"Uncharted" is a song written and recorded by the American singer Sara Bareilles

Sara Bareilles

Sara Beth Bareilles is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She achieved mainstream success in 2007 with the hit single "Love Song", which brought her into the number one spot on the Billboard Pop 100 chart. She has sold over 1 million records in the United States alone and has been...

. The song was produced by Neal Avron. It was the second single of her album Kaleidoscope Heart

Kaleidoscope Heart

Kaleidoscope Heart received a 67% on Metacritic, resulting from generally favorable reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic rated the album with 4 stars out of 5 and has claimed positively that "Despite lushly detailed arrangements, Bareilles never pushes this distinctly commercial gift too...

.

Background and history

Bareilles told Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

magazine that she "...was really worried about stepping into the unknown and I didn't know what to expect the second time around... and that afternoon, I sat down and wrote 'Uncharted'." The album title, 'Kaleidoscope Heart', comes from the lyric of 'Uncharted', "Jump start my kaleidoscope heart, love to watch the colors fade... They may not make sense but they sure as hell made me". Bareilles stated the song to be the starting point of the new record, and this particular lyric saw the end to her writer's block.

Critical reception

Jim Farber of New York Daily News

New York Daily News

The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....

 wrote that: "Uncharted, matches jaunty piano figures to a spritz of strings." Megan Vick wrote for Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

that: "With "Uncharted," Bareilles puts a syncopated two-step beat to a heartbreak anthem as she belts out about being unable to deal with a failed relationship."

Music video

On 9 November 2010, official behind-the-scenes photographs were posted to Sara's official site, showing director Laurent Brie, director of previous single 'King of Anything

King of Anything

"King of Anything" is a song written and recorded by the American singer Sara Bareilles. The song was produced by Neal Avron. It was the first single of her album Kaleidoscope Heart. The song was nominated at the 53rd Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, though it ultimately lost to...

', filming the video. The pictures showed Sara in various outfits, including a Geisha

Geisha

, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...

 girl costume. However, nothing more was stated about the concept of this video, and it was believed to be scrapped for a new version.

A music video was released on March 1, 2011 featuring artists including Adam Levine

Adam Levine

Adam Noah Levine is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the front man and guitarist for the pop rock band Maroon 5. He is also a coach on the American talent show The Voice.-Early life:...

 and Jesse Carmichael

Jesse Carmichael

Jesse Carmichael is an American musician who is the keyboardist for Maroon 5....

 of Maroon 5

Maroon 5

Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album...

, Josh Groban

Josh Groban

Joshua Winslow "Josh" Groban is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His four solo albums have been certified at least multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country...

, Pharrell Williams

Pharrell Williams

Pharrell Williams , commonly known simply as Pharrell, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, composer, and fashion designer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the record production duo The Neptunes, producing hip hop and R&B music...

 of N.E.R.D., Jennifer Nettles

Jennifer Nettles

Jennifer Nettles is an American country music artist. She is known primarily for her role as lead vocalist of the duo Sugarland alongside Kristian Bush. Before Sugarland's inception, she also fronted Atlanta, Georgia-based bands called Soul Miner's Daughter and Jennifer Nettles Band...

 of Sugarland, Ben Folds

Ben Folds

Benjamin Scott "Ben" Folds is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and television personality. From 1995-2000, Folds was the frontman and pianist of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. Since the group disbanded, Folds has performed as a solo artist and has toured all over the world...

, Ryan Tedder

Ryan Tedder

Ryan Benjamin Tedder is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the frontman of the pop rock band, OneRepublic, though he has an independent career as songwriter and producer for various artists such as Beyoncé, Kelly Clarkson, Far East Movement, Jordin Sparks, Leona...

 of OneRepublic

OneRepublic

OneRepublic is an American pop rock band from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Formed in 2002 by Ryan Tedder and Zach Filkins, the band achieved massive success on MySpace, becoming the most prominent unsigned act on the website then...

, Laura Jansen

Laura Jansen

Laura Jansen is a Dutch-American singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. Jansen established herself as a regular at the Los Angeles live music venue the Hotel Cafe before gaining fame in her native country, The Netherlands...

, Ingrid Michaelson

Ingrid Michaelson

Ingrid Ellen Egbert Michaelson is a New York-based indie-pop singer-songwriter. Her music has been featured in episodes of several popular television shows, including Scrubs, Bones, Grey's Anatomy The Big C and One Tree Hill, as well as in Old Navy's Fall 2007 Fair Isle and Opel's/Vauxhall's...

, Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa Lee Carlton is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Upon completion of her education at the School of American Ballet, Carlton chose to pursue singing instead, performing in New York bars and clubs while attending university. Three months after recording a demo with producer Peter...

, Tegan and Sara

Tegan and Sara

Tegan and Sara are a Canadian indie band composed of identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin . Both Tegan and Sara play guitar and keyboard and write songs.-History:...

, Cary Brothers

Cary Brothers

Cary Brothers is an American indie rock singer-songwriter originally from Nashville, Tennessee. After moving to Los Angeles and becoming a regular performer at the influential Hotel Cafe venue, Brothers first gained national attention with his song "Blue Eyes" on the Platinum-selling,...

, Greg Laswell

Greg Laswell

Greg Laswell is a musician, recording engineer, and producer from San Diego, California. He has released four studio albums: Good Movie in 2003, Through Toledo in 2006, and Three Flights from Alto Nido in 2008, and Take a Bow in 2010, as well as several EPs and special singles...

, Adam Gardner

Adam Gardner

Adam Seth Gardner is a guitarist and vocalist of the band Guster and a member of the Tufts University Beelzebubs...

 and Ryan Miller

Ryan Miller (musician)

Ryan Matthew Miller is an American musician. He is the lead singer and guitarist for the alternative rock band, Guster. He also occasionally plays bass and piano.-Biography:...

 from Guster

Guster

Guster is an American alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 1991, the group is known for its live performances and humor, founding members Adam Gardner, Ryan Miller, and Brian Rosenworcel came about to begin practice sessions while attending Tufts University in Medford,...

, and Keenan Cahill

Keenan Cahill

Keenan Cahill is a teenager from Elmhurst, Illinois whose lip-syncing of popular songs has brought his videos on YouTube to some of the most viewed online videos. Guest artists on his channel have included rapper 50 Cent in November 2010, David Guetta in January 2011, and Jersey Shore's Paul...

.

The video was produced by musician Travis Schneider, with the concept coming from Sara's guitar player and long-time friend, singer/songwriter Javier Dunn.

In a blog entry on her official site, Bareilles described the reason behind the concept;

"This video is about my journey as an artist who looks up to the people around them. This is about being a fan of people who take chances, who are fearless, who have integrity, and go off into the world saying yes to what's around them. It's filled with some of the people in my life who do that everyday. They have impacted my world and are not only incredible artists, but great friends as well. They all worked this giant favor into their very busy lives and helped me out more than I can say."

Promotion

"Uncharted" was chosen as the theme song to VH1's reality show, Audrina. She also performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on June 8, 2011.

Charts

It has sold 215,000 copies in US. > >

Chart (2011)	Peak position
US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100...  (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... )	16