A Great Big World: Say Something Meaning
Song Released: 2013
Say Something Lyrics
I'll be the one, if you want me to.
Anywhere, I would've followed you.
Say something, I'm giving up on you.
And I am feeling so small.
It was over my head
I know nothing at all.
And I will stumble...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:My interpretation of this song is the hard decision to let someone go. Whether it be the passing of someone you would have done anything for, or the significant other who turned out to be not so significant. This song is so powerful, it's about having the strength to let go of the people you put highest in your life. Whenever i hear this song, i think about my first love, Jacob. He was the most important person in my life and he had just broken up with his girlfriend and i was trying to get the nerve to tell him i'd beein in love with him since 7th grade when he committed suicide March 22. Everytime i hear the lines "I'll be the one if you want me to. Anywhere i would've followed you" i cry, because it's true. I would've followed you to the depths of hell if you asked me to Jake.
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2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:I definitely believe that they both have strong feelings for each other, and neither of them want to give up. It's a duet after all, and they are singing the same words but eye contact is never even made between them in the video. This lack of recognition illustrates their lack of communication, which is a problem in many relationships today. This video illustrates many different situations in which giving up becomes the sad inevitably necessary reality, such as the old couple parting because the woman is dying, and the younger couple breaking up. Contrary to others' opinions, I don't think that one of them (the young woman) is shown to care more in this relationship, given the nature of this song (a duet, showing feelings are mutual). I think, instead, this song depicts the extremely painful and defeating feeling of mutually giving up on your partner/relationship. For one reason or another it cannot work out, you both slowly but surely recognize this, and you both must give up even though you are in love with each other.
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3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:Great song would listen over and over but it makes me tear up a little. A song about giving up because you don't know if your feelings are going to be returned. All because you haven't heard from the other. Although its a beautiful song the part about giving up confuses me. We don't give up unless you know 100%. Some chances in life only come around once. There could be a number of reasons the other hasn't said anything. You don't stifle love.
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This song almost made me cry when I first heard it. It has a really deep meaning, and I want to share my interpretation.
I don't know what you guys think it means, but the more I listened to it, the stronger my interpretation grew.
To me, this song is about love and loss. Here's the scene that plays in my head when I hear this.
Two people, a man and a woman, are fighting a powerful enemy (this doesn't have to mean a literal enemy, it could be an illness or otherwise). The woman is stabbed by the enemy and falls to the ground (this could represent them losing the fight). The enemy walks away, but the man tries to get a response out of her to let him know she's alive ("Say something, I'm giving up on you"), but it never comes ("I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you"). He finally leaves her be and walks away ("You're the one that I love/And I'm saying goodbye").
(I don't want any harsh judgement for this; it was just my honest interpretation of the song)
Amazing song. I really, really love it. -
This songs has always hit me in a different way than other music and sad songs. When I was younger, the song was just labeled as "pretty" and never took the time to appreciate what it meant. As I grew older, and entered my teen years, I began to realize how melancholy and emotional this song is. Recently, I had to say goodbye to a person I really cared about, who was a boy who lived 2000 miles away from me, and every time I hear this song I can't help but think about him. He was one of my closest friends and one of the only people that I truly loved, and the feeling was mutual. When I was told I wasn't allowed to talk to him anymore, and certain restrictions were put onto me to prevent communication with him, I grew more withdrawn and desolate from the world I know of.
The meaning of this song to me reminds me of the first few days struggling to cope with his absence. The words "And I am feeling so small, it was over my head, I know nothing at all," was one interpretation of the only thing I thought about at night. One day I was listening to the radio, and the song came on. As I began to drink in every word said, it made me feel as though I was falling through a cold hole. This song became the only song that would permanently bring me to tears, thinking of my lost Ani. I am writing this almost five months after losing him, and the song still brings me back to a simpler time where it was me and him against the world, against my parents, against out internal problems. I wish I could have told him I loved him and that I was saying goodbye, and I wish I was able to reassure him that we would see each other again. I wish I am able to tell him that doing this to him still haunts me every day, but it is the right thing to keep peace with my family, and this could be a good thing. You want my interpretation- This song is of saying goodbye to someone you love, whether it is a lover, a friend, a pet, a parent, and knowing that moving on without them is the best for the both of you. -
Breaking up IS hard to do. Commiserate here with our list of songs about break ups and relationship failures. The thing that distinguishes humans from the lesser beasts is our powers of reason, or at least the illusion that we have that. So it comes as no surprise that one of our most primal fears is losing that advantage, especially since it can happen without our realizing it. And then there's all the many different ways your brain can break, too. Everything from paranoia to schizophrenia is covered here.
