Losing a woman in our lives is like losing light in the dark. Women are beautiful and strong. They are resilient and nurturing, and they alter the lives of everyone they touch with their gentle hearts.
Whether you’ve lost a family member, loved one, or a dear friend, here are the best funeral songs for that amazing woman in your life.
“I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston
Song Year: 1992
“I Will Always Love You” was originally written by Dolly Parton in 1973 as a way to tell her business partner that she was ready for a solo career.
However, Whitney Houston’s rendition recorded for the movie The Bodyguard introduced the song to wider audiences. As arguably the greatest female vocal of all time, Houston was able to pour emotions of love and admiration into this song as only she could.
The song beautifully explores an amicable breakup between two people that are parting ways while maintaining mutual respect and admiration. However, the lyrics can be just as well applied to saying the final goodbye to an important woman in your life.
“I Will Remember You” by Sarah McLachlan
Song Year: 1993
Another song that can be used at any woman’s funeral, “I Will Remember You,” is a beautiful song about memories and uncertainty. Sarah McLachlan has a powerful voice with many funeral songs, but this one stands out because it offers a voice many are afraid to speak.
With death comes uncertainty, and what’s clear is we will never forget our loved ones, but the question of whether they will forget us is haunting. We’ll always have the memories, and we’ll always have the love we shared.
“Supermarket Flowers” by Ed Sheeran
Song Year: 2017
“Supermarket Flowers” has heartbreaking lyrics about losing a mother, grandmother, or any woman who loved as any mother would. It’s full of details about cleaning up their space, their clothes, and remembering the small things that made them.
It’s a reminder that they’re gone but shined in a positive light. It’s about the life they led with love and the impacts they had on others.
Ed Sheeran wrote this song about his own grandmother’s passing, which allows the song to evoke genuine grief, love, and pain.
“Make You Feel My Love” by Adele
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0put0_a–Ng
Song Year: 2008
“Make You Feel My Love” is another powerful song centered around love and the things we’d do for the people we love. Adele covers the original from Bob Dylan, but her piano-fueled version contains tones of sadness that can switch it from in love to love that’s passed.
Losing a beautiful woman, no matter who she was to you, isn’t easy. We overthink and regret what we didn’t say and how we acted once. Now that they’re gone, we’d do anything to show them that we love them.
“In the Stars” by Benson Boone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n5GKLdrTfk
Song Year: 2022
Benson Boone creates a devastating, grief-struck track with his single, “In the Stars.” This song focuses on how we cling to someone who is gone and will never return, but we can’t let them go. Our love is so strong that the loss of that love is suffocating.
We miss them, and the grief is so powerful that we’re stuck between life and death. They’ve left us alone on Earth, alive, but barely. We have no idea how to move forward without them. It’s a heart-wrenching song that depicts the horrifying truth of grief.
“There You’ll Be” by Faith Hill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LH5YRqZUaY
Song Year: 2001
“There You’ll Be” is a song about acceptance, grief, and love. Faith Hill has a strong voice that evokes emotions and delivers a message of reassurance. The women we love and who love us would want us to move forward and remember the lessons they taught us.
This song focuses on the life they led before their passing. They were always there for us, so we’ll carry them and live with them in our hearts.
“Hear You Me” by Jimmy Eat World
Song Year: 2001
Jimmy Eat World creates a beautiful sound with gentle lyrics in their song “Hear You Me.” While the lyrics hint towards the words left unsaid and the words that will never be said again, the focus of the song isn’t regret but peace.
Losing a loved one is one of the worst things in life to endure, but this song offers a beautiful and gentle goodbye. We may be in pain, but we let them go so they can find peace.
“How Long Will I Love You” by Ellie Goulding
Song Year: 2013
“How Long Will I Love You” is an ode to our loved one. Even when they’re gone, we will love them with all of our beings, and even once we reach our end, we’ll love them all the same.
Ellie Goulding relies on her voice and simple instruments to create a stunning love song that can also work as a goodbye song.
“Yesterday” by The Beatles
Song Year: 1965
The Beatles sing mournful and reminiscent lyrics in “Yesterday.” It’s a song that expresses how relationships can easily change and the blame we put on ourselves for letting them go, even when we have no choice.
It can also be interpreted as a gentle song about how our lover, daughter, or any woman in our life had to leave and didn’t say why. There isn’t always a reason why the ones we love have to leave us; sometimes, they just do.
“Two of Us” by Louis Tomlinson
Song Year: 2019
“Two of Us” is a song about carrying on with life despite the pain of losing a loved one causes. It’s not necessarily for us, but because it’s what they would have wanted. As they’re no longer here, we have to fight to live a life for them and for ourselves.
