![[2025] Anti-war songs in Western music: Songs that pray for peace](https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/ug0L5S2Qzwg/maxresdefault.webp)
[2025] Anti-war songs in Western music: Songs that pray for peace
As of 2025, there is still no prospect for resolving the situation in Ukraine, and since October 2023, armed clashes between Israel and Gaza have erupted, plunging the world into continued turmoil.
In this article, we’ve compiled a selection of overseas anti-war songs that will move listeners emotionally—precisely the kind of music we want you to hear in times like these—spanning different eras and genres.
Please listen while checking the parallel translations and such—the messages each artist has imbued in their work, from heartfelt wishes for peace to, at times, stern denunciations of those in power.
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[2025] Anti-war songs in Western music: Songs praying for peace (1–10)
Over JerusalemJethro Tull
How can we break a 5,000-year chain of intolerance and reprisal? Posing that very question, this track appears on Curious Ruminant, the album released in March 2025 by British stalwarts Jethro Tull, famed for their distinctive, flute-driven sound.
Within a grand sonic tapestry woven from progressive rock and folk, the work portrays the tragic history borne by the land of Jerusalem.
Drawing on the central figure’s repeated visits to the region since 1986, it conveys what feels like a searing cry for peace.
Paired with an animated video crafted by a Portuguese studio, it’s a piece to hear when you want to face the weight of history.
RajieenMultiple artists
This track brings together 25 artist groups from 11 countries across the Middle East and North Africa, singing—over a grand sound that weaves hip-hop and soul—of the suffering of people driven from their homelands and their unyielding will to return.
With searing words that indict historical tragedies and the world’s injustices, the powerful declaration, “We will return,” resounds like a cry straight from their souls.
Created in October 2023, the song was produced to support people in Gaza facing a humanitarian crisis, especially children.
Rather than thinking it has nothing to do with you, why not spend eight-plus minutes listening to the urgent hopes poured into this work?
War Isn’t MurderJesse Welles
Jesse Wells, a modern troubadour who emerged from social media, hails from the United States.
Released in April 2024, this work hurls piercing questions with nothing more than a gravelly voice and an acoustic guitar.
It confronts the reality that the word “murder” is being hollowed out by the lofty justifications brandished by those in power.
I can’t shake the feeling that his singing, asking “Isn’t this murder?” strikes directly at the heart.
This piece, which drew attention for his performance at Farm Aid, is also included on the album Under The Powerlines (April 24 – September 24).
It’s a song I especially want people to hear who ache over events in distant countries and are tormented by a sense of helplessness.
Its rugged resonance reveals an unvarnished truth.
من النهر (From the River)Ethel Cain
This is a song by American singer-songwriter Ethel Cain, created as a prayer for the people of Palestine.
Composed solely of tranquil piano and her ethereal vocals, the piece runs for about nine and a half minutes.
It was made during the production of her experimental EP “Perverts,” and mourns lives silently extinguished in a distant land; the repeated phrase “Please don’t forget me” resonates with piercing poignancy.
In February 2024, shaken by the loss of more than 30,000 Palestinian lives—especially the airstrikes on Rafah—she released the track imbued with a quiet anger toward the world.
It feels as if it implores those of us who might otherwise consume the tragedy of a far-off country as mere information to never forget the reality of what is happening.
Hind’s HallMacklemore
An unapologetically direct track that doesn’t hide its anger at those in power.
Released in May 2024 by American rapper Macklemore, the song stands in solidarity with campus protests and bears the name of a six-year-old girl killed by the Israeli military.
Its scathing critique of a music industry that looks the other way pierces the listener’s heart.
Pledging to donate all proceeds—and praised by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello—the song makes it feel as if you can hear his voice saying, “Silence is complicity.” It compels deep reflection on how we should confront injustice in the world.
Gaza Is CallingMustafa
A memory of childhood friendship torn apart by violence.
That searing sentiment is captured in a song by Mustafa, a Sudanese-Canadian artist.
A poet as well, he sings here about parting from his Palestinian best friend, an experience he had at the age of eleven.
The plaintive tones of acoustic guitar and the traditional oud seem to voice a deep lament for the violence that even love could not overcome.
Released in June 2024 from the album “Dunya,” the track’s proceeds are being donated in full to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.
It reframes events in a distant land as the story of a single human being, prompting us to consider what we can do for peace.
Noam’s Song 2Maor Ashkenazi & Noam Cohen
Israeli rapper Maor Ashkenazi and Noam Cohen, who survived the October 2023 music festival attack despite losing a friend, co-wrote this work—a track that plays like a documentary of a searingly painful experience.
The extreme circumstances of gunfire and explosions, and the survivor’s personal memories, are vividly rendered over a heavy, icy drill beat.
This is not merely an indictment; it is the very cry of a human soul struggling to rise from the brink of death.
Upon its release in November 2023, it reached No.
10 on the charts in Israel.
Rather than seeing it as a distant country’s event, why not reflect on the value of peace as one person’s story?