a firm place in the list of the best hits for heartache and heartbreak.
12. A-ha – Hunting High and Low
The song of the Norwegian pop band plays with the quotation from the story of a Norwegian writer, in which it says, “the husband was hunting high and low.” The title’s meaning stands for the eternal search – here is the one for the dream partner resp. The dream partner.
One searches in every corner, driven by an insatiable longing. The piece remains open whether it is about an existing person or only the illusion of the dream partner. The single was taken from the “Hunting High and Low.” Although it was only moderately successful, the song is one of the songs that, despite its inconspicuousness, can be heard repeatedly on the subject of heartbreak.
13. Alanis Morissette – You Oughta Know
In 1995 this track was released from Alani’s third studio album. It reached good chart positions worldwide, was nominated for the Grammy Awards, and even won in 1996 in the categories of the best rock song and the best female rock performance.
For American-Canadian singer Alanis Morissette, “You Oughta Know” shifted to alternative rock. In the song, she sings about the end of a relationship and all the ambiguities that come with it. Like angels and devils, she wishes her ex-partner well at the same time, only to slip into a cynical tone and give free rein to her feelings of disappointment.
This 1990s track guarantees a cleansing effect when you’re heartbroken.
14. No Doubt – Don’t Speak
A classic breakup song of the 1990s is “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt. In it, singer Gwen Stefanie processes her very personal experiences with the end of a relationship. It’s also about how people deal with it in different ways.
While one person is already moving on and letting go, the other is still sitting in the corner with the broken heart in her hand, letting the tears run free. It is essential to express one’s disappointment and heartbreak appropriately, and to process it at one’s own pace is known to everyone who has ever experienced this state themselves. “Don’t Speak” was a successful hit worldwide and thus makes it to our playlist of the best songs for heartbreak.
15. Police – Every Breath You Take
Among the best heartbreak songs is Every Breath You Take by Police. The band around the singer Sting, also known and successful as a solo artist, released the song in 1983. The song immediately reached first place in the British and American charts.
The content of the song points to the end of a relationship. It mainly expresses the tension between partners when one controls the other out of fear and jealousy. When every word is weighed in the balance, and every movement is watched, love slowly suffocates, and alienation ends.
16. U2 – With Or Without You
A song that belongs to the absolute classics in terms of painful love. The lyrics are a bit mysterious in their meaning, but the slow and advancing melody gives an idea of the intensity of the emotions.
The song by the Irish band U2 was first published in 1987. Meanwhile, it belongs to the 500 best songs of all times chosen by Rolling Stone magazine. The theme here is mainly the conflicting feelings that can develop in relationships and those that have the power to bind a person for a long time.
The song is also about the conflict between the desire for commitment and free love.
17. Selig – Without You
Absolute heartbreak that hits exactly where it hurts. Selig created “Ohne Dich” with their song, a classic of the 1990s, which should not be missing on any playlist against heartbreak.
Here you notice that someone knows exactly what he is singing about. The feelings that singer Jan Plewka sings about in this song are genuine and authentic. Released in 1994, the music conveys the state of absolute emptiness and heartbreak that arises when a relationship breaks down. The loved one disappears from one’s life like no other German piece of music.
Selig paints pictures of a failed relationship so badly that it’s almost beautiful again.
18. Ed Sheeran – Happier
Es Sheeran is one of the most successful pop singers of recent years. Most of his songs are about love – how could it be otherwise?.
Of course, the disappointed love and the theme of heartbreak may not be absent. On which side the disappointment in the song “Happier” was more significant can not be said precisely. But the fact is, she’s got someone else now, and he’s trying to deal with it somehow.
It succeeds more bad than good, but he wants her to be happy being a fair guy. And at the end, there is the hope that someday it will be something again between the two of them.
19. Gotye (featuring Kimbra) – Somebody That I Used To Know
The title, released in 2011 by Gotye, a Belgian-Australian singer, has the end of a relationship as a theme. It is mainly about the memories of the beginning of the relationship, which had a slightly bitter taste from the very beginning.
Somehow the two could not find each other, and although there were moments of happiness, then, in the end, the disappointment prevailed, and the relationship came to a tragic end. The song was awarded two Grammys and had very high sales figures. The music sounds ethereal and slightly experimental, emphasizing the emptiness between the two people left behind at the end of the relationship.
20. Rio Reiser – June Moon
In 1986 Rio Reiser released this song for the first time on his solo album. The success remained at that time without, but when then in the year 2000 the band “Echt” covered the piece, it hit like a bomb and became the hit.
Meanwhile, it is the original version of Rio Reiser, one of the best songs against heartache. It is ideally suited for the time after the initial pain.
Places 21-149 of the best songs against heartbreak:
Each song is linked to its music video by its title.
