Kloof musician releases first song one year after viral video

JENNY Bowes, a Kloof piano teacher, has released her first song after finding fame playing a piano in a viral video. The video was filmed during the July 2021 unrest in KwaZulu-Natal.

The song is called Rainbow Nation (One Heart) which Bowes says is meant to help South Africans find hope and unity.

Bowes noticed the abandoned musical instrument in a self-storage unit in the Upper Highway during 2021’s devastating unrest.

Bowes went to the destroyed self-storage unit to assess the damage to her brother’s possessions. When Bowes and her husband arrived, they realised that the unit was open and the contents were scattered on the ground. The couple spent the afternoon attempting to organise their relative’s possessions and then prepared to leave.

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The musician said she went into the adjoining row of storage units and saw an abandoned piano among the rubble.

She says, “There was hardly anyone there as it was late in the afternoon. It was the most heart-breaking and the most comforting thing to see this old piano in the middle of the broken glass and litter.”

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She began to play the instrument – hymns at first and then the national anthem which she says she sang as a prayer.

The video of Bowes playing the abandoned piano in the wreckage of the storage units was shared first on WhatsApp and then on social media. When Bowes returned and played the instrument again, the second video went viral.

The musician says that many people thanked her for the comfort they felt listening to the hymns she played.

Bowes says the piano had not been played for 15 years while in storage. Bowes feels that the moment had been divinely orchestrated as the first time the musical instrument saw daylight, it provided hope for many people.

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