Hollywood English Love Songs

About Hollywood English Love Songs

Still, look at the biggest names in music of the 21st century: Drake, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Adele, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Ed Sheeran. They all have multiple unforgettable love songs to their credit, earning the artists some of their biggest and most-beloved hits. The form and content may have evolved since the days of The Ronettes and The Beach Boys — hell, since the days of Boyz II Men and Celine Dion — but it remains an essential and inextricable part of the pop experience, and likely will for as long as popular music exists.

Here are Hollywood English Love Songs App picks for the 10 greatest love songs of the 21st century.

1. Beyoncé, "Love on Top" (2011)
The video might have invoked New Edition’s “If It Isn’t Love,” but there was clearly no doubt in Beyoncé’s mind what emotion she was dealing with in this one. Blissed-out on the verses and practically growling on the chorus, Beyoncé’s romantic ecstasy on 4 single “Love on Top” is buoyed by lighter-than-air keys and punchy soul horns.

2. Mariah Carey, "We Belong Together" (2005)
Regrets, Mariah has a few. In this 14-week Hot 100 No. 1 smash, Carey realizes (too late?) how good she had it with her ex. This one is all about the romantic details.

3. Frank Ocean, "Thinkin Bout You" (2012)
For many, it was their Tumblr-era, butterfly-inducing introduction to an R&B voice that would soon define a generation. Centering warped, minimal production, Frank Ocean’s admissions of love are initially wrapped in romantic sarcasm.

4. Alicia Keys, "If I Ain't Got You" (2004)
Alicia Keys’ most enduring love song in her vast catalog of ’em strips back everything, including the beat itself, which spotlights Keys’ pristine vocal and her soul-stirring piano melody. With lyrics simple but touching, she knows exactly when — and how — to dial up the song’s most delicate moments to hit the listener directly in the heart and boil love down to its core feeling.

5. Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris, "We Found Love" (2011)
A lot of songs employ flowery lyrics to tell you what love sounds like; together, Rihanna and Calvin Harris demonstrated how love actually feels. In the case of their 2011 Hot 100 No. 1 “We Found Love,” the sensation was that of being shot out of a confetti canon and taking flight, with the Scottish producer’s wind-up production — a classic of the EDM era — capturing the hectic, exhilarating, sometimes slightly dangerous thrill of new romance.

6. Harry Styles, "Adore You" (2019)
In the transfixing “Adore You,” Harry Styles doesn’t need his loved one to say they’re his or confess those three little words. He knows where he stands and it’s in their “rainbow paradise.” He is willing to be the first to say he can’t stop thinking about his lover.

7. Sade, "By Your Side" (2000)
If a song could double as a shoulder to cry on, it’d be “By Your Side.” Longtime musical icon Sade Adu coos about sticking to a loved one through thick and thin with a reassuring ease in her contralto and simple-yet-sincere lyrics: “You think I’d leave your side, baby/ You know me better than that.”

8. King Princess, "1950" (2018)
As a then-20-year-old queer artist, the 1950s wouldn’t be the time period that you’d have expected King Princess to be daydreaming of when pursuing a romantic interest. But in 2018’s “1950,” she puts her dignity aside (as we tend to do when we feel that magical spark for the first time), and plays the mid-century role of longing for her crush to court her and “try to save me, ’cause I’m just a lady.”

9. Ed Sheeran, "Thinking Out Loud" (2014)
This ballad’s opening lines pack a punch: “When your legs don’t work like they used to before/And I can’t sweep you off of your feet/ Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?” Pop music rarely deals with old age, and less often still with infirmity.

10. Miguel, "Adorn" (2012)
One of his many tear-inducing ballads, the promises and affirmations of Miguel’s “Adorn” could also double as wedding vows.