"Not So Different" is a song recorded by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Ai. It was released on November 25, 2020. The song was written by Ai and Rachel West with additional songwriting credits from producers Avedon and

Scott Storch Scott Spencer Storch (born December 16, 1973) is an American record producer and songwriter. Storch began his career as part of Philadelphia-based hip hop band the Roots, which he joined as a keyboardist prior to the release of their 1993 debut a ...

and was included on '' It's All Me, Vol. 2'' (2021). On December 11, 2020, a remix featuring Japanese rapper Awich was released and later included on ''It's All Me, Vol. 2''. A J-pop and pop rap song, "Not So Different" lyrically is about equality and world peace. The song has been compared to Ai's 2006 single " I Wanna Know".

Background

Ai originally wrote and recorded the song during her 2019 recording session in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. She originally performed the song in June 2020 amidst the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

in an interview with

Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and ap ...

. In October 2020, Ai announced she would be participating in the One Young World summit to take place in Tokyo in May 2021. "Not So Different" originally was not planned for release as a single nor planned to be included on Ai's ''It's All Me'' EP's until November 2020. In an interview with

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

regarding the lyric "...a peace sign instead of a middle finger", Ai stated she normally does not express herself directly in her songs and that she "...wanted to express such a part in an easy-to-understand manner."

Awich remix

A remix of Not So Different featuring Awich was announced a few days after the release of the solo version. Regarding the remix, Ai stated it originally was not planned until she discussed it with her manager. It was released on December 11, 2020.

Music video

A music video for the solo version was released on November 25, 2020. A One Young World Japan version was released in December 2020. In February 2021, a music video for the remix version featuring Awich was released.

Live performances

Ai previously performed the song before its release in June 2020. She performed the song with Awich in November 2020.

Charts

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.

Solo version

Musicians

* Ai Uemura – vocals, production, songwriting * Rachel West – songwriting * Vincent Van den Ende – songwriting, production *

–songwriting, production

Technical

Randy Merrill Randy Merrill is an American mastering engineer who has worked with international artists including Blink-182, DAY6, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Harry Styles, One Direction, Adele, Imagine Dragons, Beck, Liam Gallagher, Jonas Brothers, Muse ...

– mastering engineer * D.O.I – mixer

Awich remix

Musicians

* Ai Uemura – vocals, production, songwriting * Akiko Urasaki – vocals, songwriting * Rachel West – songwriting * Vincent Van den Ende – songwriting, production * Scott Storch –songwriting, production

Technical

* Randy Merrill – mastering engineer * D.O.I – mixer * Keisuke Fujimaki – recording engineer * Keisuke Suwa – recording engineer * Shiori Maruoka – recording engineer

Track listing

Digital download # Not So Different – 3:42 Awich remix # Not So Different (feat. Awich) – 3:41

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2020 singles 2020 songs Ai (singer) songs EMI Records singles Universal Music Japan singles Songs about racism and xenophobia Songs based on actual events Song recordings produced by Scott Storch Songs written by Ai (singer) Song recordings produced by Ai (singer) Songs written by Avedon (record producer)