10 Awesome Songs about Loving Yourself
Search hard enough, and you’ll find a song for every mood and occasion, including a bunch that will help you shake off your doubts and learn to love yourself. If your self-esteem could do with a boost, if your confidence is flagging, and if you’ve stopped loving the person in the mirror, here are 10 awesome songs about loving yourself to get you back on the right track.
10. Selena Gomez – Lose You To Love Me
Selena Gomez’s empowering self-love anthem about rediscovering her love for herself by letting go of a former lover is a must-listen for anyone struggling to end a toxic relationship. Believed to be about her tumultuous relationship with ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber, it earned the singer a massive hit in 2019, peaking at number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, and entering the top ten in numerous other countries. Key lyrics: We’d always go into it blindly/ I needed to lose you to find me/ This dancing was killing me softly/ I needed to hate you to love me, yeah.
9. Billie Eilish – You Should See Me In A Crown
Being told you’re pretty might be a nice little ego boost, but it’s nothing compared to knowing you run the place. Billie Eilish might mumble and whisper her way through You Should See Me In A Crown, but it’s clear that world domination is on her mind. Key lyrics: You say / Come over baby/ I think you’re pretty/ I’m okay / I’m not your baby/ If you think I’m pretty// You should see me in a crown / I’m gonna run this nothing town/ Watch me make ’em bow / One by one by, one.
8. Journey – Be Good to Yourself
In this enduringly popular hit, Journey reminds us to always look out for number one and be good to ourselves, even when we’re caught up in stressful situations. Released in 1986 as the first single from the multi-platinum selling album Raised on Radio, the song became Journey’s last ever top ten hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Key lyrics: Be good to yourself when nobody else will. Oh, be good to yourself. You’re walkin’ on a high wire, caught in a crossfire. Oh, be good to yourself.
7. Meghan Trainor – I Love Me
Meghan Trainor has given us a whole catalog of songs about loving yourself, but our pick of the bunch goes to I Love Me, a powerful declaration of self-love guaranteed to boost your confidence. Key lyrics: ‘Cause I’m sexy and it ain’t my fault/ I ain’t waitin’ on nobody’s call/ You don’t want me, baby, that’s your loss (Your loss).
6. Taylor Swift – Shake It Off
You can’t please all the people all the time, but that doesn’t mean you should let it get to you. When people try to bring you down, do as Taylor Swift does and shake it off. Released in 2014 from the album 1984, Shake It Off helped transform Swift from a country star into a global pop sensation, spending four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, topping the charts in numerous other countries, and winning three Grammy nominations. Key lyrics: Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate/ Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake / I shake it off, I shake it off.
5. Lady Gaga – Born This Way
Madonna might have worked herself into a tizzy over the similarities of Born This Way to Express Yourself, but the result was too flat-out fabulous for anyone else to care. It’s loud, it’s proud, and it sends a life-affirming message to anyone who’s ever felt disenfranchised and discounted. Released in February 2011, it stormed to number one in the US and over 25 countries around the world, eventually selling over 8 million copies worldwide to become one of the biggest selling singles in music history. Key lyrics: I’m beautiful in my way/ ‘Cause God makes no mistakes/ I’m on the right track, baby/ I was born this way.
4. Christina Aguilera – Beautiful
If anyone ever makes you feel less than beautiful, listening to this classic track from Christina Aguilera should put the spring back in your step. Released as the second single from the album Stripped in 2002, Beautiful was a critical and commercial sensation, topping the charts in multiple countries and earning the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Key lyrics: I am beautiful, no matter what they say / Words can’t bring me down/ I am beautiful, in every single way / Yes words can’t bring me down/ Oh no, so don’t you bring me down today.
3. Whitney Houston – Greatest Love of All
As Whitney Houston made clear in this soulful interpretation of George Benson’s 1977 hit, Greatest Love of All, self-love isn’t selfish, it’s necessary, at least if you want to be the very best person you can be for the rest of the world. Key lyrics: The greatest love of all Is easy to achieve/ Learning to love yourself.
2. India Arie – Video
Not everyone fits the mold, and not everyone has to, as India Arie spells out in no uncertain terms in this unapologetic ode to self love. Key lyrics: I’m not the average girl from your video / And I ain’t built like a supermodel/ But I learned to love myself unconditionally/ Because I am a queen.
1. Lizzo – Good As Hell
What list of songs about loving yourself would be complete without at least one tune from the queen of self-love, Lizzo? In a review for NPR, Hanif Abdurraqib summed up the appeal of Good As Hell with the comment,”[the song is] the anthem of both the night itself and of life in preparation for it: the saint that comes to you in the mirror when the lighting is bad, or the hair won’t move the way you want it to, or when you’ve tried on all of the outfits and none of them seem right.” Key lyrics: Come now, come dry your eyes / You know you a star, you can touch the sky/ I know that it’s hard but you have to try / If you need advice, let me simplify/ If he don’t love you anymore / Just walk your fine a— out the door/ I do my hair toss, check my nails / Baby how you feelin’?
