27 Best Songs About Love Triangles

Love triangles can consist of various scenarios, including cheating with someone else, being secretly in love with someone other than your partner, falling in love with someone in a relationship, or being unable to decide between two people. Here are the best songs about love triangles ever.

1. Someone Like You by Adele

Song Year: 2011

Someone Like You is a passionate, emotional, mesmerizing, and highly relatable song about still being in love with someone who has moved on and is seemingly happy with someone else.

The song perfectly conveys the back-and-forth emotions between feeling sad and desperate, wanting to get back with this person somehow, and feeling resolved and wanting to move forward, perhaps by finding someone just like this person.

2. I'm Not The Only One by Sam Smith

Song Year: 2014

I'm Not The Only One is one of Sam Smith's most popular hits, perhaps because it hits a chord for many people who've felt like their spouse or partner was seeing someone else.

It depicts being let down by someone you love because they decided to be with someone else while they were still “committed” to you.

The chorus also speaks to the gaslighting that some cheaters do, calling the other person “crazy” to try and deflect from what they're doing.

3. When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars

Song Year: 2012

Bruno Mars' When I Was Your Man is about regretting not being a better person for the one you love and realizing it when it's too late and she's happy with someone else.

The slow piano instrumentals and Mars' crisp yet emotive voice expresses his regret in this situation, which perfectly conveys that the narrator of the story is not over the relationship.

4. You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift

Song Year: 2009

Taylor Swift is known for her relatable storytelling and catchy tunes about love and heartbreak, so it's no surprise that she makes several appearances on this list.

You Belong With Me tells the story of a teenage love triangle in which a girl is madly in love with a boy dating someone entirely different.

Swift points out that this other girl is a cheerleader, wears high heels, and doesn't get this boy's humor, and she believes she and the boy would make a better match.

5. Break Up With Your Girlfriend by Ariana Grande

Song Year: 2019

Ariana Grande is known for making some of the catchiest pop/hip-hop hits about several different topics, especially about nuanced feelings around love and attraction.

Essentially, she wants someone to break up with their girlfriend because she's attracted to him.

She doesn't advocate that he cheats on her, so breaking up would be the best move in her eyes so she can finally get with him. Why? Well, she's bored.

6. Beautiful Liar by Beyoncé & Shakira

Song Year: 2007

Beautiful Liar is an iconic collaboration between Beyoncé and Shakira, two of our generation's most popular and well-loved singers.

The song is about finding out the one you love has been going behind your back and seeing someone else, and the two women seem to know and respect each other.

Instead of fighting, screaming, crying, or giving this man any more of their energy, they decide it's best to simply call him what he is – a beautiful liar – and let him go. 

7. Irreplaceable by Beyonce

Song Year: 2006

Irreplaceable is about kicking a man out after finding out he was seeing another woman behind her back.

The song has a strong and fierce message, as she sounds confident that she doesn't need this man and that he's not irreplaceable to her.

It also depicts the idea of not letting a man get away with trying to see two women at once but also not letting him take anything that she bought for him.

8. Hold Up by Beyonce

Song Year: 2016

It starts by sharing how she tried to change herself to make her more ideal so that she could feel more secure in the relationship, then how she started to change because her insecurities were growing more each day.

It's a highly emotional and poetic description of the insecurities one faces when they have strong suspicions that their partner is going behind their back to be with a third party.

The song continues with lyrics about how this other person can't love her partner the way she loves him, and his behavior is making her feel worthless, pathetic, jealous, crazy, and more.

9. I Know What You Did Last Summer by Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello

Song Year: 2015

This Shawn Mendez and Camila Cabello collaboration is about both a cheater and the person she's cheating on.

In the story, Cabello plays the role of the one who is hiding an affair from her partner, and Mendez is the partner.

It's a riveting, dynamic, and introspective song that encapsulates the complicated emotions behind this sort of scenario.

10. Take A Bow by Rihanna

Song Year: 2007

Take A Bow is about how “her” partner isn't sad for being unfaithful and sneaking another woman behind her back but is just sorry that she caught him.

The sassy expression in Rihanna's vocals made this song an instant hit, especially for people who've also found out about “the other woman” or “the other man” in their relationship.

Instead of a sad tone, however, this song has a strong and confident one. The narrator is resolved in her decision to kick this guy out for what he did.