Eternal Love #GirlDad

Last year as Valentines Day approached I wrote about new love songs that would make even the single girls swoon. With everything happening over the last week with the Helicopter crash that took Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna Bryant, along with seven other loved ones who were taken way too soon, I can’t help but think about love with a heavier heart. With #GirlDad trending on twitter, videos and photos of Kobe Bryant and his daughters and Camila Cabello’s performance of her song First Man which she sang to her tearful father sitting in the crowd there hasn’t been a dry eye from the east coast to Bryant’s home at the Staples Center.

So of course this got me thinking of the beauty of the father and daughter relationship, your first and forever Valentine. Whether it is a father, mother, or grandparent that connection inspires the biggest tear-jerkers in music. This love is eternal and the bond cannot be broken. The theme of the song changes as you go through different phases of your life. From becoming a parent, to accepting your little girl has a new man in their life, giving them away when they walk down the aisle, to missing them and coping with their absence when they are gone. The following artists have expressed this type of love the best. Get the tissues ready as we dive into the feelings of these songs.

Let’s start with the love and emotions that soon to be or new parents have penned to paper so eloquently. Rachel Platten wrote the song You Belong for her first daughter Violet before she was born. The song begins and ends with her baby's heartbeat, and at the close of the song you hear Rachel say “That’s the cutest thing ever”. Rachel beautifully captures the love for someone you haven’t even met yet, a being that you know you will always be there for no matter what: You know I don’t know your name/but I can’t wait to say it/And I don’t know your face/but I bet it will blow me away//I’ll show you what love is and all that you’re worth. The song is simple just Rachel writing to her daughter on the piano, words that her daughter will forever have and she will know that her love and dreams for her transcends when she’s gone.

Andy Grammer told her daughter Louisiana that he will be his daughter’s always in his song to her Always off of his The Good Parts album. People come and go and there are only a few people in it for the long haul and there’s a lot of a parent that they don’t know and a lot of factors out of our control. Regardless, Andy is ensuring his daughter that his love is permanent Trust me, the one thing that nothing in this world can change/you and me will be always. This song has a groove to it with a horns section on the chorus but the sentiment is still so sweet. Andy has said that his daughter asks which songs were written for her. That little girl knows every time dad is on stage he is singing to her.

Daughters will grow up, get into relationships, fall in love, get married, and have their own children. This isn’t the easiest for fathers to let go or give their blessings. Tori Kelly told this story the best in her song Change Your Mind off of her Inspired by True Events album. A song for her daddy convincing that her now husband was the one she was going to marry. Asking for his blessing even if he thinks its wrong. No it don’t seem right but I’ll change your mind/trust in me I’ma need your blessing/ oh, I love him I’m confessin/If it takes my life I’ma change your mind. This song is a little less sad, but it portrays the shift in relationship, still love because her dad only wants what’s best for her like any parent, but more of the stage of daughters making their own decisions that they will have to live with.

Camila Cabello definitely kept the tears coming last week at the Grammys with her serenade of First Man to her father sitting in the front row. Whether it is a significant boyfriend taking more of your daughter’s time away from you or when you have to walk her down the aisle that final time is far from emotionless. Camila tugged all our heart strings with First Man off of her most recent album Romance. There are too many gut wrenching verses in this ballad from picking up a daughter from the airport with someone else and they can only visit half the time down to painting the very vivid picture of a father crying because his baby looks so beautiful as a bride.My favorite line that sums up the beauty of this song is You held me so tight now someone else can/but you were the first man that really loved me.

Parent child or grandchild love is definitely not a one way street. So before you are born or growing up these artists are writing these songs for their kids. As time goes on the kids start writing the love songs for their parents, like Camila’s First Man. Especially once parent’s pass away songwriting is another way to channel those emotions and keep that love alive. Tori Kelly also wrote a beautiful song for her grandfather when he passed away called Your Words: Every part of me misses every part of you/and with all the chaos in my world I could really use your words. I saw Tori perform this for the first time at Kings Theater in Brooklyn. She has one of those angelic voices that can silence a theater of people, especially when she pours her heart out on the stage with this plea and ode to her grandfather who she was very close with.

Andy Grammer also dedicated a song to his late mother, but it was also a song for his daughter about her grandmother. Even though she will never meet her this song is to remind her that she is always with her in everything she does. She’d Say is a song off of his latest album Naive. Going through all the things that she would say if she was still physically with them, but that she is in their hearts always: she’s a part of you, you don’t have a choice/my dear, you will feel her/in your mind you will hear her / and if she could use words, use words she’d say...Like Rachel using her daughter’s heartbeat at the end of the song you hear Andy’s daughter at the end say “Grandma Kathy”. So precious and too cute!

Lauren Alaina played her new song The Other Side for a sold out NYC crowd at the Bowery Ballroom on her first headlining That Girl Was Me Tour. Her stepfather passed in 2018 after his battle with cancer. She tearfully and emotionally intro’d the song with how in his final moments he assured them not to cry because he was seeing heaven and God. Hard to imagine, but it gave her and her family peace that he is in a better place on the other side. I know you have doubts but I see it right now/I promise it’s real keep praying/ And go write a story that you can’t wait to tell me on the other side. Whether you are spiritual or religious this song can still get to you if you lost somebody close and too soon. My favorite verse that ties in a father’s love from birth, to marriage, to death is the line “Someday I’m gonna get married/When I have you a grandbaby I got somebody good to name him after”. She also said it perfectly when she says “There’s gonna be a lot of sadness on happy days”

So there you have it. Apologies for the serious technically 'Valentines day' post. But it is definitely the songs that punch you in the heart that become my favorites on repeat. If anything be grateful for all forms of love you have in your life and definitely hug those closest to you a little longer and tighter, dedicate a song to them because there’s plenty already written that say it better than we sometimes can. RIP Kobe Bryant & GiGi and the others in the crash, you were unfairly taken too soon, but your love and legacy as a father and player will live on in spirit, in the game, and in music. Parent-child love is eternal, let these songs capture that and remind you of it’s purity and longevity.