Una Winifred Atwell was born in Tunapuna, Trinidad, into a family that owned a pharmacy and expected her to follow them into the profession. She trained as a pharmacist to degree level while also displaying prodigious musical talent from age four, performing Chopin recitals as a child prodigy alongside her classical training.
Atwell travelled to New York to study under Alexander Borovsky before moving to London, where she earned a place at the Royal Academy of Music and became the first female pianist awarded the academy's highest grade for musicianship. To fund her studies, she played ragtime in London clubs, developing the distinctive 'honky-tonk' sound — created by deliberately detuning certain piano strings — that would define her career.
In 1954, Atwell became the first Black artist to have a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart with 'Let's Have Another Party,' and remains, as of recent record, the only female instrumentalist ever to top the chart. She sold over 20 million records, spent more than 117 weeks in the UK charts, and became one of Britain's most beloved postwar entertainers, famously declaring her music was 'for the man in the street,' not the elite.
- First Black artist to have a UK number one single (1954)
- First piano instrumental to reach UK number one, and still the only female instrumentalist to do so
- Sold over 20 million records across a decades-long career
- First female pianist awarded the Royal Academy of Music's highest musicianship grade
- Classical training and popular appeal can coexist.. She remained a serious classical pianist throughout her career while embracing the accessible ragtime style that made her famous.
- Play for the audience in front of you.. Her stated commitment to entertaining ordinary people, not just the elite, defined her broad and lasting popularity.
- Innovation can come from technical curiosity.. Her signature 'honky-tonk' sound came from her own experimentation with detuning specific piano strings.