(No One Knows Me) Like The Piano

Album: Process (2017)
Charted: 92
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Songfacts®:

  • Over a bare piano, Sampha delivers an emotional vocal, in which he reflects on his childhood. The song pays homage to an old piano in his mom's house, which his father had purchased from an elderly neighbor when the singer was aged three. It was intended to provide an alternative to television and the young Sampha quickly learned to play the instrument.
  • The song was originally titled "Mother's Home" and was written in late 2014 after Sampha moved back to his old Morden, South London home to care for his cancer-stricken mother. She passed away a few months later. He sings about his mom's death on the second verse.
  • Process won the 2017 Mercury Music Prize. Sampha performed this song during the ceremony.
  • Q Magazine commented to Sampa that "(No One Knows Me) Like The Piano" felt like the song that that people really connected to on the Process album. He replied:

    "For me, it's the central song (on the record). I really felt the need to express myself in that way. It was quite challenging because I'm not really one to talk about that kind of stuff even though I wrote the song. I'm happy that I have that song as a document of my relationship with my mother. It's like a photograph."

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