Best Songs About Cheating, Lying, Being Cheated On

Skip navigation!

Begin Slideshow

Designed by Ariel Davis

The pop music industry is sustained by matters of the heart. Blooming love, failed love, unrequited love — there's a song for every shade of romantic feeling. Naturally there are also songs that explore the many facets of cheating. There are guilt-ridden, exhilarated songs sung by the cheaters themselves. There are anthems from the betrayed, hell-bent on revenge. Other tracks are dripping with empathy.

Songs about falling in love and experiencing intense betrayal deal in many of the same emotions, caused by a specific cocktail of endorphins and adrenaline. But since each incidence of cheating is unique, so too are the emotions that propel each song.

To paraphrase Anna Karenina: Happy relationships are all alike; every unhappy relationship is happy in its own way. Enjoy these songs, each tortured in its own way.

More from Music

Latina Artists Rarely Get Their Flowers. Billboard Women in Music...

In 2018, a Washington Post article pondered, “Is the Latin music industry finally ready to embrace women?” Five years later, a Billboard article stated

by Brenda Barrientos

Cowboy Carter Isn’t Revenge. It’s A Reeducation.

In Beyoncé’s Homecoming film, a seminal text for any card-carrying member of the Beyhive, Nina Simone’s voice kicks in at around the 16-minute mark. I

by Kathleen Newman-B...

Beyoncé Going Country Is Already Causing All This Conversation

In the lead-up to her highly anticipated Act II album, Cowboy Carter (out on March 29) —a countrified continuation of her culture-shifting three-act proj

by Njera Perkins

Mexican Regional Connects Me With Family Despite Physical & Cultu...

The phrase “ni de aquí, ni de allá” — Spanish for “not from here, nor from there” — has echoed in my mind for as long as I can remember. I

by Natalie Arroyo Ca...

Latines Are Pivotal To Americana Music’s Past & Its Future

If you look at the history of the Americana music genre — loosely defined by a fusion of folk, blues, country, and jazz — you will find that Latine mus

by Nicole Froio

Is Karol G and Young Miko’s “Contigo” Music Vid...

On Valentine’s Day, Karol G dropped her latest single “Contigo” with Tiësto, a love song sampling Leona Lewis’ 2007 hit “Bleeding Love.” T

Black History Month 2024

When Artificial Intelligence Makes Black Music, Who Really Wins?

When the artificial intelligence-generated track “Heart On My Sleeve”, featuring Drake and The Weeknd’s voices — without their consent — went vi

by Njera Perkins

The Queen’s Gone Country — What We Know About Beyoncé’s Renais...

There’s a popular saying that we all have the same 24 hours in a day as Beyoncé, but the way the global phenom works nonstop, that adage can’t be accu

by Ineye Komonibo

Unbothered
Usher, King of R&B, Is The Undisputed Super Bowl LVIII Champion
In what many salty NFL fans are calling a “scripted win,” the Kansas City Chiefs walked away with the championship at the 2024 Super Bowl. But the real
by Ineye Komonibo

Unbothered
Is It Time Beyoncé & Jay-Z Stopped “Showing Up” To The Grammys?
How many times? How many times are we going to do this? Time and time again, The Recording Academy tells us exactly what kind of institution it is. We shou
by Kathleen Newman-B...

Somos Latinx
How “Latin Music” Erases The Black Origins of Many Ge...
“If you’re advertising something I create with a name [I didn’t choose], nobody should have the right to come and change the name.” For the late Ma
by Shaadi Devereaux

Unbothered
Victoria Monét’s Been A Star — Now She’s A Gra...
Whenever awards season rolls around, it’s easy to become disillusioned as we watch, year after year, as the voting bodies and powers that be recognize th
by Ineye Komonibo

R29 Original Series