For the Love of a Daughter Lyrics
Four years old, with my back to the door
All I could hear was the family war
Your selfish hands always expecting more
Am I your child, or just a charity ward?
[Pre-Chorus]
You have a hollowed out heart, but it's heavy in your chest
I try so hard to fight it, but it's hopeless
Hopeless, you're hopeless
[Chorus]
Oh, father
Please, father
I'd love to leave you alone, but I can't let you go
Oh, father
Please, father
Put the bottle down for the love of a daughter
Oh
[Verse 2]
It's been five years since we've spoken last
And you can't take back what we never had
Oh, well, I can be manipulated only so many times
Before even "I love you" starts to sound like a lie
You have a hollowed out heart, but it's heavy in your chest
I try so hard to fight it, but it's hopeless
Hopeless, you're hopeless
[Chorus]
Oh, father
Please, father
I'd love to leave you alone, but I can't let you go
Oh, father
Please, father
Put the bottle down for the love of a daughter
[Bridge]
Don't you remember I'm your baby girl?
How could you push me out of your world?
Lied to your flesh and your blood
Put your hands on the ones that you swore you loved
Don't you remember I'm your baby girl?
How could you throw me right out of your world?
So young when the pain had begun
Now forever afraid of being loved
[Breakdown]
Oh, father
Please, father
I'd love to leave you alone, but I can't let you go
Oh, father
Please, father
Oh, father
Please, father
Put the bottle down for the love of a daughter
For the love of a daughter
About
“For the Love of a Daughter” is the fourteenth track from Demi Lovato’s third album Unbroken.
It was written by Demi and William Beckett (the former lead singer of The Academy Is…) & produced by Toby Gad.
The song was originally supposed to be featured on Demi’s 2009 sophomore album “Here We Go Again”, but Demi & her management felt that the subject of the song would be too much for her young audience.
During an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, Demi explained the reason the song was left off her second album was because:
When I took a step back, I realized I wouldn’t like those subjects being talked about in somebody else’s home with a seven-year-old and their mom.“
“For the Love of A Daughter” was later rewritten, re-recorded and chosen for the “Unbroken” album.
The song is about Demi’s relationship with her biological father, Patrick, whom she rarely saw after her parents' divorce when she was only two years old. According to this song and her unreleased song “Open” (which she wrote when she was 13), her father mentally and physically abused Demi, her mother and her sister.
On June 23, 2013, Patrick died of cancer at the age of 53 and after his death, Demi revealed that he had suffered from mental illness. In her father’s honor, she started the Lovato Treatment Scholarship program.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 4.Together
- 5.Lightweight
- 6.Unbroken
- 7.Fix a Heart
- 8.Hold Up
- 9.Mistake
- 11.Skyscraper
- 12.In Real Life
- 14.For the Love of a Daughter