What does The Lonely mean?

Christina Perri: The Lonely Meaning

Album cover for The Lonely album cover

Song Released: 2011


The Lonely Lyrics

Two am, where do I begin
Crying off my face again
The silent sound of loneliness
Wants to follow me to bed

I'm a ghost of a girl
That I want to be most
I'm the shell of a girl
That I used to know well

Dancing slowly in an empty...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 12th 2012 !⃝

    I believe she's suffered so much in her life she feels like she's all alone, that she feels like she has no one left, no love, no one who cares, nothing. She has changed from the innocent child she used to be into a potentially suicidal person. She is the lonely, she is all she thinks she has left.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 11th 2013 !⃝

    She lost, or is losing someone special, whether it's a love interest, family member, or simply a very dear friend. She came back home from some get together or party, at around 2am. "2am, where do I begin". She's home alone and all the feelings of sadness and emptiness flood and overwhelm her: "Crying off my face again
    The silent sound of loneliness
    Wants to follow me to bed".
    "I'm the ghost of a girl
    That I want to be most", the reason she goes out and tries to have fun, to become this outgoing and confident woman that every woman would love to be. "I'm the shell of a girl
    That I used to know well", but she knows she can't stop being the hurt and weak girl that keeps longing for that empty spot to be gone. "dancing slowly in an empty room, can the lonely take the place of you",
    she's dancing by herself in her room or house, and thinking of the lonely as an actual person that is comforting her and taking her away from her never ending thoughts and desires.
    "too afraid to go inside, for the pain of one more loveless night",
    She's afraid of going back in her home, where the lonely is awaiting her to blanket her in that too familiar feeling she knows.

    yeah...think that's it. :P

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 1st 2012 !⃝

    When I first heard this song - I cried my eyes out! I knew who "the lonely" was she was referring to! The lonely is that empty spot inside that longs to be loved by someone. It's the spot inside that remembers what love felt like and how bad it hurts to miss it. The lonely is somewhat personified - like a temporary mate. It comforts her and torments her at the same time. It's always there. She's afraid to think of the love loss too much because it hurts - so the "lonely" comes and takes it away..it's a different kind of hurt. Like when she says "Dancing slowly in an empty room Can the lonely take the place of you
    I sing myself a quiet lullaby - Then you go and let the lonely in To take my heart again" I dont think she's meaning he litereally LEFT the room - but she relives the moment in her mind over and over of losing him...and the lonely "comes in" to replace that feeling and tortures her with memories of their love.

    And whens he says "I'm the ghost of a girl
    That I want to be most I'm the shell of a girl That I used to know well" I think again she's referring to the love loss. The Ghost of a girl that she wants to be most - is how she wants to be with him still. And the shell of a girl that she used to know well - is the memory of what she had..she feels empty now.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 3rd 2016 !⃝

    I think it means, she misses who she used to be because of the part where it says "I'm the ghost of a girl I want to be most, I'm the shell of a girl that I used to know well"she misses who she used to be before a tragic break up. She may have been screwed over again because it says "the lonely to take my heart AGAIN" she knows the lonely will always be there.

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 23rd 2016 !⃝

    U think that the word the lonely means an emotion acted as a person and as she was waiting for someone and he didn't come so she meant that she feel lonely and the lonely take her which makes her feel lonely and she was geel in pain and lonely as she dorget about love with a person as the loneliness took her and delete all of this and she meant that she afraid to go to her home as the lonely iswaiting forher to take her heart for him andthat she was dancing and as she felt lonely so she asked to let the lonely in and that there is no one with her and there only her and the lonely feeling .
    That's what do i think ....☺

  6. anonymous
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    Jul 2nd 2015 !⃝

    well, i think it's about the pain of losing someone. so painful that she even considered loneliness ("the Lonely" as what she called it) as a person/companion to get her through her misery, even though she doubts that it could replace the one she lost.
    "Broken pieces of a barely breathing story, where there once was love, now there's only me and the lonely..."

