A musician who was left crying because of bullying at school due to her disability saw her “dreams come true” last month.
Grace Whitford, 23, started piano lessons when she was nine-years-old. She also goes by the stage name of Grace Chloe, and started busking at a young age.
Grace is blind, and began to lose her sight when she was four-years old after it was found she had a brain tumour. Devastatingly after a further two brain tumours were discovered and removed she completely lost her eyesight.
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Grace, who is originally from Hertfordshire and now lives in Kensington, said music quickly became a passion for her as a child, offering her respite from the difficulties in her life. She can sing and play the piano.
Speaking to the ECHO, Grace said: “It's always been the way. I was the only disabled kid at primary school. I didn't have many friends, so the radio and the piano were my friends. Music has always been the consistent thing that's been the thing throughout my life.”
After moving to Liverpool for university to study popular music, Grace has spent her spare time performing at parties and restaurants in Merseyside. However, she held off busking in the city centre until around six months ago, when the weather started to improve.
Soon after, she saw an advert for a competition aiming to find the best busker in Merseyside, and decided to apply, despite having little hope of winning. Grace said: “I don't know what it says about me but I love performing to people, wherever I'm earning money or not, especially over summer with no university work.
“My job is singing at parties or restaurants but that tends to be on Fridays or weekends. Otherwise there’s nothing to do but walk the dog.”
“I really didn't [think I would win], especially because I haven't been doing it as long in Liverpool. I was planning to go home in the summer. Going out in Liverpool, you see a busker nearly every time in town. There’s so many talented performers.”
Grace began piano lessons from the age of nine, but rejected the advice of others who told her she had to learn braille music in order to advance. She said: “Piano’s a very easy instrument to learn by touch because it's so uniform - there’s black notes, P7, white notes. Once you’ve learnt what each of them are, that’s the main thing.
“Once you get to the grades, the learning is more advanced. I was told throughout my entire musical journey that I would have to learn braille music, there was no way I’d be able to play above Grade Five.
“But I could never get on with braille music. At primary school, I was so behind in learning it. I ended up going all the way through to Grade Eight and I've done everything entirely by ear. It's definitely a lot harder remembering the classic stuff.
“If I didn't discover the love for playing and covering songs, and that turned into writing my own songs, I don't know if I would have carried on.”
Grace’s decision to move to Liverpool was influenced by a trip to the city in 2018 with her parents, when she visited the Cavern Club. This made her reaching the final of the busking competition, which took place at the same location on October 23, all the more rewarding, making her feel as though her "dreams had come true".
Grace performed two songs at the final - Crazy by Gnarls Barkley and Someone Like You by Adele. The latter was not planned, with Grace believing she became “so overwhelmed” she couldn’t remember her original set.
Grace was apprehensive throughout the evening. She said: “I’m very good at not getting nervous at all, and then the day before the thing, the anxiety all hits me in one day. When I walked out, I stared at the piano and felt my legs shaking. I can't really remember performing. It’s all a bit of a blur.”
The night was presented by Liverpool actor Daniel Taylor. Grace was so nervous she didn’t even realise she had won after he announced it.
She said: “When he actually announced the winner, it took a whole second to go, oh that is my name. It was only when one of the other competitors nudged me and said well done, that I realised. It was completely overwhelming.”
Grace was presented with a unique Spirit of Liverpool Liver Bird, similar to one given to Sir Paul McCartney by his brother Mike. The competition, which was organised by a close friend of Gerry Marsden, also awarded her a recording session at Glass Studios in Birkenhead, where Gerry recorded his last song before his death in 2021.
The competition also raised money for the Holistic Cancer Centre in Wirral, a cause close to Gerry. Grace was delighted that the busking competition was raising money for this charity.
She said: “I’ve never had an association with that charity, but I lost my sight through a brain tumour. So anything to do with that, where I have the opportunity to bring some money to that, or raise some awareness, is brilliant.”
Grace is hoping to use her recording session to make her first EP with the help of her band. She feels her musical career so far has made winning the prize incredibly rewarding.
Grace said: “I think that was why I got so emotional during my performance. It really sort of hit me.
“If I could see nine-year-old Grace coming home from school, crying, because some kids had been horrible to her, if I could just go back and say things will change, you will get taken seriously and people will see your value…I never imagined that I’d make it this far.”
You can find out more about Grace’s music through her Instagram page, @gracechloemusic.
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