Cry Baby!
My.Kali’s sad song list
When we are alone, and sad, the very first thing we harbor to is our beds! After that, it’s the classic case of tuning to sad tunes that we relate to, and like a fetus we resonate, living that moment of sorrow, weakness, and vulnerability! The sad ballads that’ll help us acknowledge our feelings even more, pushing us to cry, and take our state of sadness to a new dimension filled with drama. And somehow, that’ll make us feel understood and resound. The songs that get to you are the ones written from an honest place, from a place of pain, never easy to belt it out, however, the ones we picked are the ones who did sing it from the heart, cause you just feel it! Whether it’s about a lost one, a loved one, loneliness, broken heart… it’s the song that makes you feel the other’s pain. Here’s what got to us, therefore made our list (Arabic and English) of songs of sorrow along with the story behind of each of our top picks!
Stepping stone – Duffy
The music video for “Stepping Stone” depicts a mature, sophisticated style as Duffy is involved with one mysterious man. Early anticipation suggested that Duffy would be “depicted as a 1960s sexpot who is seduced by a stranger in a nightclub”.
The video begins with Duffy sitting in bed, singing that she “will never be a stepping stone” to her lover. The video continues with Duffy trying on many different outfits throughout the day whilst singing the song, as if trying to impress somebody. Each time she leaves her house, she is seen going back to get changed, before finally building up the courage to leave. It ends with Duffy entering a filled bar, whilst someone enters and she looks up. The storyline suggests that Duffy is in love, however he does not love her in the same way. This fits in with the theme of the song, with its chorusline “I will never be a Stepping Stone”, perhaps showing that Duffy is the bridge between two better relationships.
Dance with My Father – Luther Vandross
“Dance with My Father” is the title track to singer-songwriter Luther Vandross’ thirteenth studio album. With Richard Marx, Vandross wrote the song based on his personal experience. Its poignant lyrics recall childhood memories with Vandross’ father, who used to dance with his mother.
Jesus to a child – George Michael
The song was a melancholy tribute to Michael’s Brazilian lover Anselmo Feleppa, whom he met when performing in Rio de Janeiro in 1991. Feleppa died two years later from an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage. Michael had been unable to write for the next 18 months as a consequence of his grief, but then penned the words to “Jesus to a Child” in little more than an hour, indicating that the time was right to move on with his life. The song is written with a rhythm and harmony that is clearly influenced by the Brazilian bossa nova style.
The exact identity of the song’s subject—and the nature of their relationship—was cause for a certain amount of innuendo at the time, as Michael had not confirmed his homosexuality and did not do so until 1998. Nowadays, Michael consistently dedicates the song to Feleppa before performing it live.
Has anyone ever written anything for you –Stevie Nicks
This song (Has anyone written anything for you) was written as a tribute to Joe Walsh of the Eagles. In the liner notes of her TimeSpace album, Stevie explained:
“I guess in a very few rare cases, some people find someone that they fall in love with the very first time they see them… from across the room, from a million miles away. Some people call it love at first sight, and of course, I never believed in that until that night I walked into a party after a gig at the hotel, and from across the room, without my glasses, I saw this man and I walked straight to him. He held out his hands to me, and I walked straight into them. I remember thinking, I can never be far from this person again… he is my soul. He seemed to be in a lot of pain, though hid it well. But finally, a few days later, (we were in Denver), he rented a jeep and drove me up into the snow covered hills of Colorado… for about 2 hours. He wouldn’t tell me where we were going, but he did tell me a story of a little daughter that he had lost. To Joe, she was much more than a child. She was three and a half, and she could relate to him.
I guess I had been complaining about a lot of things going on on the road, and he decided to make me aware of how unimportant my problems were if they were compared to worse sorrows. So he told me that he had taken his little girl to this magic park whenever he could, and the only thing she EVER complained about was that she was too little to reach up to the drinking fountain. As we drove up to this beautiful park, (it was snowing a little bit), he came around to open my door and help me down, and when I looked up, I saw the park… his baby’s park, and I burst into tears saying, ‘You built a drinking fountain here for her, didn’t you?’ I was right, under a huge beautiful hanging tree, was a tiny silver drinking fountain. I left Joe to get to it, and on it, it said, dedicated to HER and all the others who were too small to get a drink.
So he wrote a song for her, and I wrote a song for him… ‘This is your song, ‘ I said to the people, but it was Joe’s song. Thank you, Joe, for the most committed song I ever wrote. But more than that, thank you for inspiring me in so may ways. Nothing in my life ever seems as dark anymore, since we took that drive. (thanks, Lisa – Ball Ground, GA)
More songs:
– Concrete Angle – Martina Mcbride
– Nothing compares 2U – Sinead O’Connor
Mohamed Hamaki – We Aftakrt
محمد حماقى – وإفتكرت
Recollecting memories can be tormenting, especially if you’re living through them! And this is what’s Hamaki’s song is all about, remembering! How coincidences revive memories, promises made and commitments long-term imagined but shortly-lived! A song that surpasses reality check, brushing shoulders but not turning to look back…it’s funny how one glance brings years lived!
Cyrine Abdel Nour- Erga’a Tani
سسرين عبد النور – إرجع تاني
The song means “Come back again”, the song talks about regret and forgiveness, she sings that “that her address is still the same, “and she wants her lover to be back again. The video shows Cyrine to be on a photoshoot session, modeling, as it was her first approach to celebrity, her lover who is the photographer seem to be flirting with another model, provoking Cyrine to run off the shoot in her big dress, when he follows her to get her back! Which contrary to the song, on which she’s asking him to come back. The song shows vulnerability of needing for another.
Ayman Zbib – Neba’a Sawa
ايمن زبيب – نبقى سوى
Ayman’s song named “Stay together” talks about lingering in a relationship that finished, a love that still resounds around even though it’s no longer there, recalling memories and living through them and still hoping to age together, in one of the lines the singer pleads, asking “to whom did you leave me to?” admitting loneliness.
Maya Nasri – Rouh
مايا نصري – روح
The song’s title means “Go!” or “Go away”. The singer expresses her fear of waiting for ‘the one’ who came back after betraying, and her calling after him and him coming back a bit late for it. Asking her nostalgia to protect her from the love who forgot her, asking him to leave, to ‘go’ and to stop telling her nice words in her ears, in one of the lines in the lyrics, Maya sings “months I spent in sorrow, counting the miles, days and hours…”
More Arabic songs:
Dina Hayek – Darb EL Hawa
دينا حايك – شو صار يا درب الهوى
Nancy Ajram – Enta Eih
نانسى عجرم – إنت إيه
Aziz Maraka – Ibky
عزيز مرقة – ابكي
Nawal El Zoghbi – Gheib An Enaya
نوال الزغبي – غيب عن عينيا
Elissa – اليسا
No one denies that Lebanese singer Elissa is the queen of sadness, therefore, she has her own list of songs, cause one or two aren’t enough, as her tunes touches upon deep words and utter poetry. She never fails to bring a tear once you’re alone. When she;s not commercial, selective songs from her various albums can surprise you… Tune to few of her saddest:
– Min bloom
مين بلوم
– Eftakart
افتكرت
– Fatet sineen
فاتت سنين
– Khod balak alaya
خد بالك عليا
– Kan nafsee araf
كان نفسي اعرف