Over the sea and far away
She's waiting like an iceberg
Waiting to change
But she's cold inside
She wants to be like the water

All the muscles tighten in her face
Buries her soul in one embrace
They're one and the same
Just like water

The fire fades away
Most of everyday
Is full of tired excuses
But it's to hard to say
I wish it were simple
But we give up easily
You're close enough to see that
You're the other side of the world to me

On comes the panic light
Holding on with fingers and feelings alike
But the time has come
To move along

The fire fades away

Can you help me?
Can you let me go?
And can you still love me
When you can't see me anymore?

The fire fades away



Lyrics submitted by sOCS479

Track duration: 03:35

"Other Side of the World" as written by Martin Terefe, Katie Tunstall

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Other Side Of The World song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:I've lived this very song, for about a year I was making plans with a girl in Calgary (I lived in the twin cities) and eventually she couldn't handle things and she ended things. I was crestfallen and very disappointed, everyday I kept listening to this song knowing that the same thing had happened to me. It does hurt but it is true, can you still love somebody when you can't see them anymore ?
    Flag jethroaqualungon December 12, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:It IS about a LDR. When interviewed by Bob Harris in the TV show "Songbook", she said:

    "Yeah, I wrote it after a couple of good friends of mine, one Scottish and one American, had come to stay at my flat, and promptly split up after about four years, in my flat. And it was so sad to see what was happening because they were desperately in love with each other but neither of them was brave enough to move. And they just couldn’t make it work and the reason it had resonated so much with me was that I had fallen in love big time for the first time when I went to the States, when I went to school there, with a mad hippy boy from Vermont. I was completely head over heels in love and I would have got married. I mean I am glad I didn’t, but it was incredibly intense and it was an experience that has led me to never underestimate what a seventeen year old can write or what a teenager can feel because it was just crushing. And I suppose it just really took me back to that long distance kind of horror and romance. But it tore me up for a couple of years really. And then sort of seeing it happen again I was like ‘don’t let that happen, you know we’re not kids any more, you two are great’. And thankfully they came to their senses and got hitched."
    Flag saburion December 08, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The song's definitely about an LDR. I remember once reading somewhere that she wrote this song about two friends of hers who were a couple, and she wrote this as she saw their relationship deteriorate and end because of the distance.

    I, however, find it really personal. Like only someone who'd been in that situation could write something like this. It's too accurate.. I think the first verse is already talking about an LDR that's deteriorating. She's waiting for something to change the cold that she already feels inside, cold that's there because of something that's off in the relationship, something too tough to accept.

    "Muscles tighten in her face"...an LDR can take a toll on you. On your mood. Everything seems like a struggle. You feel angry, anxious "Buries her soul in one embrace", remembering those embraces, remembering when you were WITH that person feels like your soul's dying. You're frustrated and angry with the situation, but the second you allow yourself to miss the person, you feel devastated.

    The days are full of excuses...I feel like she's writing from the perspective of the one who was trying real hard to hold on to the relationship, while the other person is the one who doesn't want to accept that his feelings have already changed. So he just didn't feel like looking for her, writing to her, calling her. When confronted about it, he'd make up an excuse, because he's trying not to admit (even to himself) how he feels.

    It's a painful situation...she just wants it to be over, "can you let me go?" But there's hope, too. Because, aren't they soulmates? So, one last plead: "can you still love me when you can't see me anymore?"

    But the truth is there, and there's nothing left to be done. "The time has come to move along". "You're on the other side of the world"..
    Flagged lauralh4on November 01, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:To me this song is about a relationship that has died, she's become cold and rigid. Despite knowing the relationship is sinking (due to the 'panic light' coming on), she's making excuses and clinging onto it. The only way to make her better is to let her go, but it would seem the feelings for her partner are still there, as she still wants them to love her, but they've just grown apart and aren't feeling the passion they used to
    Flag alicehope1995on August 06, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:My favorite part is

    Can you help me
    Can you let me go
    And can you still love me
    When you can't see me anymore

    I think this song is about having to let go of someone because you've realized that they're not good for you anymore. Even though you still love them and think the world of them, you just aren't meant to be together. You're hoping that they'll understand and not make it harder than it needs to be.
    Flag thumbelina33on June 28, 2011   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:It's totally about a long distance relationship that is coming to an end. She even said so herself at a concert.
    Flag udubdaveon March 16, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:This could be about physical distance or simply emotional distance. I've had this happen to me in a relationship. You fall in love. There's lots of "fire" and then reality sets in. There are other factors that get in the way. I.E. the person isn't ready to commit or they really don't know what they want. You begin to see the person's "other side." Relationships take work and figuring out just like learning how to be healthy. Practice, awareness, and being nice to yourself when you make a mistake. It gets a bit more tricky when another person is involved, doesn't it? :-) Anywho, KT Tunstall is a marvelous singer songwriter and definitely underrated. I hope her career last for decades!
    Flag Apikaila1018on November 24, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I hate to be some kind of nay sayer but I think in this case it's really a matter of " If it looks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, it's a duck" in that I think if you take the lyrics/video literally at their most obvious, this song is clearly about a long distance relationship. " Over the sea and far away, she's waiting like an iceberg, waiting to change" kind of sums up the amount of distance, clearly as does "You're the other side of the world to me." But I truly think the clincher is " and can you still love me, when you can't see me anymore?" I think the video further helps to illustrate the long distance concept in that if you've lived in the U.S. and U.K. as I have, you notice the little things, so based on the stuff in the background, it sets up the fact she lives in the U.K. and he lives in the U.S. or some other country. I think the scenes in which it looks like they're interacting just demonstrate that even though you're on opposite sides of the world you can still be living the same life without each other. I've dealt with LDR twice, in that when I lived in America I dated someone in the U.K. and all the experiences were exactly the same as in the video, and then when I moved back to the U.K. I was dating someone in the U.S. and it was still the same. Plus, thanks to globalization when I'm walking down the street and I see a pizza hut/KFC I don't even feel like I even left home to move to another country till I remember that I left a girl behind.
    Flag Gumtree55on August 29, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:It begins with who she was before she met him. enclosed emotionally unattached and yearning to be like the flirtaous carefree warm people.then he makes her simle, cracking the ice, transforming her into water like him.
    now its in the present, where he is gone, and the passion that transformed her has left too. they both give lame excuses for y they are not talking much, like i am busy, yet they know they could get it right if they put the effort in. but they don't and they see they are emotionally separated as well as physically. The heart yearning is still there but it is pointless so they must move on. she needs him to help her with that, because it is hard for her when there is still a thread of hope.
    There is also a little hurt feelings with u can't love me when u can't see me, because the relantionship is based on the physical.
    Flag kiwiclipon April 20, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Yet again everyone else has said what I was going to and I see no point in repeating it.

    But I would just like to say this was the first song I heard by her (being the first on Eye to the Telescope) and she has been my inspiration since (:
    Flag BudgieFaceon January 10, 2009   Link

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