"Unplayed Piano" is a 2005 single by the Irish singer-songwriter duo

Damien Rice Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success i ...

and

Lisa Hannigan Lisa Margaret Hannigan (born 12 February 1981) is an Irish musician, singer, composer, and voice actress. She began her musical career as a member of Damien Rice's band. Since beginning her solo career in 2007 she has released three albums: ''Se ...

. It was released in June 2005 and appeared in a total of six charts, spending a total of twenty-five weeks there. It spent twelve weeks in the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...

after entering on 23 June 2005, breaking into the Top 10 and achieving a peak of fourth position. It remained in fourth position for two weeks before falling to seventh position where it spent a further three weeks. The song peaked at number 24 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and number 36 in the

Eurochart Hot 100 Singles The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by ''Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately f ...

. "Unplayed Piano" was released on the DRM label and featured Rice's usual backing band of

Vyvienne Long Vyvienne Long is a musician from Co. Dublin, Ireland. A classically trained cellist from the College of Music, Dublin and the Escola de Musica in Barcelona, she also sings and plays piano and writes music for her quintet which comprises 2 cell ...

Tom Osander Tom Osander aka Tomo (born John Thomas Osander Jr. on 6 October 1966) is an American percussionist and producer. Osander co-founded seminal New York City based Jam band God Street Wine. He is also associated with Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan, and Ha ...

and Shane Fitzsimons.

Background

"Unplayed Piano" was released as a single by Hannigan and Rice to support the Free Aung San Suu Kyi 60th Birthday campaign which was running at the time.

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from ...

is a

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

winner who had been under

house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

for various periods from 2002 to 2010. She was previously placed under house arrest by the country's ruling

military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...

in the former capital,

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

on 19 July 1989 under

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

that allows for detention without charge or

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...

for three years. She was released on 10 July 1995 but re-arrested on 23 September 2000. On 6 May 2002 she was freed after nineteen months but on 30 May 2003, following the Depayin

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

she was held in secret detention for over three months before being returned to house arrest. Despite global protests in solidarity her detention was extended by the Myanmar military junta for one year periods in 2007 and 2008. She was finally released in 2010. Rice was approached by the United States Campaign for Burma, which asked him to donate an existing song for their Free Aung San Suu Kyi 60th Birthday Campaign. Instead Rice constructed, "Unplayed Piano", and also scheduled a live show at the

London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 an ...

to assist in increasing the public profile of the campaign. He also gave a rare interview to ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' to highlight the issues which inspired the song, discussing his visit to Myanmar and confessing his prior ignorance of the situation there. He wishes not to be viewed as a political activist and is "no

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Rock music in Ireland, Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved ...

... just a regular guy who has seen something that is wrong and is trying, in some small way, to help". ''

'' described "Unplayed Piano" as "a twinkly and beautiful thing". Rice is known for refusing to openly discuss the song after becoming incensed when a friend commented that it "didn't quite measure up to the clout of his earlier work". He insists that his other songs are more powerful because they originate deeper inside him.

Chart performance

"Unplayed Piano" first appeared in the Irish Singles Chart on 25 June 2005 in fourth position where it remained for a second consecutive week. The day after it first charted in Ireland the song charted in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

at number 16. The song peaked at number 24 in the

dropping out of the Top 40 at number 39. It remained in the Irish Singles Chart charting at number 7 for three consecutive weeks before dropping to number 8 on 27 July 2005. In August it charted consecutively at number 12, number 14, number 15 and number 20. The song entered the

on 9 July 2005 at number 36 before dropping to number 52 and number 81 in the following two weeks.

References

{{Authority control 2005 singles Damien Rice songs Lisa Hannigan songs 2005 songs Songs written by Damien Rice