Annotations for Uno

Lyric: You’re still nothing to me
 And this is nothing to me
Annotation:
Almost appears to be reassuring himself that he doesn’t care about the addressee. This, in turn, may point to the idea that they aren’t listing off what someone has lost, but is actually contemplating what could have been if he was still with her.

Lyric: And you could have ruled the whole world
 If you had the chance
Annotation:
The speaker here is telling their ex how if she had actually treated them well and thus given herself a chance, then she would have been treated like the queen of the world by him.

Lyric: ’Cause you could have been number one
 If you only found the time
Annotation:
This explains how she “blew this away”; the addressee just wasn’t giving the speaker any time or attention, and so the speaker left. However, he probably wouldn’t have if they had given him time, thus showing he did love her. In the alternative interpretation, the speaker seems to regret having had to choose between a standard career and the more uncertain musical path, due to time constraints. The phrase ‘number one’ is a reference to the title ‘Uno’, which means ‘one’ in Spanish.

Lyric: This means nothing to me
 ’Cause you are nothing to me
 And it means nothing to me
 That you blew this away
Annotation:
As  confirmed by Matt in an interview, in one of the interpretations of the song the addressee is the previous girlfriend of the speaker, maybe the same “who challenged all [his] dreams and all [his] balance” in “ Unintended”; this song world then be the clearing up of the past before he goes to the one he could “love forever”. The addressee ruined their relationship (“blew it away”) and, as such, is now completely insignificant to the speaker. They no longer care. A second interpretation, suggested by Matt in the same interview, sees the lyrics as addressed to the speaker himself, inviting him to not give in to the pressure to just go to university and get a job, believing in the music carreer instead. In this passage, he is affirming he doesn’t mind precluding that possibility.

