Vote Now to Decide The Greatest Love Song Since You Were Born!!
This round closes Wednesday, February 6th at 10:00 a.m. EST.
Please note! Vote totals update every two minutes, so you won’t see your vote register immediately.
What: What Makes You Beautiful
Who: One Direction
Why: The love song that launched 1D's international takeover is a euphoric, confidence booster with a killer guitar intro, and enough cowbell to please Will Ferrell.
[Listen]
What: Me & U
Who: Cassie
Why: A shy, coy notebook scribbling of a love song, Cassie's sole pop hit feels and sounds so intimate and private that you feel a little bit like an eavesdropper listening to it.
[Listen]
What: Call Me Maybe
Who: Carly Rae Jepsen
Why: Maybe the best song ever written about the earliest stages of a romance, "Call Me Maybe" packs all the excitement and giddiness of a burgeoning crash in one super-catchy and smile-inducing song.
[Listen]
What: Brokenhearted
Who: Karmin
Why: Karmin's breakthrough hit is another great encapsulation of the thrill and mystery of a love story in its first chapters, Amy sounding so nervous and excited about not being left brokenhearted that she just has to rap about it.
[Listen]
What: One Less Lonely Girl
Who: Justin Bieber
Why: Even when he's 55 years old, Bieber is probably still going to make girls swoon at his concerts when he breaks out "One Less Lonely Girl", the pop star's best love song telling girls exactly what they want to hear.
[Listen]
What: Closer
Who: Tegan and Sara
Why: An exceedingly catchy invitation from the twin duo to get "a little bit closer," with some of the most yearning and seductive lyrics and harmonies heard on a pop song in recent years.
[Listen]
What: Love Story
Who: Taylor Swift
Why: The sing-along pop song that broke Taylor Swift to a new level of popularity, cementing her image as the leader of a generation of lovelorn Juliets just waiting for their Romeo to rescue them and tell them they'll never have to be alone.
[Listen]
What: Roly Poly
Who: T-ara
Why: This cute and catchy ditty about chasing a crush at the disco kicked off a mammoth disco music trend in K-pop that's still going strong to this day.
[Listen]
What: Crazy in Love
Who: Beyoncé
Why: Nearly ten years after it became the biggest and best pop hits of 2003, "Crazy" still sounds irresistible and positively delirious, with the intensity of its classic horn riff topped only by Beyoncé's own super-sprung ranting and raving.
[Listen]
What: Bleeding Love
Who: Leona Lewis
Why: A brutally emotional love song which lives up to the drama of its title, "Bleeding Love" deservedly became the song that made British reality TV vet Leona Lewis a pop star in the U.S.
[Listen]
What: Just the Way You Are
Who: Bruno Mars
Why: Borrowing a title from an old Billy Joel classic, Bruno scored his first solo hit with this sweet, piano-driven ballad, saying what every girl wants to hear—I love you, you're perfect, don't change a thing.
[Listen]
What: 7 Things
Who: Miley Cyrus
Why: The perfect rush of a whirlwind love-hate relationship, in which Miley lists over a pop-punk blast the "7 Things" that she hates about her guy, but concluding the one that dwarfs them all is the seventh thing—"You make me love you."
[Listen]
What: Ain't No Other Man
Who: Christina Aguilera
Why: While Christina does do a lot of raving about her man in this one, who's got soul, class, style and badassness to spare, mostly she just lets the horns do the talking, and that more than gets the point across.
[Listen]
What: Bloom
Who: Ga-In
Why: Ga-In proved that sometimes the best thing about being head-over-heels in love is simply great, mindblowing sex.
[Listen]
What: My Life Would Suck Without You
Who: Kelly Clarkson
Why: Best known for breakup songs like "Since U Been Gone", Kelly proved she could do love songs with just as much pop panache with the surging "My Life Would Suck Without You"," her second number-one hit.
