Someone Else by Miley Cyrus Lyrics Meaning – A Dissection of Lost Love and Transformation
Lyrics
If you’re looking for love
Know that love don’t live here anymore
He left with my heart
They both walked through that door, without me
If you’re trying to find pity, well you need to look somewhere else
‘Cause I surely can’t help you
I’m hurting myself
I’ve turned into someone else
I used to believe love conquers all
‘Cause that’s what I’ve seen in movies
Come to find out it’s not like that at all
You see real life’s much different
I don’t want to see you go
I only want to see you smile
It hurts so much just thinking of
Felt like this for awhile
I can’t stand to see us fail
We tried, we lied, cannot pretend
To take us back to what we had to make us feel alive again
Hold me close, don’t let me go, I hope
Tell me now is not the end
If you’re looking for love
Know that love don’t live here anymore
He left with my heart
They both walked through that door, without me
If you’re trying to find pity well you need to look somewhere else
‘Cause I surely can’t help you
I’m hurting myself
I’ve turned into someone else (someone else, someone else, someone else)
(Someone else, someone else, someone else, someone else, someone else)
(Someone else, someone else, someone else, someone else, someone else)
I’ve turned into someone else
I used to believe love conquers all
‘Cause that’s what I felt when you held me
I thought you’d catch me if I fall
And fill me up when I’m empty
I don’t want to see you go
I only want to see you smile
It hurts so much just thinking of
Felt like this for awhile
I can’t stand to see us fail
We tried, we lied, cannot pretend
To take us back to what we had to make us feel alive again
Hold me close, don’t let me go, I hope
Tell me now is not the end
If you’re looking for love
Know that love don’t live here anymore
He left with my heart
They both walked through that door, without me
If you’re trying to find pity well you need to look somewhere else
‘Cause I surely can’t help you
I’m hurting myself
I’ve turned into someone else (someone else, someone else, someone else)
Love is patient, love is selfless (love)
Love is hopeful, love is kind (love)
Love is jealous, love is selfish
Love is helpless, love is blind
Love is patient, love is selfless
Love is hopeful, love is kind
Love is jealous, love is selfish
Love is helpless, love is blind
Love is patient, love is selfless
Love is hopeful, love is kind
Love is jealous, love is selfish
Love is hopeless, love is blind, yeah yeah
Ooh yeah
I’ve turned into someone else!
In the emotional turbulence of Miley Cyrus’s discography, ‘Someone Else’ stands out as a stark narrative of transformation spurred by the heartache of love lost. The song, a poignant mixture of electropop and balladry, digs deep into the psyche of someone who’s irreversibly changed by the departure of love from their life.
Through the lyrics of ‘Someone Else’, Cyrus delivers a gut-punch to the romantic fairy tales peddled by popular media, showcasing a much grittier, more realistic portrayal of love’s aftermath. It’s a gritty confessional that taps into the universal quest for love and the personal devastation when that quest leads to one’s own metamorphosis.
The Harsh Truth About Love’s Residency
Cyrus takes no time to cushion the blow with the opening lines, ‘If you’re looking for love / Know that love don’t live here anymore.’ This sets the tone for a theme that is often glossed over in pop culture: the stark reality of love’s impermanence. The singer personifies love as a transient being that once inhabited her heart but has since vacated, taking with it her capacity for affection and leaving behind an empty shell.
To twist the knife, Cyrus conveys that love didn’t leave alone—it abandoned her ‘with my heart,’ suggesting that in love’s absence, not only is the emotion missing, but a piece of herself is gone too. This portrayal underlines a dual sense of loss, both emotional and personal.
The Death of Silver Screen Illusions
Cyrus deconstructs the fairy-tale endings sold to us by ‘the movies’ with the sobering lines, ‘I used to believe love conquers all / ‘Cause that’s what I’ve seen in movies.’ The realization ‘it’s not like that at all’ delivers a stark awakening from fantasy, serving as a painful coming-of-age for anyone who’s had their own myth of infallible love shattered.
In candidly confessing the disparity between imagined and actual experiences of love, Miley doesn’t just share her despair; she validates the experiences of many who have been disillusioned by love in a world where cinematic romance is often mistaken for reality.
The Anatomy of Transformation Through Loss
Repeated like a desperate mantra throughout the song is the central line, ‘I’ve turned into someone else,’ a declaration of profound change. Cyrus articulates the metamorphosis one undergoes when coping with the loss of love, suggesting that such an experience can fundamentally alter one’s personality and self-perception.
It isn’t merely change, but an unwilling transformation that sounds defensive, almost aggressive, as if the ‘someone else’ she’s become is a harder, colder version of her previous self, built to endure the pain associated with her emotional trauma.
A Journey Through Love’s Paradoxical Nature
‘Love is patient, love is selfless / Love is hopeful, love is kind’, Cyrus sings, echoing the classical definition of love. Juxtaposed against the earlier vocals, these ideals feel almost foreign. Then comes the pivot—’Love is jealous, love is selfish / Love is helpless, love is blind’—which flips the script to reveal love’s darker, contradictory qualities.
It’s a powerful lyrical twist that acknowledges the multifaceted complexion of love, not just as an idealized concept but as a deeply human, complex, and often contradictory experience. The back and forth of these descriptions encapsulates the emotional tumult that can come from engaging with such a powerful, yet unpredictable, force.
The Lyrical Legacy of Someone Else
Certain lines in ‘Someone Else’ resonate with an intensity that lingers long after the song ends. The sheer vulnerability with which Cyrus delivers the pain of having ‘turned into someone else’ is matched by her pained cry for help in the plea, ‘Hold me close, don’t let me go, I hope / Tell me now is not the end.’
These are not the words of the same Cyrus who once swung on a wrecking ball with defiant fury. Rather, they reflect the Miley who has grown and transformed both artistically and personally, bearing her soul in a way that invites listeners to reflect on their own experiences with love’s searing impact.
