18 Songs About Getting Your Ex Back
Some relationships leave a mark in your life and later once they are over, you can get the desire to go back to the person you were with. While there can be valid reasons for wanting to rekindle a relationship with an ex, it’s essential to approach the decision with careful consideration. Below is a list of songs that talk about trying to get your ex back.
1. Trey Songz – Song Goes Off
The single is from his album Tremaine (2017). In it, Trey runs into his ex while in the club and reveals they have not seen each other for a long time so he won’t just let her walk off. He feels there is a reason why he just bumped into her since the chances were highly unlikely. Now all the feelings he had bottled up inside start coming back and he starts sharing how he had been lost without her. He also persuades her to spill her emotions before the moment is lost.
2. Katy Perry – Never Really Over
This is her second collab with Zedd and it is part of the album Witness. Lyrically, it talks about the end of a relationship and the possibility that the couple may end up getting back together with the possibility of it falling apart again.
It is possibly about her on-and-off relationship with Orlando Bloom. The two got engaged on Valentine’s Day 2019.
3. Ed Sheeran – Lego House
Ed uses the Lego metaphor by saying a strong house is built through trial and error. Once you learn from your mistakes, you get better at creating something that works. This lesson can be applied to relationships whereby there will be good and bad times. However, instead of just giving up we should try and work it out plus be supportive of each other.
4. Taylor Swift – How You Get The Girl
The song was advice to a guy who wants to get a girl back. She suggests better tactics than the ones her former lovers seemed to have used on her. It is rumored to be about the on-and-off relationship between Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. In an interview with radio.com, Taylor had this to say about the track:
The song ‘How You Get the Girl’ is a song that I wrote about how you get the girl back if you ruined the relationship somehow and she won’t talk to you anymore. Like, if you broke up with her and left her on her own for six months and then you realize you miss her. All the steps you have to do to edge your way back into her life, because she’s probably pretty mad at you. So it’s kind of a tutorial. If you follow the directions in the song, chances are things will work out. Or you may get a restraining order
5. Mariah Carey – We Belong Together
This is a single from the album The Emancipation Of Mimi. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard charts for 14 weeks making it the second-longest running #1 at that time. In her music video, she starred popular Prison Break star Wentworth Miller.
Lyrically, Mariah sings about having deep regret after letting go of her significant other. She realizes that no one out there could match up to him and she feels she has no one to lean on. She is begging him to take her back since she believes they belong together.
6. Taylor Swift – I Wish You Would
Taylor Swift stated on her Tumblr blog that she wrote this song a couple of months after she and Harry Styles had broken up and decided to become friends again. This was the first time she had become friends with an ex to the point where they were comfortable enough to talk about why the relationship didn’t work out.
Harry told her that he bought a house one road adjacent to hers right after they broke up. He was tempted many times to stop at her house and see her but he never did. This song was inspired by this incident. It is about while he was in the car making the decision to get out of the car and see her, she was sitting in her bedroom wishing he would make the move and go back to her.
7. Taylor Swift – Come Back Be Here
Taylor Swift wrote about this guy she met and they started seeing each other. Then suddenly he had to go away hence they were in a long-distance relationship. She wanted him to get back to her.
The song is speculated to be about Harry Styles from One Direction.
8. Ellie Goulding – Goodness Gracious
This track is about someone who keeps going back to their ex because they are desperately in love even though the on/off relationship is toxic and doomed to fail. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she had this to say about the song:
I’ve been in situations where I knew someone wasn’t right for me, yet I kept bringing them back. The song is about dissing yourself for not thinking straight and not being fair.
9. John Newman – Love Me Again
John asks his lover to take him back after a massive mistake on his part. He broke the woman’s heart and is reflecting upon it. He had done a number of terrible things to her emotionally and felt as though he had corrupted the innocent person she once was with his actions.
John misses her and wants to push himself to become a better person worthy of being her companion again.
10. Toni Braxton – Unbreak My Heart
Even though Toni didn’t like this song too much it ended up winning her a Grammy Award for “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance” in 1997. She had some disliking for the track because she didn’t want another “heartbreak track”. However, it peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for 11 weeks.
Lyrically, Toni begs her ex-lover to take her back so as to end the pain she is feeling inside after their breakup. She feels that joy has left her life and life has become cruel without him beside her.
11. Jason Derulo – Whatcha Say
The song is primarily an apology song about a man who cheated on his girl and now feels sorry after getting caught. He begs his girlfriend to give him another chance and he promises to do anything for her. Jason Derulo revealed that he drew inspiration from his brother’s real-life experience:
Basically, my brother called me one day and said, ‘I cheated on my girl, but I love her so much and I hope she’ll give me one more shot’. I found his story really compelling, so I just went into the studio and tried it out. You know, people go through that kind of thing every day, which is why the song is so relatable. She did take my brother back though and they’re actually engaged now, so it all worked out good in the end.”
12. Selena Gomez – Back To You
This is an upbeat track where Selena sings her heart out and expresses her love for her ex-lover. She is ready to get back to him even though he may hurt her once again.
The chorus of the track is a reference to Selena Gomez’ relationship with Justin Bieber and hers with The Weeknd. She dated the Weeknd for a couple of months and then was later spotted with Justin.
13. Chris Brown – Crawl
The song is about a relationship that is in shambles. Chris wants them not to rush anything as they try and fix what is broken. He begins by going back to the basics of his relationship with this girl starting with the bare essentials it takes for it to grow until they are ready to take it to the next level.
Chris Brown stated that the song is not about his ex-girlfriend Rihanna or any of his previous relationships.
14. Zayn – Better
This is the lead single from his third studio album Nobody Is Listening. It gives hints to his then ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid asking her to give their relationship a second chance and find a way back to love.
15. Ed Sheeran – One
This is the first track that Ed Sheeran wrote for the album Multiply and is the last one about the subject person in the album. In it, he asks her whether she turned down the new man who asked for her hand hoping that instead she is waiting for him. He is having a hard time moving on, unlike his friends.
16. Charlie Puth feat Selena Gomez – We Don’t Talk Anymore
This is a love duet where there is regret after a breakup. Both exes think the other has moved on but since they don’t talk much anymore they don’t know how much they still think about each other. During an interview with MTV Charlie Puth had this to say about how he came up with the idea of the song:
I remember a conversation I had had with my friend: He had just broken up with this girl, and I was like, “So, are you going to talk to her anymore?” And he was like, “Nah, we don’t talk anymore.” I was trying to cheer him up, so I did a dumb little face, and I was like, [singing] “We don’t talk anymore.” I was just trying to cheer him up, but it became a cool melody, and I realized that this guitar beat fit perfectly over it.
17. Miley Cyrus – 7 Things
In her book Miles To Go, Miley Cyrus revealed that she wrote this song while on her tour bus right after she broke up with Nick Jonas. She had so much anger in her that she wanted to punish him but in the end, she knew she would never hate him and thus ended up listing the things she liked about him instead.
18. Gary Barlow – Back For Good
In this track, Gary tries to take back the words that he said to his ex stating that he didn’t mean it. He just wants to win her back for good. While they were separated, she moved on quite well and now Gary wonders whether she still has room for him.