Noah Kahan's "The Great Divide" Is a Deeply Emotional Ballad with Vivid Storytelling

Songs are one of those things that take on a life of their own once the artist has released them into the world. While there may be an original intention or interpretation, they become something altogether different when the song resonates with a fan.

For Noah Kahan's "The Great Divide," the song's emotional ballad-like sound blends with Noah's soulful voice to create an emotionally hard-hitting song that seems to be touching people's lives in different ways. Here's what the song is about, according to Noah.

For "The Great Divide," Noah reached down into his soul and grabbed hold of a part of his life he was grappling with at the time.

The singer/songwriter told People in January 2026 that when his career was at its height, he was starting to feel disconnected from the people in his life.

He explained, "My life had changed so much and I felt this real gap growing. I started to think about divide in my life, whether that was the divide between me and this old version of me, or me and the people that I used to know growing up, or the people that are in my life that I’m still trying to keep a relationship with.”

Noah added, “This song in particular is really about two people who grew up together, but maybe didn’t know each other as well as they thought. A lot of my life recently has been realizing the things I wish I could have said to people and the things I wish I could have done differently, and so this song is kind of just an expansion of that.”

Even without knowing Noah's interpretation of the song, many fans seem to get it on a visceral level. On Reddit, one user explained that they feel the song is about "losing friendship you once had with someone [with] whom you shared meaningful/impactful times, and the only thing left of it is the hope that they are doing fine, even after bad things have happened that you either ignored/were unaware [of]. Something about wishing desperately you could fix or go back to the relationship you once had is so sad to me."

Another person mused, "I see it as a song about religious trauma and how it can often create a divide in a person's relationships, particularly those who suppress parts of themselves (like their sexuality) because of that trauma, because others either don't understand it or are too scared to confront it."

And another opined, "The song has a lot going on but I take it to be about a friend who lives their life in fear of what will happen to them after death (the ultimate great divide)."

One Redditor wrote that they had a personal interpretation as well, explaining, "Reminds me of the friends who stayed with their abusive partners and we drifted apart because of it. The alienation from others isn’t always some that that can be repaired even if the abuse ends. Often friendship remains a causality."

As with all great songs, personal interpretations are as much a part of the song's story as the writer's intended one. Music is a living and ever-changing entity that weaves itself into the story of every listener, so once the artist puts it out there, it belongs to the fans in very different and personal ways.

But it's safe to say that most people share Noah's original interpretation, which is pretty special too.