Louis Tomlinson had written this song for his mother, who passed away, only to lose his sister soon after. It’s a song about strength, acceptance, and living through hardships because the strong and beautiful women who left would’ve wanted us to thrive.
“All of the Stars” by Ed Sheeran
Song Year: 2014
“All of the Stars” is the second Ed Sheeran song on our list. It debuted on the soundtrack for the movie The Fault In Our Stars and still carries that emotional weight of grief and love. While made with romantic love in mind, it can be a song for a friend, a sister, or a mother.
It’s a song about distance, and while our loved one is gone, they aren’t far. They’re in our hearts and our minds, and while they aren’t physically beside us, everything they ever did and taught us lingers.
“Marjorie” by Taylor Swift
Song Year: 2020
Taylor Swift wrote this song about her grandmother, who she lost when she was thirteen. “Marjorie” is a song about the lessons the women in our lives teach us, the way their presence lingers and never truly leaves us, and the memories of them that we hold close to our hearts.
It’s especially heart-breaking in the regard of losing a mother or grandmother at a young age, an age when we didn’t think to ask questions and learn lessons. Yet, we feel their presence and know they are still watching over us.
“You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban
Song Year: 2009
Josh Groban has a powerful, stunning voice. It’s part of the reason why his song “You Raise Me Up” is popularly used at funerals. Alongside a beautiful piano in the background, the lyrics are about someone who gives strength and power to the singer.
The use of impossible imagery, like standing on mountains and walking on the ocean, gives this song an otherworldly feel. It’s as though our mother, lover, or daughter, even when they’re gone, she’s reaching down to us and offering her love and strength even in death.
“Halo” by Beyonce
Song Year: 2009
“Halo” is an uplifting ballad about romantic love and strength, and while it may not be a fitting funeral song for some, if you’re hoping to highlight that love you and your wife, friend, or lover gave you, this is the one.
The imagery of a Halo is stunning, but it’s also the part of them that stays with you wherever you go. You can feel their love even in death, and although it’s painful, having loved so strongly makes us lucky in the end.
“Ghost of You” by 5 Seconds of Summer
Song Year: 2018
On the opposite end, “Ghost of You” is a heart-wrenching song about losing the woman we loved, seeing their possessions and memories everywhere we go, but not feeling them anymore.
It’s an unimaginable feeling, losing someone we spend every day with, someone we spend every day loving until it happens. Even then, it’s an emotion so challenging to process and endure, and 5 Seconds of Summers captures it in this song.
“In My Daughter’s Eyes” by Martina McBride
Song Year: 2003
Losing a daughter is a pain like no other. “In My Daughter’s Eyes” is a heart-breaking funeral song for a passed-on daughter because it’s centered around a parent’s love and how they see the answer in her eyes every time.
Parents fight through hard times because they have children to keep them strong. Losing that reason and that love is losing a piece of you. Without their presence, it can be difficult to remember a reason to push forward, but they never truly leave.
“Rivers and Roads” by The Head and The Heart
Song Year: 2010
“Rivers and Roads” is a song about change, but the inevitable moment we see our loved ones again. Whether you’ve lost a beautiful friend or sister, this song is one of acceptance but also a promise. It may take some time, but one day we’ll see them again, even if it’s when we meet our end.
With this song, The Head and The Heart created a beautiful sound that evokes happy tears and uplifts us with the promise of one day being reunited with a person we deeply care for.
“Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac
Song Year: 1975
“Landslide” is a song about the fear of change despite its inevitability. Fleetwood Mac has such a gentle sound that makes for a lovely funeral song, but the lyrics of having the one person who you’ve built a life around and how that’s changed is what makes it about grief.
We not only miss our loved ones, but we’ll miss the life we shared, and we fear the change that is to come. It’s a beautiful yet sorrowful song for a funeral.
“Look After You” by The Fray
Song Year: 2014
“Look After You” is a song that promises to take care of the one they love. The Fray has a voice that evokes such raw emotion, but the main reason this is a funeral song for the woman in our life is that they’re the ones looking after us now.
We would do anything to protect them. Our hearts rot without them because they’re our home, and they’re our reason, but that remains in death. They look after us now because we need a reason to carry on without them. The reason was them and still is.
Best Funeral Songs For Women, Final Thoughts
Losing a wife, a lover, a mother, a daughter, or any woman who held a special place in our hearts is excruciating. The idea of a life without them seems like a life not even worth living. Yet, it’s their strength in life that they passed onto us through death that keeps us moving.
Whether you choose a song that hurts, a song that uplifts, or something else entirely, their funeral will be beautiful.