15 heartbreak songs in Spanish

We recommend a series of Spanish-American musical pieces that you should listen to at least once in your life. They are part of those songs that accompany us in the delicate process of looking inward, and that help us, as if from a exorcism in question, to release the energy of grief so that a new love comes to occupy our inner house, now reconstructed. They are, in short, like the soundtrack of our lives.

The pieces have been chosen based on their musical and literary quality, enriched with unique versions that have caught our attention.

1. Get away from me

It is a song composed by Virgilio Exposito in 1946. In this song, the loving voice pleads, please, that love comes out of her heart, since "My hands are so unwilling to squeeze, that they can't even hold you / get out of me ..."

2. The one who has loved you the most (The one who has loved you the most)

Concha Valdés Miranda portrays in this song the most devoted feelings of lost love, which asks life for a new opportunity to start over. Dyango was the first to record this song, in 1989. Not only did he internationalize Conchita Valdés' musical work, but the song was awarded as the song of the year. His verses move us deeply when they say: "On my knees I ask the Lord / to take away the punishment / and to let you know that I am / the one who has loved you the most."

3. The lie (You forget)

Better known as "You forget", the bolero The lie It was composed by Álvaro Carrillo and has been covered by numerous singers of international stature. The lover protests the excuse of the breakup and, although he has elements to prevent it or retaliate, he agrees to grant the freedom: "For my part I return your promise to adore me / Don't even feel sorry for leaving me / That this pact is not with God".

4. Caramba

This is, perhaps, one of the most beautiful songs of the popular Venezuelan composer Otilio Galíndez. A deep lament, oozing over the future of a love that never was. "Gee, my love, geez / how beautiful it would have been / if as much as I loved you / that is how you would have loved me."

5. What did I ask of you?

Gabriel Luna de la Fuente and Fernando López Mulens gave the world this bolero, which is undoubtedly one of the best in history. It is the lover who claims ungrateful love: "But what did I ask of you / you can tell the world / That you know that there is no other love / like my love in life."

6. There are loves

This song was composed by Antonio Pinto and Shakira, his interpreter, and is part of the film's soundtrack Love in the Time of Cholera (2007). "Oh my good, don't forget the sea / That at night has seen me cry, / so many memories of you / Oh my good, don't forget the day / That separates your life from the poor life / that I had to live" .

7. Felt

This is perhaps one of the most painful songs about heartbreak. The composer José María Cano presents us with this intimate theme loaded with deep symbolism, in which he expresses the pain of those who are the victim of unfounded illusions and then be cowardly abandoned: “It feels, / now I play alternate; / that the one who feels does not feel; / And how much I felt, / I didn't feel like I was losing you ”.

8. Too late

Too late is a bolero by the actor and comedian Arturo Castro. He sings of the reunion of the first love at the end of the days, when life has already marked the destiny. According to the stories, Castro composed this song inspired by his first love, a young girl with whom, after many years, he met again in a brothel... too late.

9. The brief space in which it is not

Nothing fills the space left by true love. It will be less painful to share your love, the lover believes. But the fact is that it is not. It is Pablo Milanés who composes and says: “I still haven't asked 'will you stay?' / I am very afraid of the answer of a 'never' ”.

10. A dress and a love

Fito Páez writes this song, masterfully performed by Caetano Veloso. In it, the author evokes that shock that invades us when, unintentionally, we again see the love of our life on the street: “I saw you... I wasn't looking for anyone and I saw you ”.

11. Today my duty

Pain in love is not always the result of heartbreak. Sometimes, it is a consequence of the turns of life that voluntarily or involuntarily separate us. Sometimes, it can be a civic cause, a moral duty, an inescapable commitment. But what is the point of the cause when love is sacrificed? Silvio Rodríguez, the Cuban singer-songwriter, brings us this beautiful song in which he says: “Today my duty was to sing to the homeland / raise the flag, join the square / and I think that, perhaps, I have finally achieved it / dreaming of your embrace, flying to your side."

12. Traditions

Juan Gabriel, the great popular singer from all over Latin America, wrote this song in the 80s, immortalized by Rocío Durcal. The composer manages to synthesize the feelings that arise after the fatigue of a spent relationship, and at the same time, the emptiness of loneliness, whose vertigo pushes us back to habit.

13. You will come back

You will come back is a bolero written by Gloria M. Estefan and Rafael Ferro García, and included in the album My land. It narrates not only the disappointment in the face of heartbreak, but also the lover's conviction that, sooner or later, he will value what he has left behind. After all, "love is not required... it is given."

14. I know that you will return

Armando Manzanero couldn't be missing from our list. Although there are many topics that we could mention, this one has something special. It evokes the voice of the one who, in the midst of the pain of absence, keeps alive the hope of reunion, the full trust in reciprocated love: “I know that you will return very vigilant / Here I will wait for you, I have promised / The wait would be useless and suffocating / If I did not know how much you have Dear".

15. Return

Carlos Gardel and Alfredo Lepera are the authors of this song, a classic of tango and Latin American music. The poet says: “But the traveler who flees / Sooner or later stops his walk / And although oblivion, that everything destroy / I have killed my old illusion / I keep hidden a humble hope / That is all my fortune heart".

Playlist on digital platforms

Listen to these songs as a YouTube playlist at the link Latin American Heartbreak Songs.