Lyrics of Maroon 5's "payphone" [duplicate]

This sounds wrong to me:

If happy ever after did exist

I would still be holding you like this

It may be perfect grammar for all I know, and songs have "poetic license", yet...

Is "did exist" the right tense here? If not, how could it be improved?

EDIT: the moderator that closed this as "exact duplicate" did not bother to read/understand the question and the answers!

Yes, it's the right tense. We use the past tense to describe hypothetical / impossible situations. Compare:

You've bought a lottery ticket, have you? What will you do if you win the lottery?

I know you never buy lottery tickets, but just imagine: what would you do if you won the lottery?

Thus, in the line:

If happy ever after did exist

the use of the past tense implies that "happy ever after" does not exist. The use of the emphatic "did exist" rather than plain "existed" shows that the song is contradicting our usual expectations, which further emphasises that "happy ever after" only exists in our imagination.

If ever after did exist...

There are at least 3 elements involved in your first (if) clause:

• ever after = used as a Noun

Ex. Is there a happy ever after?

• do = used in a positive sentence as a form of emphasis

Ex. I do believe in fairies!

• the unreal conditional = the second type of conditional

Ex. If I had a million dollars, I'd buy you a house.