20 Songs About Your Ex Moving On
When an ex-partner moves on to a different relationship it can be quite hurtful if you are not really over them. If you are in such a situation here is a list of songs about your ex moving on that you can resonate with:
1. Ed Sheeran – Way To Break My Heart
In the song, Ed sings about how deeply he is in love with someone and how being away from her breaks his heart. He reveals that she broke up with him as she was dating someone else. He starts asking if he is the one to blame for her leaving the relationship.
2. Ed Sheeran – Happier
The track describes Ed’s mindset after learning that a girl he broke up with has already found a new man. In an interview, he explained that this song is him reflecting on his first girlfriend and meeting the man she’s now with years later. He came to the realization that she looked a lot happier than when she was with him since the new man is more suited to her than he ever was and they were never as happy.
In the track, Ed shares the ups and downs of his previous relationship. He tries to show maturity by wanting her to stay with him since he recognizes their relationship is toxic at times and doesn’t blame her for wanting to be with someone else.
3. Drake – Marvin’s Room
The title of the song is a reference to Marvin Gaye’s studio which is popularly known as Marvin’s Room. It is where Drake recorded the track.
In the song, we see Drake deciding to call his ex while drunk to vent the feelings he still has for her. He shares how lonely he is, how in love he is still with her, reminisces the times they had and goes further to try to get her to leave her new man.
4. Ne-Yo – Do You
Ne-Yo reminisces about an ex and he is torn by the way things ended. He writes a letter to state how he feels about how everything ended even though she has moved on. He reaches out to his ex because the thoughts of her have been weighing heavily on him. He wants to get some form of closure by telling her that he has not stopped thinking about her.
Ne-Yo’s ex has already moved and is engaged to someone else. The two just had a baby girl. Ne-Yo makes it clear that he doesn’t want to cause any trouble between the two of them.
5. Demi Lovato – Stone Cold
The track is from the album Confident (2015) and lyrically it is about her wishing her ex the best in another relationship but deep down she reveals she is struggling with it. “Stone Cold” is a metaphor for numb emotions. Demi is still bitter about her heartbreak and feels cold towards him as he enjoys the new relationship with another woman. She tries to be happy for him but she is still hurting.
6. Camilo Cabello – Cry For Me
The song is about a situation where a couple breaks up and one moves on sooner than expected. The other is left to wonder why it didn’t take that long. Camila stated this about how she came up with the song:
I wrote a song back when I was 16 called I’m pissed off you’re happy, about a situation where someone and I broke up and sooner than I expected, they moved on, they were having fun and happy and dating and i was just like…. what the hell, that didn’t take very long 🤬🤬🤬🤬 I took that idea and put it into this song, the feeling nobody likes to admit about feeling wild with jealousy.
7. Adele – Someone Like You
The track speaks of Adele coming to terms with the end of a broken relationship and wishes him the best in his next relationship. Adele stated this about the lyrics:
I guess what inspired this lyric was similar to what I said earlier, about how you can go from loving someone to really hating them and despising them. I never felt like that, really, I know it probably seems like I did with that 21 album, but actually it wasn’t, I had the best time for a couple of years and I was really grateful that we’d come into each other’s lives, and I was just sad that we couldn’t really be friends anymore, ‘cause that was why we were together, it was because we got on so well. I could definitely write a lyric like this at this point in my life [2022] of being more mature and things like that if anything weren’t to last, so I relate to it.
8. Adele – Send My Love
This is an upbeat record directed towards the guy Adele dated between the album 21 and her ex-husband Simon Konecki. She asks him to treat her new lover better than he treated her. They are both grownups and should be able to get over an ended relationship. She is no longer angry about anything that happened between them and feels like she has been set free.
9. Cher Lloyd – Want You Back
The song is off Cher’s debut studio album Sticks and Stones.
10. The Chainsmokers – P.S I Hope You Are Happy
The track is about a person reminiscing over a relationship that they haven’t moved on from. However, he still wishes his ex the best future with her new boyfriend.
