Noah Kahan Opens Up About the Personal Inspiration Behind New Single 'The Great Divide' and Accompanying Video (Exclusive)
- - Noah Kahan Opens Up About the Personal Inspiration Behind New Single 'The Great Divide' and Accompanying Video (Exclusive)
Rachel DeSantisJanuary 29, 2026 at 11:00 PM
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Noah Kahan tells PEOPLE about his new single "The Great Divide"
The singer is partnering with Mastercard to premiere a teaser for the song's music video during the 2026 Grammy Awards broadcast
Kahan talks about the song's inspiration and the thought behind the accompanying music video
For Noah Kahan, Stick Season was a game-changer. The 2022 album, buoyed by its viral title track, shot the singer-songwriter to fame, earning him critical acclaim and growing his already rabid fan base to stadium-sized proportions.
Kahan was on top of the world professionally — but personally, he was dealing with a disconnect from his friends, from his family and even from himself. Before long, he’d channeled that feeling into a song called “The Great Divide,” which will serve as his first new single in over a year upon its release on Friday, Jan. 30.
“My life had changed so much and I felt this real gap growing,” Kahan, who will premiere a teaser for the song’s music video via Mastercard during the 2026 Grammy Awards broadcast, tells PEOPLE. “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.”
Kahan, 29, says “The Great Divide” emerged as he wondered what exactly he’d say to all of those people if they were standing right in front of him, ready for a difficult conversation.
Noah Kahan
Christopher Polk/@polkimaging
“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,” he says. “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.”
The musician — who just announced that his fourth album The Great Divide is out April 24 — partnered with Mastercard to help bring his music video vision for the song to life, and says the video for “The Great Divide” is his first that “feels very narrative-focused.” He and Mastercard co-produced the video, and it is airing during Mastercard's commercial time at the Grammys.
Fans can see the full version of the video here.
“For this album and for this song in particular, there’s so many characters and so much narrative and complexity to the story that I wanted to find a way to bring the two worlds together,” he says, teasing his long-awaited, forthcoming fourth album. “Such a big part of the writing process for me is honoring the stories. The director Parker and I have talked about how to do that, and one of the ways we’re doing it is by having these different characters age through time in this one really cool, intimate gas station location, as an allusion to the evolution of the friendship and the kind of conflict that these two friends and this friend group got into, which is what the song’s about.”
Kahan admits that the whole process has been rather surreal, and even jokingly likens it to the HBO series The Rehearsal, in which Nathan Fielder plays a fictionalized version of himself who helps regular people do run-throughs of tough conversations or events.
Noah Kahan
Christopher Polk/@polkimaging
“I’m filming scenes and I'm watching these actors live out these characters I’ve built in my head and it’s just so trippy,” he says. “With my music, I always try to put some of myself and some of my friends into the songs, but without having it be them. So watching these actors be like their own little friend group has been really interesting.”
Kahan has been playing “The Great Divide” live since 2024, and fans have eagerly been awaiting news of a new album. In early December, the star popped up on a mysterious TikTok account called The Last of the Bugs, a nod to a lyric in his song “Everywhere, Everything.”
Through the account, Kahan’s been cryptically teasing unreleased music, including “The Great Divide” and a song seemingly called “Porch Light.”
“It’s been fun. I think the fans have been waiting forever. They have to wait a little longer, but I’m also ready to go,” he explains. “It’s been fun giving little hints here and there. The Last of the Bugs is definitely a big part of the album themes and insects and bugs and change. I’m hoping people put it together. If not, it’s just a cute, fun little TikTok account.”
For Kahan, it’s just another way to connect with his fans, who he says are the reason he does what he does. He also praises Mastercard for stepping in to “elevate” the fan experience when it comes to his new music, and teases “a lot of fun stuff” coming up with the company.
In celebration of the video premiere, Mastercard is also launching a sweepstakes to unlock a series of Priceless Experiences "designed to bring cardholders closer to Kahan's world," according to a press release. Fans can hunt for Easter eggs in "The Great Divide" music video and enter for a chance to win a number of prizes, including a listening party with Kahan.
“We’re going to have lots of different fun, really unique fan-driven experiences,” he says. “I can’t touch on what, but going to be some really cool live experiences, both big and intimate."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
