"Forgive" is a song by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer-songwriter

Rebecca Lynn Howard Rebecca Lynn Howard (born April 24, 1979) is an American country music artist. She has charted seven singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts, and has released three studio albums. Her highest-charting single, " Forgive", peaked at N ...

, written by Howard and

Trey Bruce Trey Edwin Bruce is an American songwriter. Bruce has Fourteen ASCAP Awards for the most played songs at radio and has written ten Number One singles on the ''Billboard''. "Look Heart, No Hands", "Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man" and "Whisper M ...

, who co-produced the track with Mark Wright. The track debuted to

country radio Country radio refers to radio stations that play country music. Most country radio stations are commercial radio stations. Most country radio stations usually play only music which has been officially released to country radio by record labels. T ...

on May 6, 2002, as the lead and only single from her second studio album of the same name via

MCA Nashville Music Corporation of America, formerly known as Universal Music Group Nashville, is Universal Music Group's country music subsidiary. It was officially opened in 1945 as MCA Nashville and Mercury Nashville which opened on New Year's Day 1950 a ...

. It was also included on the soundtrack to the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

drama series ''Providence''. The track became a big success for Howard, peaking at number 12 on the US

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart; it is to date her only top-40 entry on the chart. A video was also released, which became successful. Howard and Bruce would be nominated at the 38th Academy of Country Music Awards in 2003 for Song of the Year as songwriters; they ended up losing the award to Phillip Brian White and David Vincent Williams' " I'm Movin' On".

Content

The narrator sings about an unfaithful partner who questions why she can't forgive him. The song was inspired by one of Howard's friends, who was going through a divorce at the time and gave Howard permission to use the details regarding that time.

Music video

Morgan Lawley directed the music video for "Forgive". The video debuted to CMT on May 5, 2002. It was nominated at the

2003 CMT Flameworthy Awards The 2003 CMT Flameworthy Awards (now known as the CMT Music Awards) aired on April 7, 2003, from the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now known as the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville, Tennessee, and hosted by Pamela Anderson and Toby Keith. The CM ...

for Female Video of the Year. The video ended up losing to

Martina McBride Martina Mariea McBride (née Schiff, July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material. McBride was born in Sharon, Kansas, and relocated to Nashville, T ...

's "

Concrete Angel "Concrete Angel" is a song written by Stephanie Bentley and Rob Crosby, and recorded by American country music artist Martina McBride. It was released in November 2002 as the fourth and last single from McBride's ''Greatest Hits'' compilation albu ...

Critical reception

Maria Konicki Dinoia of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

called the song "chill-inducing" and a "masterpiece" in her review of the album.

Commercial performance

"Forgive" entered the US ''Billboard''

chart the week of May 11, 2002, at number 56, becoming the second highest debut of the week. The track entered the top-40 of the chart the week of June 29, 2002, at number 40, marking Howard's first and only entry into the top-forty. "Forgive" would peak at number 12 on the chart on November 23, 2002 in its twenty-ninth week despite losing airplay. The song would spend 30 weeks in total. "Forgive" debuted on ''

Radio & Records ''Radio & Records'' (''R&R'') was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister ...

s Country chart on May 17, 2002, at number 46. The song reached number ten on the chart the week of November 15, 2002. "Forgive" spent 29 weeks on the chart, its final being on November 29, 2002 at number 29.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Rebecca Lynn Howard 2002 songs 2002 singles Rebecca Lynn Howard songs Songs written by Rebecca Lynn Howard Songs written by Trey Bruce MCA Nashville Records singles Song recordings produced by Mark Wright (record producer) Songs about infidelity Music videos directed by Morgan Lawley