![[2026] Anti-war songs in Western music. Songs that wish for peace.](https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/k6P1SKufqzA/maxresdefault.webp)
[2026] Anti-war songs in Western music. Songs that wish for peace.
As of 2026, there is still no sign of a resolution to the situation in Ukraine, and since October 2023, armed clashes between Israel and Gaza have broken out, plunging the world into continued turmoil.
More recently, new fighting engulfing the entire Middle East has intensified, with the United States and Israel carrying out large-scale airstrikes on military and political targets inside Iran.
In this article, we’ve compiled a selection of overseas anti-war songs that will move listeners emotionally—precisely the kind of music we want you to hear in times like these—spanning different eras and genres.
Please listen while checking the parallel translations and such—the messages each artist has imbued in their work, from heartfelt wishes for peace to, at times, stern denunciations of those in power.
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[2026] Anti-war songs in Western music. Songs wishing for peace (1–10)
Hind’s HallMacklemore
An unapologetically direct track that doesn’t hide its anger at those in power.
Released in May 2024 by American rapper Macklemore, the song stands in solidarity with campus protests and bears the name of a six-year-old girl killed by the Israeli military.
Its scathing critique of a music industry that looks the other way pierces the listener’s heart.
Pledging to donate all proceeds—and praised by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello—the song makes it feel as if you can hear his voice saying, “Silence is complicity.” It compels deep reflection on how we should confront injustice in the world.
Over JerusalemJethro Tull
How can we break a 5,000-year chain of intolerance and reprisal? Posing that very question, this track appears on Curious Ruminant, the album released in March 2025 by British stalwarts Jethro Tull, famed for their distinctive, flute-driven sound.
Within a grand sonic tapestry woven from progressive rock and folk, the work portrays the tragic history borne by the land of Jerusalem.
Drawing on the central figure’s repeated visits to the region since 1986, it conveys what feels like a searing cry for peace.
Paired with an animated video crafted by a Portuguese studio, it’s a piece to hear when you want to face the weight of history.
War Isn’t MurderJesse Welles
Jesse Wells, a modern troubadour who emerged from social media, hails from the United States.
Released in April 2024, this work hurls piercing questions with nothing more than a gravelly voice and an acoustic guitar.
It confronts the reality that the word “murder” is being hollowed out by the lofty justifications brandished by those in power.
I can’t shake the feeling that his singing, asking “Isn’t this murder?” strikes directly at the heart.
This piece, which drew attention for his performance at Farm Aid, is also included on the album Under The Powerlines (April 24 – September 24).
It’s a song I especially want people to hear who ache over events in distant countries and are tormented by a sense of helplessness.
Its rugged resonance reveals an unvarnished truth.
War is a GodJesse Welles
Jesse Wells, a singer-songwriter from Arkansas who is often called the conscience of modern America.
In 2024, he was chosen as Saving Country Music’s inaugural Songwriter of the Year, a testament to his widely acclaimed talent.
Woven into this work is a searing question: Why must those who believe in the same God kill one another over a single interpretation of scripture? The words, carried by a quiet guitar, come across as a stern indictment of people who persist in conflict.
This piece is a track from the album “Middle,” set for release in February 2025.
When you feel the emptiness of consuming distant wars as mere information, why not listen to his voice and consider what we can do?
Funeral for JusticeMdou Moctar
Mdou Moctar, a guitarist from Niger known as the “Hendrix of the Sahara.” The title track from his band’s May 2024 album, Funeral for Justice, is a scathing indictment of a world where injustice prevails.
Confronting the exploitation and inequality facing his homeland, he describes his guitar as a “cry for help.” His playing slices through our indifference like a siren.
Although the song was created before the 2023 coup, the hardships the band endured afterward lend it an even greater sense of urgency.
Listening to this work, you realize you can’t look away and dismiss it as a distant country’s tragedy.
Will you lend an ear to the sound of his soul—fiery music that pleads for peace?
Deira (ft. MC Abdul)Saint Levant
This work transforms the memory of a lost homeland into an unwavering will to resist, sung with powerful conviction.
Sun Levan, an artist with Palestinian roots, poured into this piece the sorrow of seeing the hotel in Gaza where he spent his childhood destroyed in a January 2024 attack.
“I won’t forget the place my father built, where I spent the best times of my life”—his poignant resolve comes through clearly.
Standing alongside fellow Gaza-born young rapper MC Abdul, he voices love for his homeland and a plea for liberation—an appeal that will deeply move those of us living in peace.
The track is featured on his debut album “Deira,” released in June 2024.
Rather than looking away as if it were a distant country’s story, why not listen to the cry of their souls?
من النهر (From the River)Ethel Cain
This is a song by American singer-songwriter Ethel Cain, created as a prayer for the people of Palestine.
Composed solely of tranquil piano and her ethereal vocals, the piece runs for about nine and a half minutes.
It was made during the production of her experimental EP “Perverts,” and mourns lives silently extinguished in a distant land; the repeated phrase “Please don’t forget me” resonates with piercing poignancy.
In February 2024, shaken by the loss of more than 30,000 Palestinian lives—especially the airstrikes on Rafah—she released the track imbued with a quiet anger toward the world.
It feels as if it implores those of us who might otherwise consume the tragedy of a far-off country as mere information to never forget the reality of what is happening.