[Unrequited Love] Heart-wrenching Love Songs | A Roundup of Tear-Inducing Crush and Breakup Tracks
“Even though I know it won’t be rewarded…” Once you fall in love, it’s not so easy to stop your feelings, is it?
You tell yourself you can’t go on like this, that you have to end it, but when you see them, you just can’t hold back your love.
In this article, we introduce love songs that portray the pain of unrequited love and lay bare those unspoken feelings.
Listen to them when you’re tired of loving.
They’ll gently wrap around you, saying, “It’s tough, I know.”
- Unrequited Love Song: A heartrending love song dedicated to you who are going through a painful romance
- [Adultery Song] A forbidden song about an affair that sings of an impossible love
- [Unattainable Love] A love song about two people who feel the same way but can’t be together
- Bittersweet love songs to listen to when the person you like already has a girlfriend or boyfriend
- Tear-jerking unrequited love songs that will break your heart: timeless classics about unattainable love
- Unattainable Love: A Heartbreaking Love Song About Falling for a Married Person
- “I Want to See You”: A love song that makes you cry when you listen to it while you can’t meet
- Songs that depict a teasing, suggestive attitude | Love songs to listen to when you're in unrequited love or a painful relationship
- [Today's Unrequited Love Song] Guaranteed to Make Your Heart Flutter! A Sweet and Bittersweet Love Song
- A heart-wrenching story that tightens the chest! A Showa-era unrequited love song
- [To Those in Love] Relatable Love Songs to Listen to When You’re Crushing Hard
- A classic song about a forbidden love
- A song of forbidden love. A love song about feelings that can't be stopped.
[Unrequited Love] Heart-wrenching Love Songs | A Comprehensive Introduction to Tear-Jerking Crush & Heartbreak Songs (91–100)
HYSong for…
A song by HY that sings of the ache of not being able to have that simple, obvious kind of love—falling for each other, liking each other, and being together.
It’s a heartbreak anthem cherished by many fans, who say it “tightens the chest” and is “impossible not to relate to.” The honest feeling of just wanting to see the person you love ends up hurting someone, making it a forbidden love.
Even though you were supposed to have met by fate, you can’t be together—the true pain of that might be something only those who’ve been through it can really understand.
petalback number
A heartbreaking breakup song that overlays the fleeting memories of love with cherry blossom petals.
The lyrics delicately portray how memories with a lover linger everywhere in the city, turning even everyday scenes into amplifiers of pain.
While still holding on to love, the reality is that they will never meet again.
This song carries a message that gently embraces that hurt.
Released in April 2011, it was featured as the ending theme for JAPAN COUNTDOWN.
It is sure to resonate deeply with anyone who has experienced a painful romance.
[Unrequited Love] Heartbreaking Love Songs | A Roundup of Tear-Jerking Crush & Breakup Tracks (101–110)
I don’t want to see you; I want to see you.Ueno Yūka
A ballad by Yuuka Ueno that sets painfully bittersweet scenes of heartbreak—so vivid they make your chest ache just remembering—against a simple, piano-led melody.
Six months after the breakup, the protagonist’s heart is still tangled in conflicting emotions born from being unable to forget their former lover: aching to see them, yet not wanting to.
Included on the January 2019 album “Sukina Hito wa Anata datta” (“You Were the One I Loved”), this song is sure to resonate deeply with anyone who has gone through a breakup and still hasn’t sorted out their feelings.
When they suddenly come to mind in a quiet moment, why not listen to this track and face your true feelings?
SoulmateFujita Maiko
The song chosen as the theme for the PlayStation 2 game “Soguro no Kagi: Hiiro no Kakera 3” is Maiko Fujita’s “Unmei no Hito” (The One Fated for Me).
Its lyrics, which poignantly portray a woman whose feelings only deepen for someone she cannot be with, are truly heartrending.
It was included on the 2009 album “BEST ALBUM ~Hiiro no Kakera~,” and later featured on the 2021 album “15th Anniversary Hikigatari Best,” a collection selected based on fan requests.
NAOHY
This song, included on HY’s fourth album, “Confidence,” portrays an unrequited love you can’t give up on even when you know it won’t come true.
It’s especially popular among young women.
With a beautiful, grand gospel chorus, Izumi Nakasone delivers a stunning vocal performance.
FortuneNakasone Izumi (HY)
This is “Fortune,” sung by Izumi Nakasone of HY, who has released many songs with heartrending lyrics that resonate deeply.
Sometimes we’re convinced we’ve encountered a fated meeting, only for it to end up one-sided.
Even so…
this sorrowful ballad expresses those feelings in simple, honest words.
Every single phrase is so poignant it pierces the heart and brings you to tears.
When you’re a little tired of a love that consists only of thinking about the other person, let yourself be carried by this song.
You are a cigarette; I am a soap bubble.Lovely Summer Chan
A melancholic guitar-pop song by Lovely Summer Chan that delicately depicts the end of a bittersweet love.
Featured on her major-label debut album “LSC,” released in November 2016, the track expresses the faint feelings for someone out of reach and the fragility of having no choice but to accept it.
Through the contrast between “cigarettes,” a symbol of adulthood, and “soap bubbles,” which vanish in an instant, it strikingly portrays the distance between two people who can never truly meet.
It’s a highly relatable song that offers comfort to those who strive to move forward even while suffering from an unrequited love.