[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.”
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- [Unattainable Love] A love song about two people who feel the same way but can’t be together
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- 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] Heartbreaking Love Songs | A Comprehensive Introduction to Tear-Jerking Crush & Breakup Songs (161–170)
wishsumika
A love where you have to step back precisely because you care deeply about that person… just imagining it makes your heart ache, doesn’t it? This is a song by the pop-rock band sumika, released in 2019 as their ninth single.
The eyes of the one you love aren’t following you, but someone else.
And so, wishing for their happiness, you decide to walk away.
With lyrics that paint a vivid story and strike a chord, it’s a winter heartbreak song.
Love StoryAmuro Namie
I’m very much in love, but we can’t be together.
Even so, I love them so much I can’t truly forget… This song captures those complicated feelings of a woman, along with the resolve to keep moving forward with strength.
It’s a mature love ballad—poignant, yet filled with a woman’s strong determination.
PuzzleBAND-MAID
A connection that felt like destiny, yet a relationship that could never be.
This BAND-MAID song portrays the struggle of a forbidden love.
The way the narrator tells themselves it’s okay not to be someone special to the other person may resonate painfully with anyone in an unrequited love.
These helpless emotions are sung with delicacy over powerful beats and a passionate sound.
The track is included on the album “Just Bring It,” released in January 2017.
Even knowing it won’t be reciprocated, the feelings won’t stop—this is a work that stays close to that complex state of mind.
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.
nightSakamoto Maaya
This is a song by Maaya Sakamoto that evokes the protagonist’s aching emotions in a room after their lover has gone home.
Even as they desperately try to grasp the lingering fragrance of those happy moments, the memories slip through their fingers and vanish.
That elusive, fleeting quality seems to symbolize the poignancy of a forbidden love, making a deep impression.
The track is included on the acclaimed 2003 December release “Shōnen Alice.” Created during a period when Maaya Sakamoto was honing her expressive power as a stage actor, her vocals here exquisitely portray delicate emotions.
If you’re troubled by a relationship you can’t tell anyone about and find yourself savoring the loneliness of a solitary night, you’ll surely resonate with the protagonist’s solitary heart.
Asking for the impossibleJohn Darling
“Naimononedari” is a heart-wrenching song whose music video tells the story of a woman who is set to marry tomorrow, only to run into an unforgettable former lover the day before.
The lyrics convey her turmoil as she wavers between the reality of getting married and the love she can’t let go of.
She wants to run back to him, but puts on a brave face, telling herself, “I wouldn’t be happy even if I were with him.” At the same time, you can feel her aching desire to think of him just for now.
It’s truly a song that portrays an unattainable love.
The lyrics and music were written by Yohei Hashiguchi of wacci, also known for the hit song “I Became Someone Else’s Girlfriend.”
Street Loveindigo la End
No matter how much you love someone, it won’t come true; even if you tell yourself to forget, the memories that remain won’t let you.
Torikoi is a song that writhes in the anguish between unresolved feelings for a love that has already passed and the irrepressible longing that insists you still love them.
It’s a track included on indigo la End’s 2019 album Watashi Shōsetsu, Growing Wet.
The opening lyrics subtly suggest an affair.
For those harboring feelings they can’t tell anyone about, or suffering from a love they can’t forget, this song feels packed with emotions they want to let out but just can’t.