Una Winifred Atwell (27 February or 27 April[2] 1910 or 1914[nb 1] – 28 February 1983) was a British pianist, born in the colony of Trinidad who migrated to Britain and who enjoyed great popularity in Britain and Australia from the 1950s with a series of boogie-woogie and ragtime hits, selling over 20 million records.

She played in a concert at The Town Hall in New York on 10 May 1945, as part of a presentation by the Altruss Opera Company starring Paul A. Smith, a well-known tenor.

[9] On 6 October 1945, it was announced that "the noted British pianist" had left for England where she would broadcast for the BBC on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

[16] Atwell was championed by popular disc jockey Jack Jackson, who introduced her to Decca Records promotions manager Hugh Mendl.

The rag was originally performed on a concert grand for the occasion, but Atwell felt it did not sound right, and so got her husband to buy a honky tonk piano for 50 shillings from a junk shop in Battersea, London, which was used for the released version of the song.

[19] Atwell's husband, former stage comedian Lew Levisohn, was vital in shaping her career as a variety star.

He had cannily made the choice, for stage purposes, of her playing first a concert grand, then the old upright piano from Battersea.

While contributing to a posthumous BBC Radio appreciation of Atwell's career, Richard Stilgoe revealed that he had become the owner of the famous "other piano".

[4] She is the only holder of two gold and two silver discs for piano music in Britain, and was the first black artist in the UK to sell a million records.

[citation needed] At a private party for Queen Elizabeth II, she was called back for an encore by the monarch herself, who requested "Roll Out the Barrel".

It ran for ten episodes on the new ITV network from 21 April to 23 June 1956, and the BBC picked up the series the following year.

Another Decca recording by Atwell is George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Ted Heath's band, which contained an arrangement in the Glenn Miller style of the slow section.

She was paid AUS$5,000 a week (the equivalent of around $50,000 today), making her the highest-paid star from a Commonwealth country to visit Australia up to that time.

[citation needed] She toured Australia many times and made Australian guitarist, Jimmy Doyle, her musical director in the 1960s.

In 1962, she made a nationwide tour of Britain, with "The Winifred Atwell Show", accompanied by the Cy Bevan Group, who were with her then current radio series Pianorama.

She spoke out against the Third World conditions endured by Aboriginal Australians, which made headlines during an outback tour of the country in 1962.

Voracious in her reading habits and a devotee of crosswords, she confessed to an inordinate love of mangoes, a dislike of new shoes, and a keen interest in televised cricket (she backed England).

Atwell often returned to her native Trinidad and, on one occasion, she bought a house in Saint Augustine, which she adored and later renamed Winvilla.

In the early 1980s, her sense of loss following her husband's death made her consider returning to Trinidad to live, but she found the weather too hot.

In 1983, following an electrical fire that destroyed her Narrabeen home, she suffered a heart attack and died while staying with friends in Seaforth.

In November 2020, a Nubian Jak Community Trust black plaque honouring Atwell was unveiled at the former site of a hair salon she owned in Chaucer Road, Brixton, south London.