Top 10 Break Up Songs

You Oughta Know

I love this song. Alanis sings about being a psycho, ticked off ex-girlfriend who needs her ex to know how angry she is. This is the best break-up song on the planet.

My Happy ending

This is a great song after a break-up, whether you love or hate Avril. This song is great for girls going through a break-up and is about a guy and his rude friends having opinions and interfering with the relationship, and how they influence whom you’re dating, and how someone can be a completely different person with their friends and outside of the relationship.

We Belong Together

Though it is unarguably a break-up song, there’s something inexplicably uplifting about this ballad from Mariah. The lyrics are fueled by familiar longing and regret and the melody creates a melancholic mood. I played this song on repeat while I drove through the city with mascara streaks on my cheeks, my voice hoarse while I sang along. I was still humming it months later when the wounds had nearly healed, only then the song meant something different: I had triumphed over heartache.

Don't Bother

This song is great after break-ups as well, especially since Shakira doesn’t do many sad or emotional songs like these. This song is a little more angsty than sad, talking about not wanting the other person to pity you, and wanting to be strong throughout the break-up no matter what the situation is, you refuse to cry.

Post Break-Up Sex

Not Gon' Cry

Mary J. Blige's gut wrenching ballad is featured on the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. The song is a woman's grief over her husband leaving her.

Break Up (Tyga)

I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton)

This is a bittersweet tune that chronicles a woman’s feelings right at the moment when she decides to leave her love behind. The split is amicable—she “hopes life will treat [him] kind”—but she knows that she can’t sustain a relationship that’s so doomed. There’s something heartfelt in Dolly Parton’s pleas; it’s easy to believe that the song goes out to someone whose love has transformed her and who’ll always be a part of her.

Leave (Get Out)

Get Out is the perfect song is you’re dealing with a really shady or bad ex-boyfriend who has lied or cheated on you a lot, and you just want them out of your life entirely. You don’t want to deal with any more of their negative actions or energy, and can’t believe how you fell for their lies for such a long time.