In November 2003, at the age of 19, Melua released her first album, Call off the Search, which reached the top of the United Kingdom album charts and sold 1.8 million copies in its first five months of release. Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released in September 2005 and to date has gone platinum four times. Melua released her third studio album Pictures in October 2007, which has been announced to be the last of her albums in collaboration with Mike Batt. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, Melua has a fortune of £18 million, making her the seventh richest British musician under thirty.
In the summer of 2003, aged just 18 and still studying at the Brit School of Performing Arts in leafy Surrey, no-one, least of all Katie, would have predicted what the next few years would hold for the teenager. Four years later, Katie has sold more than 7.5 million albums becoming, in 2006, the year’s best selling British female in the world along the way.
Georgian born Katie relocated from Tbilisi to Belfast at the age of 8 due to her father’s profession as a heart surgeon and 5 years later moved to South East London. After her GCSEs Katie joined the Brit School for Performing Arts where she undertook a BTEC and Music A-level and discovered different styles of music including Queen, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Irish folk music and Indian music. On hearing an Eva Cassidy song Katie was blown away and when she discovered that Eva was no longer alive wrote the song ‘Faraway Voice’ as a tribute to her. It was this song that attracted the attention of the composer and producer Mike Batt. Katie signed to Batt’s record label Dramatico but stayed at the Brit School to complete her studies – she graduated with distinction in July 2003.
During the summer of 2003 her debut single, ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy’, attracted the attention of British station BBC Radio 2 and upon its release entered the charts at number 10. Released in November, Katie’s debut album ‘Call Off The Search’ hit the UK number 1 spot in January 2004 and has subsequently scored top 10 positions throughout Europe. The album has since been certified gold in Holland, Hong Kong and Switzerland, platinum in Denmark, New Zealand and Australia, 2 x platinum in Germany, Ireland, Norway and South Africa and received the IFPI Double Platinum Award for 2 million European Sales. In March 2005 ‘Call Off The Search’ hit the number 1 spot in Denmark, a year after its initial release and became a top five album in Japan. Katie was awarded Best International Newcomer at Germany’s ECHO Awards in April 2005. In Britain, Katie was the highest selling female artist in 2004 – ‘Call Off The Search’ has now sold 1.8 million copies and is 6 x platinum (in Britain alone) and worldwide sales exceed 3.5 million.
Katie joined the line up for the Band Aid 20 single to record a new version of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’. As an ambassador for Save The Children this was particularly poignant for Katie. In March 2005 Katie was invited by Nelson Mandela to perform at his 46664 concert in aid of Mandela’s AIDS foundation. In addition to performing a full live set, Katie joined Queen on stage to perform a moving version of ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’. Katie flew from South Africa to Sri Lanka where she experienced the work that is being done by Save The Children, particularly with child soldiers.
In August 2005 Katie and her family swore allegiance to The Queen and became British Citizens following a ceremony in Surrey, England. Katie was asked to perform at the Royal Wedding of Prince Pieter-Christiaan in Holland and at the Norwegian Royal Gala Concert in the presence of the Crown Prince Of Norway. Continuing the royal theme, the American TV show ‘Good Morning America’ broadcast live from Buckingham Palace and Katie was invited by the show to perform ‘Nine Million Bicycles’ and ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy’. Katie performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Norway.
In between her overseas travel Katie recorded her new album, ‘Piece By Piece’, which was released in Europe on September 26th 2005. The album comprises more self-penned songs including the title track as well as a cover of the 1987 Cure hit ‘Just Like Heaven’ that Katie recorded for a new DreamWorks film starring Reese Witherspoon. The first single, ‘Nine Million Bicycles’, preceded the album release and gave Katie her highest UK single chart entry at number 5. One week later and Katie entered the UK album charts at number 1 and Europe swiftly followed with the album reaching #1 in Norway, Denmark and Holland, #2 in Ireland, #2 in Iceland, #3 in South Africa, #4 in Poland and #2 in Germany giving an overall chart position of #2 on the Billboard European Top 100 Chart.
Katie was nominated for two Brit Awards in the “Best Female” and “Pop” categories, for the “Best International Female” at the Edison Awards in Holland and was awarded “Best International Female (Rock & Pop)” at the Echo Awards in Germany. Once again Katie was pronounced the highest selling female artist in Britain in 2005 selling more than 1 million albums.
