Khalil Gibran once said, “Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.” And with so much pressure from society to be beautiful, it’s nice to know that there are tons of people out there who believe that beauty – true beauty – can only be found within.
If you’re feeling a little less than beautiful or you just want to make yourself feel beautiful, this is the playlist you should be listening to.
James Blunt – You’re Beautiful
Beauty catches the eye like nothing else can. And in this brief encounter with a woman, he marveled at her beauty through this song. James Blunt has admitted that the song was inspired by his encounter with an ex on the train. She was with someone new that James didn’t know about, but in that moment he was already able to think of a song in his head.
Lyrics about beauty: You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful, it’s true
I saw your face in a crowded place
And I don’t know what to do
‘Cause I’ll never be with you
Suede – Beautiful Ones
Beautiful Ones was written by guitarist Richard Oakes when he was pressured by the band to come up with a hit single. He has the band to thank for the pressure because he wrote one of the most telling songs about the excesses and shallowness of youth. Beautiful Ones is a song about the druggie nightlife scene who can get away with their excesses because they’re beautiful.
Lyrics about beauty: Oh, here they come, the beautiful ones, the beautiful ones
Loved up, doved up, hung around, stoned in a lonely town
Shaking their meat to the beat,
High on diesel and gasoline, psycho for drum machine
Shaking their bits to the hits
Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People
The Beautiful People is a fitting song by a man known for pushing the boundaries when it comes to what’s considered “attractive enough to sell.” In this song, he describes what you need to do to survive in a capitalistic society. With the huge pressure for musicians to look presentable to the masses, in comes Manson with a hit song that tells us that it’s easier to be ugly than to be the perfect picture of youth that the media wants.
Lyrics about beauty: The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It’s all relative to the size of your steeple
You can’t see the forest for the trees
And you can’t smell your own shit on your knees
Fra Lippo Lippi – Beauty and Madness
This song by Norwegian band Fra Lippo Lippi shows us that both chaos and beauty mean nothing if we have no one to share it with. Beauty and Madness is a work of art in how it’s able to make us feel the loneliness of the main character juxtaposed with the imagery of romance with lovers illuminated by the moonlight and harbor lights.
Lyrics about beauty: Who will see the beauty in your life
And who will be there to hear you when you call
Who will see the madness in your life
And who will be there to catch you if you fall
Cyndi Lauper – True Colors
There will be times in our life when we’ll feel so small and alone in a world filled with people who want to bring us down. In True Colors, the singer addresses someone who feels this way and reassures him that inner beauty is what really counts.
Lyrics about beauty: But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow
Beyonce – Pretty Hurts
Co-written by Sia, this song is a critique on the pressures women face to be considered beautiful. So many people – from the media to men to other women – pressure women to attain physical perfection with no regard for what’s within. But what many women don’t seem to realize or accept is the fact that the goal to reach perfection draws us away from improving ourselves from the inside.
Lyrics about beauty: Pretty hurts
Shine the light on whatever’s worse
Perfection is the disease of a nation
Pretty hurts
Shine the light on whatever’s worse
Tryna fix something
But you can’t fix what you can’t see
It’s the soul that needs the surgery
TLC – Unpretty
For those of you who grew up in the 90s, you might remember this TLC hit. Unpretty, much like Beyonce’s Pretty Hurts, is a song about the pressures women face to be considered pretty. The song is addressed to people who constantly tell women that they’re not pretty enough, and thus push them to exert so much effort into looking better.
Lyrics about beauty: I wish could tie you up in my shoes
Make you feel unpretty too
I was told I was beautiful
But what does that mean to you
Look into the mirror who’s inside there
The one with the long hair
Same old me again today
Christina Aguilera – Beautiful
Moving away from the pressure to become beautiful, let’s tackle a song that shows us that beauty can be found in everyone. Beautiful is an uplifting song about accepting your perceived flaws as part of the reason why we are beautiful people. So forget what other people say to bring you down, because there’s beauty in every one of us.
