I listened to Sing For You by Tracy Chapman tonight. It’s one of my favourite songs but it’s a favourite song for a reason.

I’d heard it a bunch of times before. I’d even scribbled one of the lyrics in a notebook I used to carry around – ‘forget the chorus, you’re the bridge‘ and I only ever write down lyrics when they really get under my skin.

I remember there was a time I used to sing for you

When things ended with my ex, we were pretty bad at letting each other go. I created a playlist on Spotify that I shared with him and it ended up being a playlist of songs that made one of us think of the other (we’d already broken up!).

I’d added songs that made me think of him. But he added Sing For You to the playlist. And I remember listening to the song as though listening to it for the first time after he added it. And it kind of was my first time listening to it, listening to it in the context of a relationship ending. And him thinking of me.

I remember crying listening to it that time, thinking of him as he sang to me. It still makes me feel emotional listening to it. And that wave of emotion hit me tonight. There’s such intimacy in singing for someone else.

It’s such a simple, lovely song. It feels so sad. Maybe not sad, maybe bittersweet is the right word. That remembering of a tender moment between people that have probably shared so much together. And it’s now gone. That longing for a time where things could go back to what they were. It feels quite fitting.

There’s nothing I wouldn’t give for one more time when I can sing for you