New Paisley song features Zelenskyy
A year ago, country star Brad Paisley watched the news on television as Russian troops invaded Ukraine and, like many around the world, he felt helpless at the images of people fleeing their homes.
“The world felt like it was in a new place that it hadn’t been in decades,” the three-time Grammy winner recalled.
On Friday, the one-year anniversary of the start of the war, Paisley released a new song, “Same Here,” featuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking proudly about his country and people.
The song is Paisley’s first from his new record, “Son of the Mountains,” to be released later this year.
The musician wrote the song with Lee Thomas Miller and Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith. It’s a three-part narrative that reflects on universal similarities, despite distance and language.
While it doesn’t mention Ukraine specifically, the song ends with Paisley and Zelenskyy in conversation, recorded during a video call. Zelenskyy talks about Ukrainians’ desire for freedom, adding, “There is no distance between our two countries in such values.”
“There’s just no differences,” Paisley said in a recent interview. “You can put us in different places with different flags and different languages, but we have so many similarities.”
Paisley is one of several celebrity ambassadors for Ukraine’s United24 crowdfunding effort. His royalties for the song will be donated to United24 to help build housing for thousands of displaced
Ukrainians whose homes were destroyed in the war, Paisley said.
Paisley, who has visited U.S. troops in Afghanistan, said he has been invited to visit Ukraine. In the meantime, he hopes the song’s message will bolster the country now facing year two of the war.
“That’s where it gets really rewarding ... feeling like maybe the heart of this helps paint the picture they want to paint,” Paisley said.
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