Song Lyrics Inspired by Celebrity Breakups
From John Mayer and Taylor Swift to Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, Us Weekly is revising the most famous song lyrics inspired by celebrity breakups.
Swift, for her part, has always been open about her writing about her ex-boyfriends.
“If guys don’t want me to write bad songs about them, they shouldn’t do bad things,” the Grammy winner infamously quipped in 2009.
Following high-profile romances with Mayer, Joe Jonas, Harry Styles, Calvin Harris, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Hiddleston, Swift settled down with boyfriend Joe Alwyn. As a result, she started finding inspiration from other people’s relationships.
“I found myself not only writing my own stories, but also writing about or from the perspective of people I’ve never met, people I’ve known, or those I wish I hadn’t,” Swift explained in the album notes of her eighth studio album, Folklore, in 2020. “Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history and memory. I’d told these stories to the best of my ability with all the love, wonder and whimsey they deserve.”
The “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” songstress’ bestie Selena Gomez, meanwhile, took a page from Swift’s playbook in 2019, scoring her first No. 1 hit with a song inspired by her on-again, off-again romance with Justin Bieber.
“I gave my all and they all know it / Then you tore me down and now it’s showing / In two months, you replaced us / Like it was easy,” Gomez sings in “Lose You to Love Me,” referring to Bieber’s marriage to Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin).
After the song dropped, a source confirmed to Us that Gomez’s rocky romance with Bieber inspired the track.
“Although the song ‘Lose You to Love Me’ was cowritten and a collaboration, Selena was very involved in writing and creating it, and the song is obviously about Justin,” a source told Us at the time. “The song was inspired by Selena’s breakup from Justin, but it would be incorrect to say it’s totally about Justin.” It’s actually about finally being able to love yourself and moving on from a toxic relationship.”
Scroll through for more song lyrics inspired by famous splits:
Lovato dropped a new track titled “Still Have Me” as her messy split from her former fiancé played out in the press in September 2020.
“Everything around me shattered / All the highs are now just low / But it doesn't even matter / ‘Cause I'd rather be alone,” she sings.
The lyrics to the chorus read, “I don't have much but at least I still have me (I still have me) / And that's all I need / So take my faith but at least I still believe (I still believe) / And that's all I need / I don't have much but at least I still have me.”
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Gomez dropped her single "Lose You to Love Me," which included lyrics that fans speculated were inspired by her relationship with Bieber, in October 2019. In one lyric she sings, “Set fire to my purpose and I let it burn,” which could be a nod to Bieber's 2015 album, Purpose. Later she belts out, “In two months, you replaced us / Like it was easy." Bieber and Gomez split in March 2018, just three months before the "Sorry" singer was linked to his now-wife, Hailey.
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Perry, who dated McCoy from 2006 to 2008, penned the song "Circle the Drain" in 2010 about a drug-addicted ex-boyfriend. "You fall asleep during foreplay/ 'Cause the pills you take are more your forte," she croons. "I'm not sticking around to watch you go down / Wanna be your lover/ Not your f---ing mother." The former Gym Class Heroes frontman battled an addiction to pharmaceutical drugs while dating Perry.
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Big Sean revealed that his 2014 single "I Don't F--k With You" was inspired by his ex-fiancée in an interview with Complex in January 2015. "And every day I wake up celebrating s--t, why? / Cause I just dodged a bullet from a crazy bitch," Big Sean raps on the track. "I don't f--k with you/ You lil' stupid ass bitch, I ain't f--kin' with you."
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Swift's brief relationship with Jonas from July 2008 to October 2008 was the inspiration behind her 2008 song "Forever & Always." Swift admitted on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in November 2012 that the track was a last-minute addition to her album Fearless. The Grammy winner also shared that Jonas "broke up with me over the phone in 25 seconds when I was 18." The lyrics, "Was I out of line?/ Did I say something way too honest, made you run and hide/ Like a scared little boy," hint at their sudden breakup.
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Edwards appeared to take aim at her ex-fiancé in the lyrics for Little Mix's song "Shout Out to My Ex." She calls out her four-year relationship with Malik in the lyrics, "I hope she gettin' better sex / Hope she ain't fakin' it like I did, babe / Took four long years to call it quits / Forget that boy, I'm over it." Edwards and the "Pillowtalk" singer began dating in 2011 before calling off their engagement in 2015. Later that year, Malik began dating Gigi Hadid.
