Find Someone Like You by Snoh Aalegra

The wedding song of the 2020s.

Transcript

Someone Like You By Snoh Aalegra

Every era has its wedding song. It’s quintessential ballad that personifies the idea of proclaiming lifelong commitment to a partner. I remember my mother dressing me up and dragging me to weddings in the late 80s / early 90s—every one of them had someone singing Here and Now by Luther Vandross. 

Then in the late 90s we had All My Life by K-Ci and Jojo. With its string instruments and sensational lyrics, the duo utilized a classical feel that embodies fairytale love. 

Weddings in the early 2000s all seemed to feature Let’s Get Married by Jagged Edge as a theme song. 

Wedding songs sometimes hit the nail on the head. They’re very direct… straight to the point: You’re amazing. I publicly profess my forever love for you. Let’s walk down the aisle and recite our vows.

Other times, ballads that inspire matrimony simply dive deep on all the ways and all the reasons the artists loves someone like they never loved before. You can connect the dots from there. If this is a special, once-in-a-lifetime love, the next natural step is often considered marriage.

Snoh Aalegra takes the more subtle approach with her popular 2020s wedding song, Find Someone Like You. First, Snoh’s voice is a singular marvel. If you’re not familiar, make it your mission to become so. With a sultry blend of power and range, her vocals were made for love songs. That’s reason enough to adore this track.

More reasons include how Snoh runs through a list of what made her fall for this person without really being certain. There’s just “something about the way you talk to me.” “Perhaps it was the way you smiled.”

And isn’t this how it usually goes? Someone comes along and just does it for us. Who we consider to be our person isn’t always the one with whom we have the most in common. They may not align with what we thought we wanted. On paper, we might not have chosen them. But in person, for whatever reason, we can’t imagine choosing otherwise.

We develop a deep connection with and attraction to them, the likes of which we’re never felt. And we can’t cleanly explain it. Our motivation for loving them doesn’t fit neatly into a box. We just do. 

Blame it on the pheromones. 

This concept is kind of what Snoh implies with these lines, as she continues pronouncing that she waited her whole life to find someone like them even though not exactly sure what “like them” means:

Nothing's ever perfect but you're perfect to me
 And fuck bein' asleep, you're a dream, I need you
 Though we got a past, I want you
 And even when it's bad, I love you

This doesn’t sound like a fairytale. At least not the hopelessly romantic kind where everything comes easy and everyone is unblemished. Yet, it sounds magical. In the realest sense.

Magic is seeing someone’s imperfections and still finding them flawless. It is being able to hold both love and disappointment. Love and anger. Love and frustration. 

And I think this is how you know who you may be able to survive forever with. When you prefer your relationship reality to your dreams.