Bryan Adams Releases Anti War Song ‘What If There Were No Sides At All’
24th May 2023Rock icon Bryan Adams has released “What If There Were No Sides At All,” an anti-war, peace song aimed at geo-political induced strife. In a statement, the singer/songwriter, whose music has achieved Number One status in over 40 countries, said:
“The song is in response to worldwide conflicts, lack of constructive peace talks, and the billions of dollars spent by governments to fund these endless and aimless wars. The song is not in response to any particular war, but to all conflicts and the human struggle to get along.”
The accompanying music video, co-directed by Adams, shows the artist carrying a flag emblazoned with the Peace Sign (a symbol first designed for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958) while walking through a dystopian warscape.
“The locations are not specific to any one place,’ Adams said, “and are meant to be representative of conflict wherever it breaks out in the world.”
A statement on the official Bryan Adams website said:
This is an anti-war peace song. The locations are generic but are meant to represent conflicts in the world. The aim of this song is to provoke thought and perhaps even encourage governments to sit down and talk peace. At the moment there is only escalating division and death – a result of the billions of dollars spent by governments to fund these endless wars. #peacenow‘What If There Were No Sides At All’ is co-written by Bryan Adams and Gretchen Peters. The latest in a long line of collaborations following Peters’ work with Adams on previous hits including 1995’s ‘Rock Steady’ with Bonnie Rait, 1998’s ’Inside Out’, 2002’s ‘Here I Am’ and 2021’s ‘So Happy It Hurts’.
Adams, who is also an internationally renowned photographer, has a legacy of supporting veterans both in his native Canada and in the United Kingdom. Among other initiatives, he created a specially commissioned song, Ric-A-Dam-Doo by Homefire to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and benefit programs that help Canadian military personnel and their families in times of need. Adams’ monograph, Wounded:The Legacy of War featured his uncompromising portraits of British service personnel who had survived catastrophic injuries during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. It honored their stories while sparking, awareness, remembrance and inspiration.
Adams’ advocacy and philanthropy extend to human rights, famine and natural disaster relief, education access for vulnerable youth, breast cancer awareness and research, as well as animal rights, conservation, and environmentalism. For this record, combined with his musical career achievements, he was awarded the Companion Of The Order of Canada, his country’s highest honor. Adams was also bestowed the Canadian Recording Arts and Sciences Humanitarian “Juno,” one of the 21 the has achieved in his career, most recently winning the 2020 AC Album Juno for his 14th studio album, Shine A Light.
Adams has garnered three Ivor Novello Awards, three Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, and 16 Grammy nominations, most recently in 2023, and has won the 1992 Grammy for Song Written for Visual Media Grammy with his record-breaking song (Everything I Do) I Do It For You. Adams continues to be prolific, having released four albums in the past year including “So Happy It Hurts” – his 15th studio album; Classic pt. 1 and pt. 2 – consisting of re-recordings of his own songs; and “Pretty Woman – The Musical,” which has Adams’ take on songs he crafted for the show. During this period he toured Asia, Europe, and Canada with dates in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe to come. He is currently on his “So Happy It Hurts” tour of the United States.