11. Ed Sheeran – New Man
Ed goes ahead and gives his initial thoughts on his most recent ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend and how she’s changed because of him. She isn’t satisfied and ends up looking for love in other places including with Ed.
12. Paula De Anda – Walk Away
This is one of Paula’s biggest songs and it ended up peaking at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100, #4 on Billboard’s Top 40 Mainstream chart and #10 on the Billboard Pop 100.
Lyrically, Paula compares her ex’s new girlfriend to herself in terms of the things they do for him. She tells him that even though his new girlfriend is very attractive she would never match up to her.
13. Taylor Swift – Exile
The song describes two ex-lovers seeing each other after a break-up. Justin describes feelings of confusion about how quickly his ex moved on. On the other hand, Taylor offers a perspective about the red flags in the relationship that indicated it was no longer working. She had this to say about the story behind the song:
‘exile’ is a song that was written about miscommunications in relationships, and in the case of this song, I imagined that the miscommunications ended the relationship. They led to the demise of this love affair, and now these two people are seeing each other out for the first time, and they keep miscommunicating with each other. They can’t quite get on the same page, they never were able to. And even in their end, even after they’ve broken up, they’re still not hearing each other. So we imagined the beginning would be his side of the story, the second verse her side of the story, and the end would be the story of them talking over each other and not hearing each other. We’re really stoked about how it turned out because it really does seem to be about the tragedy of two people, of two ships passing in the night.
14. Olivia Rodrigo – Deja Vu
In the track, Olivia questions the authenticity of her ex’s new relationship and pities the new girl since she hasn’t experienced anything unique with her new boyfriend. In the music video, Olivia is spying on the new woman and copying her life by wearing nearly identical clothing and traveling to the same locations. The woman makes it known that she is aware of her stalking and taunts her.
15. Olivia Rodrigo – Drivers License
This is the first single on Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album SOUR. Her ex-boyfriend Joshua Bassett is the main subject of the song and the album. He broke up with her and shortly started dating Sabrina Carpenter. Olivia stated that the heartbreak was so confusing to her.
Joshua helped Olivia learn how to drive when they were still dating. In the track, Olivia denies that he could actually love someone else so quickly.
16. Lukas Graham – Happy For You
17. Olivia Rodrigo – Happier
Olivia wishes the best for an ex-lover and their new relationship but on the other hand, hopes to remain a significant memory in their life. She openly admits that she is selfish and won’t ever let him go. Even if he found someone new, she wishes that they were not as happy as compared to when he was with her.
Olivia wants him to know that even though she is letting him go, she wants him to remember that she was the best he could ever get. She reminds him of all the sweet things he is telling his new girl, he told her first.
18. Olivia Rodrigo – Good For You
Olivia addresses her former partner for quickly moving on from their relationship without much of an issue or any care towards her at all. In a previous song, she mentioned that it took two weeks to go off and date the new girl and this made her suspicious of him cheating.
19. Justin Bieber – That Should Be Me
The song was written by Justin Bieber alongside Luke Boyd and Nasri Atweh and Adam Messinger. He sings about regretting losing his ex-girlfriend who has moved on to someone else. He now wishes that he was in his place doing all the things they were doing together.
The song was certified platinum by the RIAA on June 29, 2020.
20. Sabrina Carpenter – Taste
The song talks about a girl who has rekindled her relationship with Sabrina’s ex-boyfriend. Sabrina claims that over the time they were together she was responsible for his improvement and her physical impact will remain evident. In an interview with Kiss 108, Sabrina had this to say about the song:
So, ‘Taste’ is one of my favorite songs off the album and it says a lot about me and a lot about other people. I think it’s sort of poking fun of myself a little bit for my mistakes and also poking fun at the, kind of like, facepalm that is life and relationship and the, sort of, situations that it puts you in, um, and it’s just making lighthearted fun at the whole concept of, you know, people that you’ve been with moving on to other people, and, you know, I think it’s a very human thing but it’s certainly fun.