A Musical Saga of Shaded Exes

A revenge album, singing the record straight and rapping threats to beat up your exes' new man all in the past few months. Music artists sing about their life and experiences, but often they take it too far and expose people. Especially their exes. July saw Sabrina Carpenter’s comeback album addressing relationship drama between Joshua Basset and Olivia Rodrigo. The same month, Johnny Depp got revenge against ex-wife Amber Heard in new songs saying, "If I had a dime, it wouldn't reach your hand.” And earlier this year, Kanye rapped threats to beat up Kim Kardashians new boyfriend, comedian Pete Davidson. But the angry ex is a trope we’ve all seen before.   

“You don't have to say, what you did 
I already know, I found out from him 
Now there's just no chance 
For you and me” 

‘Cry Me a River’ by Justin Timberlake (2002)  

After Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears’ Hollywood romance split, rumours spread that Spears cheated on the singer with choreographer Wade Robson. A heated phone call with Spears lead Timberlake into the studio enraged. The life like music video of the song, confirmed the rumours had to be true. In the video, Timberlake breaks into his ex-girlfriend's home, who looks and dresses a lot like Spears. In case we didn’t get the message, a shot flashes of Spears’ lookalike cuddling Robson’s lookalike, trucker hat and all. Timberlake even grabs a fairy statue that resembles Spears’ tattoo on her back. 

“I guess I just lost my husband 
I don't know where he went 
So I'm gonna drink my money 
I'm not gonna pay his rent” 

‘So What’ by Pink (2008)  

Oh the memories of screaming this in the car with no idea what it was about. Pink sings, or rather shouts, about her marriage in this hit. She made references to her husband, motocross racer Carey Hart after they separated over rumored infidelity. This was Pink’s first solo #1 on the billboard 100, so I guess you could say she’s got her rock moves so she don’t need him. Even so, the pair got back together and had baby willow in 2011. 

“I get a rep for breakin' hearts 
Now I'm done with superstars 
And all the tears on her guitar 
I'm not bitter” 

‘Much Better’ by Jonas Brothers (2009) 

Before we get to the queen of dissing exes, Joe Jonas paid back his ex, Taylor Swift after she dissed him on her album, ‘Fearless’. The song compares Swift to Joe Jonas’ new girlfriend at the time, Camilla Belle. The lyrics confirm its about Swift with reference to her hit song ‘Tears on my Guitar’. But of course, Swift couldn’t let the song slide, making a comeback to their comeback with the song Better than Revenge’ in which she repeatedly used the lyric “So much better”. It just goes round in circles. Lots of other Disney stars throwed shade in songs around this time, like Miley Cyrus in ‘7 Things’ and Aly & AJ in ‘Flattery’. And they all dissed the Jonas Brothers!  

Not to worry because the feud is all over now, with Swift even sending baby presents to Joe Jonas and his wife Sophie Turner. 

“Dear John, I see it all, now it was wrong 
Don't you think nineteen is too young 
To be played by your dark twisted games, when I loved you so? 
I should've known” 

Dear John by Taylor Swift (2010)  

Our girl tay tay is not known for being discreet about who her songs are about with her lyrics. It was hard to choose just one song Swift has written that exposes her exes, but the one with his name in the title seemed fitting. Swift dated singer John Mayer briefly when she was 19 and he was 32. Ew. To make it crystal clear that the song was about him, she even used Mayers own guitar slurring technique in the instrumental.  

Mayer was not happy about the song, saying in a 2012 rolling stones interview, “it made me feel terrible because I didn’t deserve it. I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do … it really humiliated me.” Sorry not sorry Mayer, as Swift said in 2009, “if guys don't want me to write bad songs about them, they shouldn't do bad things.” 

“But you didn't need to take him to bed, that's all 
And I never saw him as a threat (you bastard) 
Until you disappeared with him to have sex, of course 
It's not like we were both on tour 
We were staying on the same fucking hotel floor” 

‘Don’t’ by Ed Sheeran (2014) 

Ed Sheeran let out his fiery red hair with this one. After confirming he was dating Ellie Golding in 2013, Ed Sheeran came out with this angry break up song the next year. He confirmed the song was about Ellie Golding and Niall Horan in a 2014 interview with The Sun, "I got over the anger the moment I wrote the song," he said. But later denied the song was about him the next year, bit sus. 

“I hope she gettin' better sex 
Hope she ain't fakin' it like I did, babe 
Took four long years to call it quits 
Forget that boy, I'm over it” 

‘Shout Out to My Ex’ by Little Mix (2016)  

With a list of songs that expose exes, I can’t miss the one that says it in the title! Perrie Edwards and One Direction singer Zayn Malik were together for four years and engaged, before he broke things off in a single text message! Lyrics like, "Guess I should say thank you for the 'hate yous' and the tattoos" were obviously aimed at Malik as he had a tattoo of Edwards covered. The same year as their split, Malik went Instagram official with supermodel Gigi Hadid. 

The girl group said the song was not meant to be a sad break up song but rather one to empower women. Edward said, "We just thought, ‘You know what? Women need to feel empowered.' Everybody needs to feel empowered after a breakup and we feel like this song can relate to everyone because everybody's had an ex." 

“Thought I'd end up with Sean 
But he wasn't a match 
Wrote some songs about Ricky 
Now I listen and laugh 
Even almost got married 
And for Pete, I'm so thankful” 

‘thank u, next’ by Ariana Grande (2018) 

Anyone else have this one repeat after their first break up? Ariana Grande hit new records with this self-love hit. It came after her whirlwind relationship with comedian Pete Davidson. The pair first announced their relationship in May 2018, engaged in June and broke everything off in mid-October. The relationship felt intense with matching tattoos, PDA and a song named after Davidson in Grande’s previous album. Awkward. Grande starts the song referencing four exes, Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez, Pete Davidson and Mac Miller.  

Davidson addressed the song during a performance, he said. “Here’s the thing about the breakup song. Usually, breakup songs you know who it’s about but you don’t really know. That G named all of us.” While Grande said she sent the song to her exes before she put it out, Davidson said, “That shit came out before I had to put on a fucking duck hat and be like, ‘derrrp here’s the pizza!’ So all my friends were there. It was a sad day. We didn’t know it was going to happen,”