Musical Performances Guaranteed To Make You Cry

Some musical performances will make just about anybody cry. It could be because the performer got emotional or because the song itself is so darn sad. It's often because we have some sort of emotional connection to the song, but that's a subjective matter and hey, you do you. 

The following are musical performances that are pretty much guaranteed to make just about anyone cry. These performances were sourced from the staff here at The List, from my Facebook family, and a few subjective choices of my own. Can you guess which ones those are?

Either way, get out the tissues, kick back with the beverage of your choice, and get ready to do some ugly crying. 

The first winner of American Idol, vocal powerhouse Kelly Clarkson, performed "Piece by Piece" during the final season of the show. Clarkson wrote the song when she was pregnant with her first child, River, because of a conversation she had with her sister. They talked about their father's abandonment of them and how different their experience was in relation to their own children—they are both happily married to loving men. So it's no surprise that Clarkson got choked up during the song, and practically everyone in the world cried along with her. Especially Keith Urban. He looks positively wrung out, emotionally speaking, by the end of the song. Us too, Keith.

Little Connie Talbot was only 6 years old when she performed "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on Britain's Got Talent in 2007. As if an adorable little girl with a British accent wasn't enough, her voice is otherworldly. She has no front teeth, and isn't sure how she'd feel about singing in front of the Queen, but she holds the judges and audience in rapt attention during her a capella performance. Talbot came in second, and is still singing. 

Barbra Streisand originally had a hit with this song written by acclaimed singer/songwriter Laura Nyro, who died of ovarian cancer at only 49 years old in 1997. It was the same disease that her mother died battling. Nyro's eclectic style was an inspiration for a number of recording artists, including Suzanne Vega, Kate Bush, and Tori Amos. 

In 2012, Nyro was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Sara Bareilles performed "Stoney End," one Nyro's most famous hits. While it's not a sad song, per se, the story behind it and Nyro's tremendous talent, combined with Bareilles's tribute, make for tears in both longtime fans and those new to Nyro's music.

The sad fact that Whitney Houston is no longer with us is enough to make us cry, but emotions were especially high during this performance in 1991 because of the Persian Gulf War, and patriotism was strong. Add that voice, and it makes you cry for a country that's currently in crisis. 

Houston's crystal clear, pitch perfect performance came ten days after Operation Desert Storm started in the Persian Gulf. She was already a star, but in that moment she was so much more. Jordan Runtagh, in a remembrance for People, said, "armed with no more than a song, Houston galvanized an uncertain nation." 

A surprise to fans, Chris Stapleton played this song live for the first time at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, California on April 23, 2016, just two days after Prince died on April 21. Even though Stapleton told Rolling Stone Country that Prince "was a remarkable musician and an anomaly. There are few like him and there won't be another one," he said in the same article that Prince is "a tough one to cover." Seems like Stapleton did just fine, and his bluesy howl ripped the hearts right out of all of our chests. 

A beautiful, clear performance of a sad, sad song can certainly make you cry. Linda Ronstadt's 1977 performance of "Sorrow Lives Here" is simply stunning. In a 1977 Rolling Stone album review by Peter Herbst, he says "She gets Eric Kaz' complex 'Sorrow Lives Here'...just right. The lines 'Everything seems to spin all around/But I can't see/Whether it happens/With or without me' unite emotional and philosophical confusion dramatically, and Ronstadt sings them as if she wrote them." Boy howdy, she sure does, and you can feel it.

For this performance of "Everyday is Like Sunday" the crowd is so totally engaged, and Morrissey is so completely overwhelmed that they know the words, that he shows uncharacteristic emotion that can set a fan right over the edge. Plus, the girl in the crowd crying and singing along really hits home to anyone who has gotten to see their very favorite artist sing their very favorite song. Reportedly, the song is inspired by Nevil Shute's novel On the Beach, which is about nuclear winter. It's a devastating topic, but you might not cry every time you watch Morrissey perform this song. This time, though, you will.

Simon and Garfunkel were a popular singing duo before they first broke up in 1970. The reunited a few times, most notably perhaps at The Concert in Central Park in 1982. Art Gurfunkel got up and did his famous song — with tears in his eyes — perfectly. One YouTube commenter said "I was at that concert. When he sang this you could have heard a pin drop." That's quite a feat for an event that had 500,000 attendees. Watching it all these years later, you can see why.