“Same Here” by Brad Paisley (ft. Volodymyr Zelenskyy)

“Same Here”, which was released 24 February 2023, is the first and currently only song in the discography of Володимир Зеленський, aka Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine. On top of the fact that it is unconventional for (most) heads of state to drop songs, his appearance on this track is notable for a couple of other reasons. 

First is that, as you likely already, Ukraine has been at war with Russia for the past year (though actually longer than that, from an official perspective). And in fact secondly, Zelensky just publicly acknowledged the first anniversary of said war on the same day this track was released. As such President Zelensky, who is given credit for writing “Same Here” (thus connoting that he actually penned his own words), uses this opportunity to by and large big up his people/soldiers.

THE TEAM BEHIND “SAME HERE”

Brad Paisley, the tenured country musician from West Virginia, acted as both a writer and producer of “Same Here”. Besides himself and Volodymyr, the other author of this track is Lee Thomas Miller. And its co-producer, alongside Brad, is Luke Wooten.

Upon release, this song was reportedly the lead single from Brad Paisley’s album titled “Son of the Mountain”. Thus far the singer’s entire discography, dating all the way back to his debut LP, 1999’s “Who Needs Pictures”, has been backed by Arista Nashville. However, “Son of the Mountain” is supported by UMG Nashville who, by the looks of things, Paisley just signed with earlier in February of 2023.

SO WHAT IS THE “SAME HERE”?

Even though Brad has admitted that this song was dropped in direct recognition of the one-year anniversary of Russia invading the Ukraine, unlike Zelensky, if you will, he does not use the track to acknowledge warfare. 

From Paisley’s perspective, this can rather be deemed as more of a song of peace, as what his lyrics and the title speak to, in actuality, is the commonalities between mankind.

The singer begins these observations by first focusing on California or how that locality is stereotyped as being the home of “plastic people and paparazzi”. Yet and still, as with every other place in the world so to speak, there are local bars where people “buy each other beers” and go about “(solving) all the world problems”, i.e. discussing the serious issues of the day and offering their personal resolutions.

Meanwhile, the second verse is set in Cozumel, which is a Mexican resort island. The implication is that the vocalist spent some time there with his significant other. And while therein, they “stumbled on some local wedding” which, accordingly, they did not understand the words that were being spoken. 

However, they were able to readily interpret the associated emotions, i.e. the tears of joy that were flowing at the event. And again, Brad sees such run-of-the-mill phenomena, if you will, as being indicative of our universal commonalities just like, as noted in the second chorus, “(missing) your mama”, “(worrying) about your babies” or having a desire for that special someone in your life. But most of all, it can be gleaned that the singer perceives interpersonal love as our most-shared trait.

ZELENSKY SPEAKS

“But tell me, is there a bar on your corner
Where you buy each other beers
And solve all the world’s problems?
Same here”

The third verse and chorus steers us in a different direction. Here, the subject is a foreign friend of Brian. This friend of his is, in some ways, a lot like the everyman. He has a favorite sports team (even though they suck), “a wife he loves and a bunch of dreams”. But it is connoted that unlike Paisley, said individual lives in a war-torn nation.  et what they do notably have in common nonetheless is a “(prayer) for peace and freedom”.

As the piece progresses, said friend is revealed to be Volodymyr Zelensky himself. As relayed, his spoken-word contribution is derived from a chat he and Paisley had.

To set things off, Brad proceeds to ask him how do you say the title of this song in Ukrainian, which Volodymyr notes as being rendered “Так само”. Then, the President basically gives his take on his own personal meaning of this song/title. 

He too understands that we human beings may come from different backgrounds yet “appreciate the same things”, which are:

• “children”
• “freedom”
• “our flag”
• “our soldiers”
• “our people”

The latter of which (“our people”) he also apparently goes on to dub as “the biggest treasure we have”. Afterwards, the prez also adds “friends” to the equation, before closing out by noting that “we are proud of our army who defends our freedom and will defend our lives”. The said “we” is presumably a reference to the Ukrainians (and perhaps Americans also).

“SAME HERE”, AN IMPROPER ACT OF POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM?

So as “Same Here” concludes, it transforms from a song which initially reads as if it is propagating peace – i.e. focusing more on our love-based similarities rather than differences – to something else. It metamorphosizes to one that rather infers that one of mankind’s biggest commonalities is a desire to ‘fight for’ our loved ones, freedom and our respective nations. 

That statement may not be false. But it does bring into question when Zelensky closes out this piece by stating that “there is no distance between our countries in such values”.

In other words, all things considered the phrase “our countries” is probably a reference to the Ukraine and United States specifically as opposed to all of us. That is to say that the United States has been Ukraine’s biggest supporter in its war against Russia. Furthermore, as generally understood neither head of these states (Zelensky and his US counterpart, President Joe Biden) are particularly keen on ending the conflict anytime soon. 

So yes, Brad Paisley has suffered a backlash for dropping this song. For example, he has been accused by some Americans, via the Zelensky feature, of supporting the war. His critics have accused him of encouraging a war that is becoming increasingly unpopular.

CONCLUSION

So conclusively, we can put forth that being able to appreciate “Same Here” is a matter of perspective. As implied in the first chorus, we all have our individual feelings as far as wars are concerned. And for those who may support Ukraine’s staunch stance against Russia, we may appreciate where Volodymyr is coming from in this track. 

But for others, like those who have criticized Brad on social media, they may be wondering why he – being part of a genre which, as far as war is concerned, only tends to support American troops/vets – more or less took sides in a foreign conflict that could potentially see the United States more intimately involved. But as of this writing, the good news for all of us is that peace between Russia and Ukraine may well be on the horizon.