Abzulenken means "to distract oneself." It's an interesting word because it's a separable verb, ablenken, with the infinitive marker zu inserted between the prefix and the stem, which is a unique grammatical structure in German.
In the song, the singer uses it to express their inability to distract themselves from thoughts of a past love: "Ich schaffe es nicht, mich abzulenken" (I can't manage to distract myself). This word captures the emotional struggle and the song's theme of lingering heartbreak.
Ever been caught in that messy in-between after a breakup, when you can’t eat, sleep, or think about anything else? Johannes Oerding bottles that whirlwind feeling in “Jemanden Wie Dich”. The narrator is stuck replaying memories, lighting old habits (literally picking up smoking again), and wrestling with the impossible task of forgetting. His mind keeps looping: I’ll focus on myself… then I’ll look for someone like you. The repetition in the chorus mirrors the tug-of-war between moving on and clinging to the familiar comfort of a lost love.
At its heart, the song is both a confession of heartbreak and a pep-talk to start over. The singer promises that once he finally understands “why, how, and why not me,” he’ll erase the mental photos and draw a firm line under the past. Only then can he try to find “someone like you” — or maybe discover that what he really needs is someone completely new. Oerding’s lyrics turn a universal post-breakup dilemma into a relatable anthem: heal first, then search again, all while learning a little more about yourself along the way.
Johannes Oerding was born in MĂĽnster in 1981 and grew up in Geldern-Kapellen on the Lower Rhine, where he started out in a school band called Groovekeller. People outside Germany's club circuit first heard him in 2009, when he opened for Simply Red on tour, the same year his debut album Erste Wahl came out.
Every album since has charted higher than the one before: Boxer reached number 11, Für immer ab jetzt number 4, Alles brennt number 3 and Kreise number 2, until Konturen gave him his first number 1 in 2019. Plan A and Hotel went to the top as well. His biggest song is An guten Tagen. He came second at the 2013 Bundesvision Song Contest with Nichts geht mehr, coached on The Voice of Germany in 2021, and has hosted Sing meinen Song since 2020. His trademark is a hat, and in 2019 he was even named Hutträger des Jahres.