Wonderwall

“Because maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall”

Wonderwall – Oasis

Wonderwall is song two from the list of my top six songs. It is, quite simply, a fantastic song. The lead singer of Oasis, Liam Gallagher sounds amazing, the instrumental compliments the song and it walks the fine line between being sombre, and being whiny and suicidal perfectly. But these reasons are not the reason Wonderwall is one of my favourite songs.

Three years ago I was lucky enough to visit South Korea with around 120 other people who I had never met before. We had a week together in a foreign country with little in common. Throughout the week we broke down cultural barriers and I formed some fantastic friendships. We would bicker about the differences between our countries – the stand on being whether you call it Twink, Tip-Ex or White Out – but these were so quickly quashed by the fact that the air in Korea bought together a bunch of people who would probably not glance twice at each other had they never met.

On one of our last days in South Korea my bus, bus number one, had a bit of a sing along. The Brits sung The Beatles, the Aussies sung Waltzing Matilda and us Kiwi’s sung Baa Baa Black Sheep. And then, just when we thought the singing would be over, the Brits came back with a classic. I remember one of them grabbing the microphone and starting with the opening lyrics to Wonderwall. A few lines in “I don’t believe anybody feels the way I do about you now” kicked in, the whole bus, to my amazement, was singing along to this one song.

What struck me that day was the power of a single song. It could bring people together, people who had only known each other for a few days, and make them act like they had so much in common. It was special, and to this day, three years after it happened, I have never felt more connected with anybody through a song.

Wonderwall, like many, many great songs, is universally known. While we live in a society where most things can reach a global scale via the internet – indeed, this blog has readers as far away as American and England – it still amazes me that people can have be connected through something as simple as a song.