[Listen]
What: Love You Like a Love Song
Who: Selena Gomez & the Scene
Why: Selena puts it simply and re-peat-peat-peatedly in this hypnotically catchy love song: "I love you like a love song, baby." Hard to argue with that, isn't it?
[Listen]
What: Someone Like You
Who: Adele
Why: A song that soundtracked so many people's post-breakup self-pity parties that they made an "SNL" skit about it, just two years after its release, "Someone Like You" has become practically synonymous with heartbreak.
[Listen]
What: Just a Dream
Who: Carrie Underwood
Why: An absolutely devastating love song in which a young woman who appears to be getting married is revealed to be going to her soldier husband's funeral, the tragedy of "Just a Dream" makes average break-up songs seem shallow by comparison.
[Listen]
What: Don't Speak
Who: No Doubt
Why: A breakup song so wracked with pain and misery that singer Gwen Stefani asks her lover to stop talking to her altogether, pleading "Don't tell me, 'coz it hurts."
[Listen]
What: Only One
Who: BoA
Why: What sounds like a romantic, lovey-dovey ballad on the surface, is actually a bittersweet goodbye between a once happy couple whose relationship has sadly run its course.
[Listen]
What: The One That Got Away
Who: Katy Perry
Why: A bitterness-tinged flashback in which Katy regrets breaking up with her post-high-school boyfriend, sweetly lamenting "In another life, I could make you stay / So I don't have to say you were the one that got away."
[Listen]
What: From the Bottom of My Broken Heart
Who: Britney Spears
Why: An early breakup ballad from a more innocent time in Britney's career, the singer lamenting the ending of her first serious relationship, singing "You were my first love, you were my true love."
[Listen]
What: We Belong Together
Who: Mariah Carey
Why: The song that saved Mariah's post-"Glitter" career, a heart-rending plea for a breakup to be undone, Mariah reaching vocal and emotional highs few would believe possible.
[Listen]
What: Climax
Who: Usher
Why: Usher breaks out the falsetto to lament a relationship past its peak, though the power of his love (and of the song's gorgeous Diplo-provided production) is so strong that he can't help but have second thoughts about his breakup.
[Listen]
What: I Want It That Way
Who: Backstreet Boys
Why: Start anyone between the age of 20 and 35 off with a "You are / My fiii-iiiire...," should be able to sing the entire rest of this love song from memory. Also, greatest key change ever.
[Listen]
What: Iris
Who: Goo Goo Dolls
Why: A slow-dance and wedding-song standard for the last 15 years, with such unforgettable lyrics as "I'd give up forever to touch you" and "When everything's meant to be broken, I just want you to know who i am."
[Listen]
What: If I Ain't Got You
Who: Alicia Keys
Why: A go-to song for aspiring vocalists on reality TV competitions, ":If I Ain't Got You" is one of Alicia's most heartfelt love songs, as she simply declares "Everything means nothing / If I ain't got you."
[Listen]
What: You and I
Who: Lady Gaga
Why: An unusually straightforward love song for Gaga, her first-ever attempt at a power ballad ended up being one of the best, most popular and most enduring songs on her third album Born This Way.
[Listen]
What: Best I Ever Had
Who: Drake
Why: The song that made Drake a superstar and a hip-hop heartthro, as he swears love and devotion to his girl, still saying the same thing every single time to this day: "Baby, you the best I ever had."
[Listen]
What: I'm With You
Who: Avril Lavigne
Why: It's taken on a bit of a different meaning now that we picture it being sung to Chad Kroeger, but there are still few love songs of the 21st century as sweeping and romantic as Avril's show-stopping ballad.
[Listen]
What: I Will Always Love You
Who: Whitney Houston
Why: One of the most famous love songs of all-time, a Dolly Parton original that Whitney more than made her own, hitting big note after big note and making Kevin Costner (and everyone else) fall in love with her all over again.
[Listen]
What: You're Still the One
Who: Shania Twain
Why: Shania got her biggest hit ever with this slow-burning love song celebrating a love built to last, and though Shania's marriage unfortunately didn't endure, the song has.
[Listen]