12 Musicians Who’ve Written Heartfelt Songs About Their Kids

Here’s what these musicians said about their songs written for their families…

The Jonas Brothers — Nick, Joe and Kevin — penned one of their most heartfelt songs in honor of their daughters. Between them, the three brothers share five daughters and being parents is what brought them together in the studio on one particular writing day. Looking back, Joe says that while one person usually leads the writing session, they were actually able to all work together on “Little Bird.”

“So being able to write music, usually three people in one room, it’s sometimes difficult,” Joe shared on Songs & Stories. “Like, ‘What are we gonna write about today?’ And one voice is a little louder, but to know that we have a through line of like, ‘Well, we have something in common here.’ We may not have things in common with relationships, but we’ll have certain things in common when it comes to being dads.”

In 2020, Machine Gun Kelly released his heartbreaking song “Play This When I’m Gone,” which he wrote for his daughter Casie amid his struggle with anxiety and substance abuse. On the track, he shared all of his wishes for her future, in case he didn’t overcome his personal battles and wasn’t able to be there for her one day.

Adele’s song “Sweetest Devotion” was written all about her young son Angelo. As the closing track on her album 25, Adele explained that the song is about the impact he’s had on her and discovering how her life is now all about taking care of someone else.

“That’s my son,” Adele shared with USA Today, referencing his voice, which is featured on the track. “The song is all about my kid. The way I’ve described it is that something much bigger has happened in my life. I love that my life is now about someone else.”

Beyoncé has penned several songs about her children, including “God Made You Beautiful” and “Protector” — which she’s performed with daughters Blue Ivy and Rumi on stage. And when Blue was just an infant, Beyoncé also wrote the song “Blue,” which is all about how becoming a mom completely changed her life.

“It’s my daughter, she’s my biggest muse/There’s someone, we all find out soon/more important than ourselves to lose,” she wrote in a collaborative piece called “Bey the Light” with poet Forrest Gander for CR Fashion Book in 2014.

When Lenny Kravitz’s daughter Zoë Kravitz was just a little girl, he wrote the song “Flowers for Zoë” in her honor. The sweet lyrics of the song, which was released on his 1991 album Mama Said, are all about all the things in the world he wants for his daughter. He later penned the track “Little Girl’s Eyes.”

“When my daughter Zoë was small, I wrote a song for her that contained the lyric: ‘All I want to do when I come into the room is see her smile – when I look in my little girl’s eyes.’ I know this is a sentiment shared by parents around the world,” Lenny once wrote in a social media post.

Alanis Morissette wrote her 2020 song “Ablaze” with her three children in mind. Each verse of the song is dedicated to the hopes and dreams she has for her kids — and she even featured them in the music video for the track. Then, when she performed it on The Tonight Show, she had her daughter Onyx sitting on her lap. 

“It was my ode and my love song to my children. But the core of the soulfulness of who we are in theory, and certainly sung about in ‘Ablaze,’ is the idea of how interconnected we are, regardless of the stories that we’re living,” Alanis said in a video for Apple Music. 

Pink wrote her song “All I Know So Far” as a way to share her life story with her daughter. Pink says she was inspired to write the song early in the pandemic when she was incredibly sick with COVID and wasn’t sure if she was going to make it. When she recovered, she penned the track with Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

“It’s just sort of a letter to my daughter, a letter to Willow. It’s all I know so far,” Pink shared on Heart radio. “It’s a hard thing to try and do, try to put your life into three minutes. I think it would be [emotional] for any parent to try … As a parent, you think about, what am I leaving for my kid? What am I teaching them? Are they gonna make it in this world? This crazy world that we live in now. And what do I need to tell them if this is the last time I ever get to tell them anything? And so that was kind of this song.”

Billy Joel penned his song “Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)” for his eldest daughter Alexa. He explained that in the midst of his divorce from Alexa’s mother, Christie Brinkley, the little girl asked him a heavy question about death, inspiring the song. 

“Alexa, who’s my oldest and who’s now 34, was about seven years old. Her mom and I were going to be breaking up, and she knew that was going to happen. During that time, she asked me, ‘What happens when you die?’” he shared on 60 Minutes Australia. 

He continued, “Now, every child probably asks their parent this, because it’s a scary thing for children. The best way I could explain it to her was, ‘Well, you go into other people’s hearts.’ She seemed okay with that explanation, but I did it with the song. I thought it was a good way to impart that thought.”

Lionel Richie was inspired by his daughter Nicole Richie to write his song “Ballerina Girl.” He penned the track when she was just a little girl — and he joked that she’s never let him forget that the song is about her. 

“[I wrote it] for Nicole, and she never lets me forget that, by the way. I would go to her little ballet classes, if you can imagine Nicole in ballet classes. I look at her now and go ‘nah.’ But believe it or not, I would go and I came home and just writing that song was just her song,” Lionel told NBC News.

DJ Khaled and Chance the Rapper teamed up to write their song “I Love You So Much,” which they dedicated to their children. The sweet song is all about showing unlimited support for their kids and reminding them how much they’re loved.

“Real vibes for all the babies. This for all the Families that love each other, all the lil braddas baby yea S/o to Asahd and Kensli for inspiring this record and to the legendary @DjKhaled for believing in me, reminding me to believe in myself, reminding to be #Grateful and for giving glory to God,” Chance wrote on Instagram. 

Stevie Wonder penned his iconic song “Isn’t She Lovely” after the birth of his first child, a daughter named Aisha. He says he was inspired to write the track after giving Aisha a bath one night and the sound of her in the tub made him emotional. He even included the sound in the track. 

“I remember writing ‘Isn’t She Lovely?’ — I can almost cry right now thinking about it,” he told O Magazine. “The sound of my daughter Aisha splashing in the bathtub created a picture. That was emotion stuck in a moment, and that can never, ever be taken away.”

Phil Collins’ hit song “You’ll Be in My Heart” may have garnered international acclaim thanks to Tarzan, but it originally began as a lullaby for his daughter Lily Collins. She says it’s one of her favorite songs by her musician dad. 

“‘You’ll Be in My Heart,’ from Tarzan. It was written as a lullaby to me when we were younger. We grew up watching Disney shows and movies together, so that was his way of kind of being able to do it for his kids. It was so special,” Lily said on the Harry show.