Lyrics about beauty: We’re beautiful
No matter what they say
Yes words won’t bring us down
Oh no
We are beautiful
In every single way
Yes words can’t bring us down
Oh no
So don’t you bring me down today
Lady Gaga – Born This Way
To further drive the point home, let’s talk about Lady Gaga’s empowering single, Born This Way. The message of this song is simple: you have every reason to love yourself, and that’s what you should do. Born This Way is a straightforward retort to all the people who pressure us to become something we’re not, whatever our race, religion, or creed may be.
Lyrics about beauty: I’m beautiful in my way
‘Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby I was born this way
Lana Del Rey – Young and Beautiful
Confident as we may be with our own beauty, we may still sometimes wonder if the object of our desire will still love us when our beauty and youth has faded away. In this song, Lana Del Rey sings as Daisy from The Great Gatsby. She recounts all the wild parties and luxuries she experiences with Gatsby as she asks him if he’ll still be there for her when she’s no longer young and beautiful – a reflection of her shallowness.
Lyrics about beauty: Will you still love me
When I’m no longer young and beautiful?
Will you still love me
When I’ve got nothing but my aching soul?
I know you will, I know you will
I know that you will
Will you still love me when I’m no longer beautiful?
Jesse McCartney – Beautiful Soul
As if in retroactive response to Lana Del Rey, Jesse McCartney also addresses the issue of being beautiful in a relationship. Effective as it might be for us women to be encouraged by fellow women, it’s also uplifting when we hear guys tell us that we’re beautiful too. Beautiful Soul is about a guy telling his girl that he doesn’t care about the physical trappings of a person, but instead cares about their soul. All he wants to do is reassure her that his love for her is real because his connection with her isn’t just skin-deep.
Lyrics about beauty: I don’t want another pretty face
I don’t want just anyone to hold
I don’t want my love to go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul
You’re the one I wanna chase
You’re the one I wanna hold
I won’t let another minute go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul
Joshua Kadison – Beautiful in My Eyes
Here’s another potential response to Lana Del Rey’s song. Beautiful in My Eyes is described by Joshua Kadison as a song about “a love that just lasts forever, and you’ll always be beautiful in my eyes.” This song the perfect one to sing to someone whom you want to reassure that their beauty lies in all the wonderful experiences you had together through the years. That’s part of the reason this song is a popular choice for a wedding song or anniversary song.
Lyrics about beauty: You’re my Mona Lisa, you’re my rainbow skies
and my only prayer, is that you realize
you’ll always be beautiful, in my eyes
Joe Cocker – You Are So Beautiful
Here’s another popular choice for a wedding song. Joe Crocker’s You Are So Beautiful is a simple and straightforward song that celebrates a man’s love for his beautiful partner. There are rumors claiming that Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys helped write the song, and that’s why he often sings it at Beach Boys concerts.
Lyrics about beauty: You are so beautiful
To me
Can’t you see
You’re everything I hope for
You’re every, everything I need
You are so beautiful to me
Disney – Beauty and the Beast
Of course, we can’t have a song about beauty without one of Disney’s timeless classics. While it’s obviously about Belle and the titular Beast, it can also be applied to real couples as well. The song is about finding love in someone so unexpected and different from you. But as certain as the sun rising in the east, love can bloom in the strangest of partnerships.
Lyrics about beauty: Certain as the sun
Rising in the east
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the beast
Billy Joel – Just the Way You Are
Just the Way You Are was written by Billy Joel as a birthday present to his first wife, Elizabeth. And while they may no longer be together, the song has endured as a song that expresses pure love for someone without the desire to change them at all. Just the Way You Are is one of those songs that you’ll want to sing to your partner when you want to reassure them that you wouldn’t want to change a thing about them.
Lyrics about beauty: Don’t go trying some new fashion
Don’t change the color of your hair
You always have my unspoken passion
Although I might not seem to care
I don’t want clever conversation
I never want to work that hard
I just want someone that I can talk to
I want you just the way you are
There is beauty in all of us, and the best thing to do is to celebrate it with these songs!