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Thicke and Patton dated for more than a decade before tying the knot in 2005 but the former couple split in 2014. The singer attempted to make amends with Patton later that year by devoting an entire album to her, titled "Paula." The lead single, "Get Her Back," included the lyrics, "I never should have raised my voice / Or made you feel so small / I never should have asked you to do anything at all / I should have kissed you longer / I should have held you stronger."
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Cyrus dropped “Slide Away” in August 2019, just six days after announcing her breakup from her husband of less than a year. “Once upon a time, it was made for us / Woke up one day, it had turned to dust / Baby, we were found, but now we’re lost / So it’s time to let it go,” she sings. “I want my house in the hills / Don’t want the whiskey and pills.”
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Shortly after the pair called it quits on their four-month engagement in October 2018, Grande released the breakup song of the year titled “Thank U, Next.” In the tune, Grande also referenced exes Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez and the late Mac Miller with lyrics that read: “Thought I’d end up with Sean / But he wasn’t a match / Wrote some songs about Ricky / Now I listen and laugh / Even almost got married / And for Pete, I’m so thankful / Wish I could say ‘thank you’ to Malcolm / ‘Cause he was an angel.”
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Bieber revealed to Ellen DeGeneres in 2015 that three of the songs on his album Purpose — "Sorry," "What Do You Mean?" and "Mark My Words" — are about his on-off relationship with Gomez. "There's a lot of stuff that reminds me of her," he said. "Sorry" includes the lyrics, "I'll take every single piece of the blame if you want me to / But you know that there is no innocent one in this game for two."
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Swift's "Dear John" is widely believed to be about Mayer, whom she dated from November 2009 to February 2010. "Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?" she asks in the tune. He later told Rolling Stone, "I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do."
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Stefani released "Used to Love You" in 2015 after her split from husband Gavin Rossdale. She told Ryan Seacrest at the time that she "cried the whole night" when the song came out, adding that the lyrics "came out of something so horrible." In the song, she sings, "I thought I was the best thing that ever happened to you / I thought you loved me the most."
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Rihanna told Vogue in 2010 that her song "Cold Case Love" is about her tumultuous relationship with ex Brown, saying, "It's a song that everybody wanted to hear, everything that I didn't say for the past eight months, exactly how I felt about that relationship and how I feel about it now – that song says it all." The lyrics reference Brown's 2009 arrest for assaulting his then-girlfriend: "What you did to me was a crime."
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Perry wrote "Part of Me" before she had even met Brand, but she updated the lyrics after their 2012 divorce. "You can keep the diamond ring / It don't mean nothing anyway," she sings. "In fact you can keep everything / Yeah, except for me."
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Soon after the pop stars ended their romance in 2002, Timberlake released "Cry Me a River," a song many fans believe to be about Spears. The music video even featured a Spears lookalike. A year later, she responded with "Everytime," her own heartbreaking take on their relationship. "My weakness caused you pain / And this song is my sorry," she sings.
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Fleetwood Mac's "Silver Springs," a song written for the group's 1976 album Rumours but relegated to a B-side, was written by Nicks after her separation from bandmate Buckingham. The song got a second life in 1997 when she faced her ex-flame during a reunion show and sang the wrenching lyrics, "Time cast a spell on you, but you won't forget me / I know I could have loved you, but you would not let me."
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Swift wasn't shy about admitting that her aptly-titled song "Style" is about the former One Direction singer, whom she briefly dated in 2013. "We should've just called it 'I'm Not Even Sorry,'" she told Rolling Stone in 2014 of the track, which includes the lyric, "You've got that long hair, slicked back, white T-shirt."
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Pink wrote "So What" in 2008 about her split from husband Hart. They later reconciled their marriage and he even appeared in the music video. "I guess I just lost my husband / I don't know where he went," the song begins.
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Four decades after releasing "You're So Vain" in 1972, Simon finally admitted that the second verse is about her ex-boyfriend Beatty. The lyrics include, "You had me several years ago when I was still quite naïve / Well, you said that we made such a pretty pair / And that you would never leave / But you gave away the things you loved and one of them was me."
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Swift's brief 2010 romance with Gyllenhaal is thought to have inspired her song "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," in which she intones, "He calls me up and he's like, 'I still love you,' and I'm like, 'This is exhausting, you know? Like, we are never getting back together. Like, ever.'"
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Mayer confessed that his 2017 song "Still Feel Like Your Man" is about his relationship with Perry, whom he dated on and off for a year and a half until 2014. "Who else would I be thinking about?" he told The New York Times when asked about the rumors, noting that he hadn't "dated a lot of people in the last five, six years." The song's lyrics include, "I still keep your shampoo in my shower / In case you wanna wash your hair."
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