On the 365-day anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Brad Paisley took to social media with “Same Here,” his new song that features a conversation between the country superstar and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
While the composition isn’t solely about Ukraine or the ongoing war, Paisley’s lyrics address the similarities between people around the world, despite our cultural differences. The latter part of the song features a spoken word part by Zelensky who says “We speak different languages in our life, but I think we appreciate the same things — children, freedom, our flag, our soldiers, our people… There is no distance between our two countries in such values.”
In an interview with The Associated Press about the song, Brad stated “There’s just no differences. You can put us in different places with different flags and different languages, but we have so many similarities.” The country musician addressed Zelensky’s history as an actor and comedian, and said the Ukrainian president offered several suggestions for the music: I think he understands that art is how you reach the most people, especially in the heart.”M“He can give as many speeches as he can give, but it’s a lot easier to hear something with a melody maybe.”
In cooperation with fellow songwriter Lee Thomas Miller and Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith, Paisley will donate his portion of the royalties from the song to United24, a crowdfunding effort that helps build housing for displaced Ukrainians whose homes have been destroyed.
“Same Here” is the first release from Paisley’s forthcoming full length, Son of the Mountains, his first with Universal Music Group Nashville. “We do deal with stuff going on in the world,” Paisley said. “How do you sing about things that are truly big — a big deal right now — that also don’t feel like maybe they’re the type of thing that you would be singing about typically? And yeah, on this album I have kind of really dug deep and tried to say something.”
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Author: Al Denté
Photo: Amaya & Laurent