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It may be about a guy who's trying to make it to the hospital where one of his love ones is dying, and he hopes he's not late.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Everytime I here this song I think of my Bestfriend. We've been friends for over a decade, that's how it started. As time went on and we got closer making new memories, traditional, and just communicating as friends do I realized she was exactly the kind of woman I wanted. She'd been there through my relationships and I'd been there through her's. Years went by and I never told her that id developed feelings for her. I didn't want to ruin what we did have, which was amazing, for what "might" be, but I always held hope that she'd see me and us in a different light. I want to give up but I Love her and our Bestfriendship too much. I recently told her this year, 2018, and she was in legit honest disbelief. We haven't talked since then, a few days.
EsJay30on April 06, 2018 songmeanings
(Hope you guys talk soon! You are one lucky guy to have a female friend who stayed with you for over a decade) -
You made some really good points there. I checked on the internet for additional information about the issue and found most people will go along with your views on this site. kbeddcfedecafeek
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As any song is, the meaning can change with who listens to it. That being said, I think this is someone losing hope about a friend/lover/family member surviving an illness, like Cancer.
The illness could be so sever that the person is in a coma, hanging to life by a tread. The friend is hoping the person is going to survive but it seems to be unlikely. "Say something, I'm giving up on you" Is the lyric that hit me hard, I think it's the person begging for hope, so they can stay by the persons side hope they'll live, but the hope is fading away. -
For me this song is about addiction and loss as well. In 2008 my boyfriend was involved with some people i didn't like and became addicted to heroin. One night i called him and he could barely speak and was saying strange things like 'I'm walking home now' (But i heard the tv in the background) then he said he was laying in a corner and he was cold. I immediately knew something was wrong. He struggled with other drugs previously but i didn't know he got into heroin. I begged him to stay with me so i could figure out where he was at and get him to the hospital. The junkies he was with refused to give their address because they were more worried about the repercussions on themselves. I told them i don't care who they are or where they live and that i would pick him up anywhere they could leave him. They hung up..He died minutes later. So the line "I'm sorry that i couldn't get to you" really breaks my heart in pieces.
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I think that this song has many interpretations and is meant to have a different meaning for each person. In my opinion it is about loss and not being able to be there for/help someone you love. The year this was released, my nan,grandad and dog died. They all had cancer. However, as the years have developed it has turned into not being able to help my brother who suffers depression. The lyrics "say something, I'm giving up on you" , "I am feeling so small" and "I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you" seriously relate to how I feel. Its so hard to talk to him, he doesn't listen and it makes me feel so helpless. He self harms and I can't stop it, it tears me apart to see him like this, but he just wont talk to anyone.
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This song reminds me my dear little sister. We are twins but parted at 4 (I'm 17 now) and never met each other again. She was adopted by an English family. Throughout all these years, I always eager to listen to her sweet voice, my dear little sister, please say something... have you missed me? Throughout these years, I always stare at the very photos of us both and imagine that on the other side of the earth, there is a face exactly alike mine.
One of my favorite lines of this song are 'Anywhere I would have followed you' and 'I'm feeling so small'. Yes, back then we were so young, so small and innocent, couldn't fight the world at all; and when it all come clear, you already had gone... -
I believe that this song represents a loss of a loved one. Once I heard this song it had me thinking about the loss of my relative. The lyrics,"You're the one that I love and now i'm saying goodbye", I thought that the song meant I love you but i know that you are dying and its time to say goodbye. I also think that when it says I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you, the song means that a relative, husband, or someone close to this person dying, might not have had the chance to say goodbye. I also think that when it says," Say Something", it means that a loved one of this dying person wants the person dying to come back so they can at least have one chance to say goodbye.
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This song is about someone that broke your heart & you must let them go. Things were always rough but they both did their best until someone did the unthinkable & left them alone, cheated, didn't care, then came rushing back. It's about letting the person you love the most destroying you & you must give up on them & come to the realization that nothing can be salvaged. I will always love you Marie
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This is sung from the perspective of a person who has been and still is deeply in love with someone. Although this person still desperately hopes that the relationship can work they are beginning to understand that it cannot and subsequently expresses their grief, sorrow and guilt for their failure to keep the relationship alive.
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This song reminds me of my cousin. As I was looking up at the sky I remembered seeing her in the hospital & I was holding her hand asking her to say something... Then I stRted to give up but I really didn't want to. I never got the chance to tell he that I love her.. I felt horrible and im still really over whelmed so this song spoke to me.. But I also think it's about a relationship where the guy (or the girl) feel like they are the only ones putting fourth their effort to keep the relationship rolling and they are in love but the girl (or guy) is putting them aside or just not talking or sharing their emotions so they feel like they shouldn't try anymore and to give up because the other person isn't willing to try to hold the relationship down. So he (she) is letting go.
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