  7. kooljohn176
    click a star to vote
    Apr 14th 2015 !⃝

    The few wonderful songs of CHRISTINA PERRY i've heard have alot of soul in them i believe. My mind when it comes to music has been stuck in the late 60's and 70's, but hearing some CHRISTINA PERRY is a breath of fresh air. Now ''The Lonely'' song i think is about a broken hearted young woman lamenting in the lonelinness of the night by the love she once knew since a girl herself that feels she is becoming the ghost of her past, now in the body of a girl [woman] that she wants to become, but feels so lonely inside and going through the dark night of the soul that she feels she became an emty shell of herself in today's world that seems so emty of love in it's space. Feeling like a ghost in the machine that still yearns to be loved by the loneliness left behind to take her heart away in pieces.

  8. anonymous
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    Aug 15th 2014 !⃝

    I think the song is about her being depressed because no one gets her. So here she is going through all of these struggles,and there is no one there to stick by her side. And her struggle is she lost some thing or is loosing someone. so as the song says "2am where do i begin.'' Its talking about she was waiting for someone and they weren't there, so thats where her tragedy began. So thats what i think about it.

  9. anonymous
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    Jun 2nd 2012 !⃝

    even i am going through this... i love this guy but i don't want to break our friendship by telling him i love him and it kills me inside so i think perri is also trying to express the same thing... oh christina!i have found the perfect song for my feelings !!!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. anonymous
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    Apr 25th 2012 !⃝

    it seems almost like The Lonely is more of a thing than an emotion, because it always refers to it as a "the" signifying that it isnt just an emotion, but a place, a thing, threatening to swallow her up if she fades into depression. she has truely lost someone, and it wasnt just the first time, and now the lonely threaten to invade once more.

  11. anonymous
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    Feb 21st 2012 !⃝

    i think its about shes in love with a person and has been for a while and then he has moved away but they still love each other thats what happened with me he has gone off to high school miss you blake

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    Dec 12th 2011 !⃝

    “I’m the ghost of a girl that I want to be most, in the shell of a girl that I used to know well…”
    I went to one of her shows a few months ago. She told the story behind this song :She had just gotten home from a party.. She was all dolled up in a dress, came home, sat alone in the dark, in her car .. refusing to go inside. She sat in her car & cried.. writing the lyrics to this song on a napkin.
    I can attest that I wasn't the only one in the audience crying when she started singing this..

  13. anonymous
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    Nov 2nd 2011 !⃝

    Classic breakup story ... She loves this guy, but he stopped loving her. She was at her peak when they were together&now that he's gone, she'll never be the same. So now, she's merely a shadow of who she was before&the best she can do to remember him&how he makes her feel is to remember the sadness, which is the lonely. Tragic ... I went through it, most people do. I love you JHH<3.

  14. anonymous
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    Oct 23rd 2011 !⃝

    I think this song is about somebody becoming cold. Somebody that has suffered so much in life and has been left alone so all they have is "the lonely" and they have become somebody else because that's what the pain has done to them, hence "I'm a ghost of a girl that i want to be most. i'm the shell of a girl that i used to know well." the girl being who she used to be before she suffered so much in life.

  15. anonymous
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    Jun 27th 2011 !⃝

    I think this is about her lossing the one she loves because he left her. Now she feels extremely loney but shes accepting that feeling as the only sure feeling she has. She is filling her heart with the feeling of lonely instead of moving on and letting someone else in

  16. anonymous
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    May 28th 2011 !⃝

    I think she lost her love

  17. anonymous
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    May 4th 2011 !⃝

    I think she has lost her lover because he fell out of love with her and she doesn't know what to do. She can't figure out her emotions - whether she's sad or mad or disappointed - so the only thing she can do is try to comfort herself and give herself up to the lonely. And by the lonely I don't think she means the single people, I think she is almost referring to spirits. People who suck the emotion from you like blood.

  18. anonymous
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    Apr 19th 2011 !⃝

    I think that this is a song of loss and love. Perri is upset about this person leaving her, and it's broken her up inside. They've left her empty and lonely. When she sings, "can the lonely take the place of you?", I think she is expressing how sometimes even the lonely can be more of a comfort than herself in her pain. The music of the song is haunting and chilling, giving us the ghostly, lonely feeling she is trying to portray.

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