A song of forbidden love. A love song about feelings that can't be stopped.
Even though you know you shouldn’t, there are some loves you just can’t stop, aren’t there…?
This article introduces love songs about holding onto feelings you can’t let go of—romances people tell you to avoid, and that you yourself know aren’t good for you.
When you don’t know what to do, listening to a song about a similar kind of love might calm your heart a little, and maybe even bring you closer to an answer.
Try finding that one song that will support your heart.
- [Adultery Song] A forbidden song about an affair that sings of an impossible love
- [An Adulterous Love] A love song about a secret affair you can't tell anyone about
- A classic song about a forbidden love
- [Unattainable Love] A love song about two people who feel the same way but can’t be together
- [Cheating Song] A forbidden love that crossed the line — infidelity song
- "A Love Song I Can't Tell Anyone" — a love song you can relate to when times are tough
- Unattainable Love: A Heartbreaking Love Song About Falling for a Married Person
- [Unrequited Love] Heart-wrenching Love Songs | A Roundup of Tear-Inducing Crush and Breakup Tracks
- A song of forbidden love. A heartrending, sorrowful love song.
- [Empathetic & Tear-Jerking] A love song about an unrequited romance
- Bittersweet love songs to listen to when the person you like already has a girlfriend or boyfriend
- Songs that depict a teasing, suggestive attitude | Love songs to listen to when you're in unrequited love or a painful relationship
- [Love Songs] Say Goodbye to Uncertain Feelings! Love Songs to Listen to When You’re Not Sure If You Like Someone
Song of a forbidden love. Love songs about feelings that can’t be stopped (11–20)
IenaiSoala
A bittersweet, aching vocal that tightens the chest, this love song portrays the feelings of a woman who has fallen into a convenience-based relationship.
Her emotions sway between tenderness and regret, spun with delicate words.
It’s striking how she sinks deeper into uncontrollable feelings even while knowing she can’t be his number one.
Released in August 2022 and included on the album “LOVE,” the track captivates with Soala’s translucent voice and a poignant piano-driven melody.
It’s a song that resonates deeply with those struggling in love that won’t go their way—whether long-distance relationships or one-sided, convenient arrangements—offering comfort and profound empathy.
I can’t bring myself to hate (you/it).ren
A singer-songwriter representing Gen Z, Ren, sings a song about an unattainable love.
Released in September 2021 as their first original work, it portrays a painful level of fixation—unable to sever the heart even after being betrayed.
Even knowing it’s a lie, clinging to the slightest kindness conveys a desperate feeling that makes you lose yourself.
You know you’ll never be together, yet you can’t walk away on your own.
Haven’t you ever put on a brave face to cover up those feelings that have nowhere to go?
sunflowerSEKAI NO OWARI
The protagonist, who had been living in a dark world, ends up meeting “you,” someone dazzling like the sun—the beginning of a forbidden love as sung by SEKAI NO OWARI.
Listening to this song, you can feel that bittersweet thrill of knowing the person is off-limits, yet realizing thanks to them your world is starting to gain color.
Maybe it’s precisely because the melody is light and pop that it tightens your chest even more.
This track is included on the acclaimed album “Lip,” which topped the Oricon charts in February 2019.
It’s a song that gently stays with you in that helpless rush of feelings at the moment you fall in love, even when you know it won’t be returned.
distress (at sea/in the mountains); being lost; stranded; a disaster situationToukyou Jihen
When it comes to Tokyo Jihen songs that depict forbidden love, “Sounan” (Distress) comes to mind.
It’s also popular for the unique world Shinji Ringo creates, but if you look at the lyrics, they convey feelings of utter helplessness—as if the lovers had committed double suicide.
Even so, you can’t stop how you feel, and in the sense of staying true to love, perhaps that really is what it means.
It’s hard to treat meeting the one you love as a true love story without sugarcoating it or lamenting it too much, but when you listen to this song, don’t you feel, “I don’t want to regret meeting my destined person”?
codependencyDomura Riu
A work by Riu Domura that candidly portrays the fragility and pain of a mutually dependent relationship.
This song depicts the heartrending figure of someone who, even while understanding it isn’t true love, cannot bear the loneliness and continues a false relationship.
Even knowing they’re just convenient, they can’t break away from the joy of being needed.
You can’t help but empathize with the protagonist’s conflicted feelings.
Released in May 2019 on the EP “Escape,” this piece suggests that, even knowing you’ll end up alone, being unable to stop may be the inescapable reality of a forbidden love.
C.O.S.M.O.S. ~Cosmos (Autumn Cherry Blossoms)~Sandaime Jē Sōru Burazāzu fromu Eguzairu Toraibu
The lyrics express the sorrow and pain of a woman and a man who, despite being in love, cannot be together, as the woman can’t stop the impulse of falling for someone she shouldn’t love.
It’s a profoundly heartrending song that captures the complex emotions of both as they struggle between their feelings and an inescapable reality.
Songs of forbidden love: love songs about unstoppable feelings (21–30)
No PromiseChara
A song by Chara that portrays the aching feelings of a woman torn by a relationship without promises.
She longs to hold on to someone who seems about to leave, yet she can’t secure any promise for the future.
That inner conflict is delicately rendered in a whisper-like vocal.
Featured on the album “Soul Kiss,” released in July 1992, the song captures the frustration of being unable to stop loving someone—knowing it won’t be reciprocated, yet unable to let go—which perhaps only those who’ve experienced it can truly understand.
A love in which only one person suffers is something that, at some point, we probably ought to bring to an end.