Whether you’ve been cheated on, abused or simply not being appreciated for your true worth, our playlist of pop songs about deserving better in a relationship showcases the best of the concept, collecting songs crafted with the sheer honesty and self-determination you need to push yourself into a better place.
Songs About Deserving Better In A Relationship
1. Eminem & Rihanna – Love The Way You Lie
Eminem & Rihanna’s 2010 collab, Love The Way You Lie, is a pop anthem about persevering with a toxic relationship, despite both halves of the couple being pushed to a breaking point.
Eminem’s verses illustrate the complexity of love, detailing the miserable depths of a relationship ruled by polar shifts between love and hate;
“High off her love, drunk from her hate, it’s like I’m huffing paint and I love her the more I suffer, I suffocate, and right before I’m about to drown, she resuscitates me.”
A plethora of profound wordplay riddles each verse, focusing as much on the fight against the self as with each other.
Rihanna’s crowning chorus melody breaks cleanly away from Eminem’s obsessive, claustrophobic nattering, whilst showcasing the struggle to leave an abusive boyfriend for someone better; “Just gonna stand there and hear me cry, well, that’s alright because I love the way you lie.”
2. Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better
Shawn Mendes’ 2016 single, Treat You Better, comes from the perspective of another man looking in on his crush’s unhappy relationship, promising to give her every fragment of love that she’s lacking from her current partner.
Mendes’ pop track strikes at the heart of a life-shattering realisation that a relationship isn’t the dream you thought it might be, balanced out with distracting amounts of harmonic optimism and confidence in knowing you will one day give your crush everything she deserves;
“You’re spending all your time in this wrong situation, and anytime you want it to stop, I know I can treat you better than he can, and any girl like you deserves a gentleman.”
Despite Mendes’ ulterior motives, this is a track about being a solid support for your closest friends during their worst moments whilst opening their eyes to the toxicity of their relationships, needlessly endured and suppressed; “Just know that you don’t have to do this alone, promise I’ll never let you down.”
3. Ariel – I Deserve Better
This semi-obscure pop track by Ariel is composed of an intriguing blend of lush gospel-style piano, smooth R&B and hip-hop flairs, tied together with a refreshing radio pop vibe.
Layering pure, sweeping piano acoustics with heavily electronic, autotuned vocals, Ariel summons a sonic personification of feeling crippled under the emotional weight of a relationship which should be peaceful, easy and beautiful.
This unique sonic depiction of being broken by something seemingly magical gives an ocean of depth to Ariel’s morose lyrics.
I Deserve Better is a fearless insight into the seething regret that follows a relationship’s termination, threading melancholy with strength gained from experience and the determination to find someone better the next time round;
“Wishing that I could go back, change a few things from my past, erase you from my memory … You wasted all my energy and with everything you took from me … I can’t love someone who doesn’t love me back, and baby, I deserve someone who loves me for who I am, ’cause I deserve better.”
4. Meghan Trainor FT. Yo Gotti – Better
Whatever your pre-existing opinion may be of Meghan Trainor, her unashamed attitude crafts a stunningly self-assertive track about realising your own worth in a relationship.
Better is a track anchored in the refusal to be dragged down by a man that doesn’t deserve your time after realising the wasting effect he smears through your romance;
“You got what you want from me, I gave you what you needed, I was warned, but fooled by charm, and you deserve to be alone, and I deserve better, better than you.”
Meghan’s track takes more of a dance-pop approach compared to other tracks featured on our list, seamlessly woven with ska/reggae elements blessing her harmony with a naturally uplifting ambience.
This isn’t a track about feeling sorry for yourself after a toxic relationship; Better is enlightened by an oppositely positive message of knowing when you’re being taken advantage of and in turn repelling the negative energy from your field.
5. Bmike – I Deserve Better
Bmike’s R&B/pop track, I Deserve Better, is anchored in a profound concept of passing the pain gained from one relationship to the next, summarised in his spoken-word outro, “We inherit all this baggage from one person and then dump it onto the next person and the cycle just continues.”
Bmike artfully illustrates his concept through the story of a love triangle, told from each three perspectives. A relationship-ending feud sparked between the narrator and his girlfriend unravels into the chorus lyric, spoken from the girlfriend’s POV;
“I deserve better, you should’ve treated me better (I should’ve, I could’ve, I didn’t), and you act like all of this was my fault, none of any of this was my fault.”
The misery rained down on the girlfriend from her original partner soon swamps her new boyfriend, “I know she’s thinking ‘bout him all the time, all I did was try to make her mine … ’cause I was so focused on loving her, and she was focused on someone who never did,” leading the chorus’s second revolution to come from the shattered heart of her new man instead, “I deserve better, you should’ve treated me better…”
6. James Arthur – You Deserve Better
James Arthur’s 2018 single, You Deserve Better, is about honest self-realisation and manning up to the fact you might not be the perfect partner for the person you adore.
You Deserve Better is a track for anyone feeling increasingly void in emotion who can’t stand the thought of their own issues seeping into and staining the people closest to them, concluding that it’s likely better to let your partner go than drag her down with your own sinking ship;
“Give up on me coz babe, I’m hopeless, the more it hurts, the more you try, you know I loved, I just never showed it, it will be too late when you’re with some other guy … You deserve better, better, better than me, might be what you want, but I’m not what you need, you’re better, better than you even realise.”