It is fair to say that 2006 was yet another extraordinary year for 22 year old Katie. In addition to the awards nominations, Katie had a Dutch tulip named in her honour, toured America coast to coast, raced at 160mph round Grand Prix circuit Silverstone, flew a plane, launched Save The Children’s ‘Rewrite The Future’ campaign, made the headlines with a Guinness World Record for the deepest concert when she performed 303 meters beneath the North Sea in the leg of a gas rig and was awarded the World Music Award for Britain’s Biggest Selling Female. Whilst in 2004 and 2005, Katie was the greatest selling female artist in Britain, in 2006 Katie was the highest selling European female artist in the world selling more than 3 million copies of her second album ‘Piece By Piece’.
Awarded the Golden Camera Award for International Pop Artist at the start of 2007, Katie was presented with the Echo Award for International Female Artist in March 2007.
October 2007 saw the release of Katie’s third album ‘Pictures’ – a record which has delighted her legions of fans, confirmed Katie’s status as a unique and remarkable vocalist, and revealed the third chapter in what is destined to be a long musical career.
Katie’s fourth album, “The Katie Melua Collection”, is a musical summary of the 24 year old’s journey so far and is being released to coincide with Katie’s arena tour in October and November 2008.
www.katiemelua.com/
Piece by Piece
Katie Melua Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Your scent upon my pillow
And then I'll say goodbye
To your whispers in my dreams
And then our lips will part
In my mind and in my heart
'Cause your kiss
Went deeper than my skin
Piece by piece
Is how I'll let go of you
Kiss by kiss
Will leave my mind one at a time
One at a time
First of all must fly
My dreams of you and I
There's no point in holding on to those
And then our ties will break
For your and my own sake
Just remember
This is what you chose
Piece by piece
Is how I'll let go of you
Kiss by kiss
Will leave my mind one at a time
One at a time
I'll shed like skin
Our memories of lazy days
And fade away the shadow of your face
Ooh
Ooh
Piece by piece
Is how I'll let go of you
Kiss by kiss
Will leave my mind one at a time
One at a time
One at a time
One at a time
In Katie Melua's song "Piece by Piece," she is saying goodbye to a past love. The first verse describes the process of physically removing the remnants of the relationship, from the lingering scent on her pillow to the whispers in her dreams. She acknowledges the depth of their relationship, as evidenced by the line "your kiss went deeper than my skin."
In the second verse, Melua states that she must let go of the dreams she had for their future because they are no longer possible. The ties between them will break for their own sakes, and she reminds her ex-lover that this is a choice they both made. Melua then repeats the chorus with the refrain "one at a time," emphasizing that the process of letting go will be slow and intentional, just like their relationship was built.
Overall, the lyrics convey a sense of bittersweet resignation as Melua begins to move on from a relationship that was significant and impactful in her life.
Line by Line Meaning
First of all must go
Your scent upon my pillow
The first step is letting go of your presence in my physical space, including everything that has your scent on it.
And then I'll say goodbye
To your whispers in my dreams
I will let go of memories of you and the emotions that come with them - including the memories that come up in my dreams.
And then our lips will part
In my mind and in my heart
'Cause your kiss
Went deeper than my skin
I will try to detach myself from the feelings of your kiss, which were so deep that it felt like they became a part of me.
Piece by piece
Is how I'll let go of you
Kiss by kiss
Will leave my mind one at a time
One at a time
I will disengage slowly, piece by piece, starting with the memories of our kisses and gradually letting go of everything else, one by one.
First of all must fly
My dreams of you and I
There's no point in holding on to those
And then our ties will break
For your and my own sake
Just remember
This is what you chose
I must stop daydreaming about the possibilities of a future with you and let go of the emotional attachment we had. For the sake of your and my own healing, we have to break ties completely.
I'll shed like skin
Our memories of lazy days
And fade away the shadow of your face
I will slowly detach from the memories we had, by treating them like I would shed skin that I no longer need. The image of your face that keeps coming up will also start to fade away slowly.
Piece by piece
Is how I'll let go of you
Kiss by kiss
Will leave my mind one at a time
One at a time
One at a time
One at a time
I will take my time to let go of you, one piece at a time, one kiss at a time, one memory at a time, without rushing the process. I will slowly begin to forget about you and build a new life without you.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Katie Melua
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind