This their finest single to date. Jennifer Nettle turns in an achingly vulnerable vocal, with only an acoustic guitar backing her up for most of the song. “Stay” is the story of the other woman who slowly finds her pride and refuses to “live this way.” It’s very difficult to make the woman on the wrong side of the marital affair to appear sympathetic, but “Stay” is startlingly effective at doing so. I first heard this months ago, but it still blows me away every time I listen to it.
Grade: A+
Listen: Stay
Buy: Stay
I agree. This song is very touching. Tons of emotion packed into it. I’ve had to let all of the singles off of this album grow on me, and this is the first that I loved after the first listen.
The only thing I was disappointed with, simply from personal preference, was the lack of production. I miss the electric guitar. But this song is filled with enough emotion that I don’t mind so much.
i love her voice. she puts so much emotion into this, and it is mindblowing. i watched the video the other day and it was incerdible.
Amaizing. I heard the song on the CD first and thought its acoustic background wouldn’t allow it to be a proper single for radio interest, but I was wrong, good things. The video, the voice, the song, is all flawless for me. I agree 100%, best song they’ve had out yet.
I still say, “One Blue Sky,” is the best song on the album, but this is excellent and original and it will be interesting to see how it holds up at radio.
i really like this song, and she does it well live!
A good song – I wouldn’t call it their best, but a solid B+
Heartbreakingly beautiful!
This is their best song ever. The first time i heard it I started to cry. Its great.
The video is simply moving, I believe she Nettles wrote the song. Does anyone heard of any truth to the story, has she said she has had an experience that led here to the song?
Most touching and realistic song about cheatin I’ve ever heard and performed so well by her
BY FAR THIS IS THE MOST DOWN TO EARTH, REAL, EMOTIONAL SONG THAT I HAVE EVER HEAR. ITS LIKE SHE HAS LIVED THE SONG. YOU CAN’T HELP BU9T SYMPATHIZE WITH HER.
i have lived this song and it really hits home, you cant help who your heart falls in love with, even though it may be wrong. never has there been a song that was so true and emotional
She makes an awsome statement, but what is really confusing is that in the video she has a ring on her ring finger.. where does that come in play?
I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it. I have lived this life and although may not be my proudest moments, as others have said, you can not chose who your heart falls in love with. This song stopped me dead in my tracks the first time I heard it and it continues to. Love. this. song.
i love sugerlnd at song stay i love that song
This song is awful in that it promotes the sin of adultery. This song is sung from the perspective of an adultress who laments her lover’s return to the covenant bed that he shares with his wife. Psalm 36:1-4 (NIV) warns us about the course of a sinful man: “An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.” In Proverbs 30:20 (NIV), God warns us about the adultress: “This is the way of an adultress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.'” While the adultress in this song beckons her lover to stay the course of the betrayal of his wife, Proverbs 3:7 (NIV) warns: “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.” Indeed, “to fear the Lord is to shun evil. . . .” (Proverbs 8:13 NIV). I encourage any man or woman who has been involved in this sin to repent of your sin, trust in Christ and turn to God who is merciful and who will forgive you of all of your sins.
I am surprised that the only comment on here AGAINST this song is an extremely religious one that will only affect those who want to listen to verses from God.
I agree with many of you that you can’t help who your heart falls in love with… But you absolutely can and should control whether or not you act on it. I have had the option (and desire) of being the other woman a few times, and no matter how bad I wanted it,I’ve walked away.
A marriage, a family, often with children involved – is not to be tampered with.if the relationship dissolves and it ends for reasons other than adultery, fine – but adultery is wrong. And YES. The other woman IS DOING WRONG TOO. Okay, he is a dog. He is unhappy. His wife is a bitch. Whatever… None of that matters. Fact is, he is married. Just because you’re single does not give you the right to justify it. It is wrong to help break up a family. Let it break up, then act on your feelings.
This song angers me every time I hear it. I change the station. I cannot feel sorry for or sympathise for “the other woman” no matter how emotional or heart felt the song is.
The woman in the song is wrong and so are those of you who claim “we’ve all been there.” No. We haven’t. Those of us with self respect and self control have not.
I only hope that those of you that are “the other woman” realize how wrong you are. That you stop justifying it to yourselves so that you don’t have to face reality.
There are a LOT of single men out there that want “No strings. Just fun” whatever… Stay away from the married men.
I’m kinda sad reading the mean comments some people have left about the “other woman”. I’ve definitely been in the woman being cheated on and i’ve been in the shoes of the other woman, sadly I didn’t know it at the time.
I had just moved to this town and thought I met a great guy that understood how busy I was being nurse working night shifts, we got together when we both had time, This went on for a few weeks but all the while he had a girlfriend and a little baby girl at home. He never let on about either of them, I even wonder if any of what he told me was true.
I found out when I was looking for my old friends on Myspace and I found his other page (not the one he had emailed me), with a picture of him, his girlfriend and his daughter.
So i called him, asked what was going on and he told me that he hadn’t updated that recently and that they were broken up and yes he had a daughter but he didn’t want to tell me right away, he was afraid it would scare me off. He said all the right things, told me she wasn’t part of his life and all this bad stuff about her and is old relationship.
So i bought it, like the desperate for love girl that I was. One week later when I found out through a friend of his that he was for a fact still with her and they were engaged, I ended it, but that didn’t stop him from calling and asking if we could “just talk” because things weren’t working out with him and the girlfriend. I told him to go to relationship counseling and leave me out of it. He STILL tries to call me periodically. THESE MEN ARE VERY MANIPULATIVE!!! They’ll say anything to make you believe them. Try to remember this when you start thinking that the other woman is evil or the only one at fault for luring your man away, I think very few women walk around just looking for a taken man so that they can hurt someone they don’t even know.
i love this song my sister is listening to this song at her wedding :)
so we can’t all be perfect without making mistakes we are only human… and on behalf of those other woman they have feelings too, now whether or not they should act on those is beyond me id probably say its not a good idea bc karma will find you, but at the same time everyones situations are different and you can’t put them all in the same boat it just doesnt work that way… so deal with it, and also not every “other woman” is commiting adultery they may just stay in touch with one another bc they have such a strong and deep bond it doesnt mean that they are being physical with one another, , everyone wants to feel love… and i agree that the marriage should end on its own first and then the other woman could see where to go from there. anyways who are you or I to judge
Re: Ambrose Jones… Your sister is having this song at her wedding?? Does she know the whole song is sung from the point of view of the whore that is having an affair with a married man and hoping he leaves his wife? Because this would not be an appropriate song to play at a wedding, of all places, LOL.
This song is powerful and touching….. by far there best
I absolutly love the song. It is so powerful. Ive been the other woman for a few months now. Sometimes life just happens. Falling for him was the absolute last thing I expected and even after I realized my feelings for him I did not act on them. I let him come to me. Never cheating on his wife before I didnt ever expect it to happen. But we are happy together. and unlike the song i know that someday he will leave. there are no kids involved im not a homewrecker im just in love with a man who happens to be in love with me. i dont think thats the worst thing in the world. every body deserves to find happiness and i know deep down that he will “leave her arms and forever be in mine”
Re: Shayla
I think that the term whore was incredibly out of line. Yes it is wrong for a woman to have an affair with a married man but I believe that the married man is more at fault. He is afterall the one that made vows to his wife. Besdies, what if she started to love him before she found out he was married? Would still make a woman a whore?
I totally agree with mb. As for “being only human”, plenty of humans know how to take the high road, so being only human is no excuse. The term “whore” is not incredibly out of line and only slightly inaccurate. The other woman, after all, is not getting paid. Slut, however, is the perfect word.
Jojo: Seriously, you did act on your feelings. You should have told him no. Just because there are no kids in the marriage does not mean you are not a home wrecker. Find your own man, a single man. Quit making excuses and have some respect for yourself!
As for the song, it may be beautifully sung, but it is disgusting. No way should the other woman have a song dedicated to her perspective. It makes me angry every time I hear it.
Kel: your situation is different. Good for you that you gave that man the boot when you found out. You are not the other woman in the song because you didn’t stick around when you found out.
okayy so this song is the best ever. idc wat yall say. she wrote this after her divorce so i love it and i love the emotion.
I really enjoyed read your article, this song is the best ever, very interesting, Regards