Top 10 Most Hauntingly Beautiful and Sad Songs

Title is quite self explanatory. Just a list of songs that make you look at everything a little differently after listening to them. Very sad, but in the best of ways.
The Top Ten
1 My Immortal - Evanescence

Such a beautifully sad, heart-wrenching song. Amy Lee is an amazing vocalist, and her songs reflect on the true tragedy of life. While many consider it to be lazily written, I understand the true meaning of the words and the emotions evoked in this song. A haunting melody accompanied with an almost overwhelming sense of loss and grief, along with the piano, creates the perfect expressive song that still lingers in your heart afterwards. For lovers of this song, listen to Lost In Paradise by Evanescence, and Imaginary, also by Evanescence.

Jackie Evancho? Come on. My Immortal is the saddest, most haunting, and tear-inducing song. Jackie's Nella Fantasia is really good, but My Immortal is incredibly sad. It makes you cry every time.

The saddest song of all time.

Amy Lee's voice is beautifully haunting as she sings about a loved one who won't leave her alone after their death. Her voice mixes with the piano to create a euphony of sadness.

2 Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton

It's a song about his deceased child and his struggle with how he can be reunited with him. There isn't a way. He can do nothing for his child, ever, possibly not even being reunited in heaven when it's his time to go. An obvious winner.

This is about as powerful as music can be.

3 Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley

This song is like a prayer and raises me to a higher plane each time I hear it. It literally has an effect on one's soul.

Listening to this song touches your soul, but singing this song elevates your spirit. So powerful.

This song is so melodic and flows perfectly. His voice is breathtaking for this kind of song.

4 Nella Fantasia - Jackie Evancho

Jackie's songs have a haunting quality about them because of her exquisite tone, pitch, and interpretation of each one. She leaves her listeners spellbound and in awe.

The beauty of Jackie's voice will haunt you for weeks after hearing her in concert! This I know.

Jackie's voice makes almost everything she sings hauntingly beautiful, but especially Nella Fantasia.

5 Hurt - Johnny Cash

The original is good, but the Cash version just resonates deeper with me. It unfortunately reminds me of my son, who came to a place in his life where he became a drug addict and would hurt himself. For me, this song gives me a (probably false) sense of why. But I break down every time I hear it and can't turn it off.

I remember the first time I came across this on video. It just stopped me in my tracks. Hearing that gravelly voice and seeing the honesty in his face and performance.

I first heard it when the movie Colombiana finished, just last year on DVD. I liked it immediately. The haunting voice and the lyrics just pulled at my heart.

6 Creep - Radiohead

Feels like how I feel. It feels like a demonstration of what I am in a way, of how I think people think of me.

We all feel like this. This song is haunting. We don't know enough about what happens to others.

7 Fiddler on the Green - Demons & Wizards

Easily in the top 3. This awesome ballad is based on real-life events: the singer and lyricist witnessed two car accidents in one week at the same place, and a boy and a girl were killed. The singer/lyricist turned this tragedy into a sad but beautiful story.

Death took the life of the boy by mistake, and to make up for it, the reaper comes back to take the life of the girl, who would have been his soulmate in life. The reaper asks the girl, "Would you mind if I take you?"

The singer uses several voice intonations to communicate the emotions - angelic, melancholy, innocent, ghostly, funeral, dramatic, and harsh. Also, the long scream at the end is insane. I think this scream represents the pain of the body when the soul leaves it. Then the pain goes away.

The vocals are amazing from start to finish, hands down. This guy will leave you in awe.

The vocalist is Hansi Kursch, lead singer of Blind Guardian and my pillow waifu. The guitarist is Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth. Easily my favorite song on my favorite album.

I hope they make another album soon. They haven't toured in 16 years.

The Bard Song by Blind Guardian is a close second for a hauntingly beautiful song.

8 Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day

Billie Joe has the innate ability to write songs that are relatable and almost haunting in their true nature. Wake Me Up When September Ends is a perfect example of what he can do as a songwriter, not just as the punk rock frontman of a world-famous rock band to which many people dismiss him as mediocre. But he's not. He is a talent. Just by opening up about a part of his life that he had not displayed prior, he really came through and proved just how valuable he is as an artist. RIP Andrew Armstrong.

This song is about the death of Billie Joe's father. It's such an emotional song, with such beautiful lyrics.

This strikes my heart. It's lovely, sad, and it pulls my heartstrings.

9 Angel - Sarah McLachlan

I finally found a good sad song that is not rock. Magic!

10 Hello - Evanescence

"Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping. Hello, I'm still here. All that's left of yesterday." Amy's voice is so beautiful and haunting. Should be number 1.

I love it. I love her voice. It's like her voice makes the sadness even more profound.

The Contenders
11 Hurt - Christina Aguilera

Beautifully sung with so much heart. The video reminds me of my sister and my father. If you can, look up a live rendition. So emotional.

12 Breathe Me - Sia

This song just hits somewhere in my heart every time. Her beautiful, breathtaking voice, the haunting piano in the background, and the words that just seem to understand make it such an amazing piece of music!

Deep lyrics paired with a great tune, topped with the unique, amazing, and out-of-this-world vocals of Sia. Highly recommend you to listen!

You may recognize this song from the final episode of Six Feet Under. This is my favorite sad song, other than My Immortal.

13 How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead

Filled with pain and emotion, Radiohead delivers a song that may not be catchy the first time you hear it. However, gradually, you will find it pulling you in. It perfectly captures the feeling of being invisible.

The vocals, the music, the lyrics, the music video - everything about this is so haunting that it might make you extensively depressed if you listen to it quite a few times alone.

Aw man, this hits the heart so, so hard. It's like you're feeling Thom Yorke's absolute pain, not only through his lyrics but through that achingly awesome voice of his.

14 Snuff - Slipknot

An absolutely beautiful song that is able to tell a gripping, emotional story in just mere minutes.

This is one of the most meaningful and beautiful songs of this decade.

15 Concrete Angel - Martina McBride

I literally spent a whole weekend singing this song and crying, for absolutely no reason. It's so beautiful that I would totally do it again.

I remember being a little girl and watching the music video on the TV while I ate breakfast and bawling.

This song made me cry when I first listened to it, and I almost never cry.

16 How to Save A Life - The Fray

This song is amazing all on its own. If you really miss someone and you just sort of want to cry, this is the perfect song to listen to.

Beautiful song. It haunts me because of the words, music, and the raw pain and truth deep in the song.

I love this song. It makes me cry almost every time. It's just so emotional and so pure.

17 Til It Happens to You - Lady Gaga

So beautiful, and every word holds so much meaning and emotion. An absolutely gorgeous song with a very powerful meaning.

18 Nutshell - Alice in Chains

I can't believe this song is not much higher on the list. It is the definition of beautiful and sad, especially knowing how it ends.

19 Beyond the Realms of Death - Judas Priest

It's about suicide. The vocals, lyrics, melody, chorus, and the first guitar solo are of haunting beauty!

20 Empty Garden - Elton John

Great song about the murder of John Lennon (the gardener in the song). This song is rarely performed live because Elton said that he still gets emotional about it.

Maybe I'm biased because Elton John is my favorite artist, but I just marvel at how beautiful this and so many of his other songs are.

21 Down In a Hole - Alice In Chains
22 Hurt - Nine Inch Nails

It's sadder than the Johnny Cash cover. How he whispers most of the song. You can feel the pain.

The lyrics and the emotion in his voice are just so raw they make me cry when I listen to it.

23 Nightswimming - R.E.M.

My favorite song of all time. A masterpiece on the masterpiece that is "Automatic for the People". Those lyrics, the somber and soaring strings...just amazing.

I finally watched the video, and like the movie Cinema Paradiso, it transported me to a time when I was innocent and the world was unrolling under my feet.

24 Down Where I Am - Demons & Wizards
25 Fields of Gold - Eva Cassidy

Eva's voice is truly angelic. The way she covered this song is phenomenal! Such a beautiful and calming version of Fields of Gold. Love, love, love.

Such an amazing voice! It's haunting.

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