39 Songs About Divorce (Sad, Angry, Happy & More)

Filed Under: Life Songs

Unfortunately, divorce can lead to many more than just two hearts breaking. Often it isn’t just the end of a relationship between partners but a split between homes for their kids. Divorce can be painful for many reasons, but it is clear that it has been the inspiration for many more songs.

I. Sad

These are the ballads to sit in the shower with all your clothes on cry it out, whether you were the child of divorce or one of the partners. Divorce is a difficult road to walk and often leaves cuts on one’s feet.

1) Piece by piece

There is no doubt that if you’re a child of divorce, this song will bring you to tears. Clarkson wrote the ballad to her father about how she will be a far better parent because she knows what not to do.

2) Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)

3) Sad Dream

It’s easy to forget how many kids are affected by divorce. Even easier to turn a blind eye to the pain they all face. The sad dream illustrates what it’s like to witness your parents’ relationship crumble before you.

4) Love Me Wrong

Love Me Wrong is a song written about abuse that kids are told is ‘for their own good’ or ‘because their parent loves them.’ Both Allie X and Troye Sivan dive into what that ‘love’ feels like. It’s brutal.

5) Time

II. Angry

There are Divorce songs about the relief of toxic relationships and parents and ones that anger toxicity creates. Songs about hurt children and spouses, and they don’t hold their punches.

1) Numb

Linkin Park is notorious for being a band that caters to the outcasts. Numb is about parents that force their children into lives they don’t want to live and how you’ll become less of yourself for it.

2) Mockingbird

Eminem saw the effects his career started to have on his family as he claimed his fame. Suddenly he wasn’t home for his daughter. Mockingbird is an apology and a promise to her that he’ll do better.

3) Dead Horse

4) Posthumous Forgiveness

The beat and tempo of Posthumous Forgiveness would lead you astray in believing this is an upbeat song. The lyrics tell a different story, of anger and pain at a father that promised to be there for his sons but failed to do so.

III. Happy

Happy songs amongst a topic such as a divorce are few and scarce. The happiness in question is born from relief and joy at leaving toxic family dynamics.

1) He Wasn’t There

He Wasn’t There is a song about forgiving a neglectful father. It’s a happy song because eventually, the man Lily Allen believed her father emerged.

2) Pushing Me Away

3) A Boy Needs A Bike

A Boy Needs A Bike is about a kid not understanding why his parents fight and his father not understanding. However, in the end, the father packs up his pride, apologizes to his wife for their fighting, and ends the conflict and divorce.

4) So what

What’s the benefit from the end of toxic relationships? It’s over. So what explores the freedom that leaving a toxic spouse can bring you and your inner rockstar.

5) Secondhand smoke

IV. Funny

1) I Think I’m Going To Make It All The Way – frank

I Think I’m Going To Make It All The Way begins very depressingly by speaking about Sinatra’s drinking addiction in the wake of a failed marriage. However, in the end, he sobers up, sees a better tomorrow, and gets another wife, so he laughs the pain away.

2) You’re the reason our kids are ugly

This is a joking song about a failing marriage and blaming their children’s physical traits on each other. It’s lighthearted, but the duet bickers and moans at each other throughout the song.

V. Pop

Pop is often about celebrities and the current person in LA. However, these artists open up about the pain from their past and the destructive capability of a divorce.

1) Because of you

Yet again, Kelly Clarkson can bring people who’ve experienced divorce to tears. Because of you is a powerful song about how her father’s toxicity and lack of presence have shaped her trust in anyone and anything.

2) Family Portrait

Another song from P!nk? Another great song is about a child with difficulties growing up in a broken home with parents who constantly fight, a real tear-jerker.

3) Close my eyes

4) Hurt

VI. R&B

The truth and pain R&B express is always powerful. These songs will bring you to tears, give you hope, and then bring you back to tears.

1) Goodbye

You can’t control how and what your spouse does. This can lead to them breaking your heart, and in this case, say, “Goodbye.”

2) Daddy

Gut-wrenching but beautiful Daddy is a powerful song about just wanting one’s father to be present. However, he just keeps leaving with no notice and no promise of return.

3) Goodbye

VII. Songs about Divorced Parents

Now for the tear-jerking masterpieces. Toxic, unavailable, or just absent in every sense. At least pain and sorrow make for a great muse and better songs.

1) You were mine

2) Say Something

Say something is a melancholy ballad to everyone who’s had their spouse leave with no explanation. It’s a heartbreaking outcry for a conversation that might save a marriage if they said only something.

3) Wildflower Wildfire

4) 11

Divorced kids may know the pain of growing up too fast because of realities you need to face under toxic or money-restricted households. 11 is the age Cassadee’s father left her and her mother to fend for themselves. This is an anthem to every kid who grew up before they grew out of their clothes.

VIII. Country

Country music is a genre that tells stories of struggling families and their wows. Country music has a realistic view of family life while glorifying picture-perfect ones. However, it does not shy away from the reality that families aren’t perfect.

1) Every other weekend

2) She Got The Goldmine (I Got The Shaft)

3) Starting over again

4) Highway 20 ride

Highway 20 ride is about a man on the verge of divorce, deeply unhappy but only barely holding on for his son. He feels as if his marriage is beyond repair, but the one thing he has is his son, and he won’t give up on him.

IX. Rock

Rock music for its loud sound and even louder truths. If you’re for acceptance and someone to sing with you through your struggles, you’ve come to the right place.

1) Stay Together for the Kids

Many marriages stick together because of their kids. However, this can be even worse for them. Such as, in this case, overcontrolling parents reign down criticism when they aren’t arguing with each other, and so the kids receive unfair, harsh words.

1) Breaking the Habit

Trapped in his room trying to escape the onslaught of his parents’ arguments, Chester Bennington would write music. This outcry for help from a trapped kid in a broken home is the consequence and the habit he wishes to break.

3) Broken Home

4) Airplane – Day by Fire

X. Songs with divorce in their Lyrics

Surprise, these are songs that feature divorce in their lyrics.

1) Divorce

Divorce is the type of song where you want that relief of the end of a relationship because it seems to poison the couple.

1) D-I-V-O-R-C-E

Nothing seems as bitter as having to spell out divorce, so your son doesn’t know what’s to come. Not to mention the breaks in tonality when Dolly Parton changes keys at the end of the song when she confesses she still loves her ex-husband.

3) Divorce Separation Blues

4) God Help This Divorce