The Piano winner Brad Kella wants to help youngsters follow their dreams in life

When a suited Brad Kella ­performs his debut single at the Labour Party Conference on Monday night, it will be a stark contrast to some of his previous gigs.

The tracksuit-clad 23-year-old would play a public piano to scrape together enough money to keep his young family housed in a hostel.

But after self-taught Brad’s instinctive talents went viral, he was approached by Channel 4 ’s The Piano. Brad won the series, reducing the audience to tears with a tribute to his foster parents, Eve and Frank.

It will be this poignant melody, which features an orchestral arrangement by Adele ’s collaborator Rosie Danvers, that he will perform.

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“I can’t believe I’m in this situation,” he says. “I’m so blessed, I’m high on life.”

Brad was born on a council estate in Bootle on Merseyside before being taken into foster care with his twin brother, Aron, from the age of seven.

“I went on that show as a token of appreciation for everything they’ve done,” he says. “I was a seven-year-old lad with nothing going for me. They made me blossom so much and turned me into the person I am today.”

Missing from the celebrations was his late mum Yvonne, who died from a cardiac arrest when the twins were 14 – something Brad was reluctant to discuss on TV, for fear of being pigeonholed as a “sob story”.

BATTLE

“I only used to get to see my mum once a month and I used to look forward to it so much,” he recalls. "Out of the blue she died and it was such a dark place for me.”

Brad turned to the piano, thanks to a generous donation from Eve alongside a scheme to help foster children access musical instruments, and he taught himself to play.

“The piano helped me battle through it all – it saved my life. It kills me that she never saw me go on the stage and do what I was doing. I’m never very good at expressing how I feel. But the piano opens me up. It makes me feel better. It’s a medicine. After losing my mum, the piano gave me something to believe in and a journey to chase.

“It affected me a lot more after the show, knowing she hadn’t seen it. I know she was 100% on stage with me that night. I know she is looking down at me now, so proud of me.”

A few years ago, Brad and his ­girlfriend Abbie, along with their eldest daughter Phoebe, now three, were forced to move into a hostel. Brad’s talents were spotted as he played a public piano in Liverpool One shopping centre.

He joined The Piano, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, who helped him “massively – she was like a mum figure, or a big sister,” says Brad.

The pair are set to reunite for “something special”, just one of many pinch-me moments, such as his “dream come true” job performing at a launch for his beloved Liverpool Football Club. It was only in February that he was approached by a police officer who felt the tracksuited youngster was acting suspiciously at Liverpool’s Lime Street station – to be told he was shuffling nervously because he was about to perform for Claudia and judges Mika and Lang Lang.

He laughs, saying the officer must feel silly – and even sillier tonight when Brad performs for Keir Starmer to promote the creative sector. “I was debating whether to wear a tracksuit but it’s quite a fancy event,” he says. “I’ll wear a nice suit.”

Brad’s ambition is to become a voice for children in foster care, who he believes are too often treated as numbers in the care system.

“I’d like to make a safe space for kids, teenagers and young people who are in care, or homeless,” he says. “I’d love to build a musical environment where they can come, speak to people who have been through it and try to find self-belief through music.

“I hope every time I perform, every foster kid knows they can still go out and do whatever they want.”

Now a proud father of two, who welcomed baby Melody after winning The Piano in July, Brad can play his own gifted Steinway in a new house he and Abbie have moved into. With discussions under way for a biopic, this is surely just the beginning.

• Brad’s new single, Eve and Frank, is out on Modern Sky and his debut album will be released next year.