Grace Cope

Grace first came to our attention, though, when she appeared on Channel 4’s The Piano. This feelgood show sees fledgling musicians like Grace get the opportunity to play a piano solo in St Pancras and other UK train stations. For her episode, she had the chance to perform for host Claudia Winkleman and guest judges MIKA and Jools Holland.

“I saw Claudia when I went to play the piano. The thing that stood out to her was my Tourettes because I said some things that weren’t broadcast because they weren’t suitable to be aired, but she thought it was hilarious! She was very interested in my journey in music and how music was helpful to me.

“I also spoke to MIKA after and he was saying how brave it was for me to play in a train station. It’s hard when there’s noise going on all the time! When I started playing, I could barely hear what was going on. I was hoping my Tourettes wouldn’t get set off when I was playing, but he said it was really brave for me to go on, and it wasn’t in a ‘Bless you, you’ve had a really hard time’. It just showed what a positive thing music has been.”

As for where that journey began, it was when Grace was just nine years old.

“My household has always been very musical. My dad was a DJ and he used to have loads of karaoke equipment he took to gigs with him and he kept it in the living room all the time. When I was nine, I played around with it and sang a song by Ella Henderson, and he started crying. I was like, ‘why are you crying?’. I didn’t understand at the time.”

“Music is better than any medication or coping mechanism I’ve tried. For me, I can feel music in every cell in my body. It’s like, my hairs stand on end. It feels like it’s tingling through my body and it’s an amazing sensory experience. I always think it sounds a bit cringe to say it takes you to another place, but it’s true, it actually does!”

What would be Grace’s advice for other musicians with Tourettes who may be struggling to overcome their initial nerves? “Honestly, just be yourself. I’ve spent so long - so long! I’m twenty! - trying to be someone else, fitting in with the normal. I don’t even know what normal is anymore, but fitting in with everyone else. 

“When my Tourettes blew up. It got quite bad, physically. That gave me more confidence, which I think sounds weird, because a lot of people in my position feel scared to leave the house, and I do, but it also gave me the confidence to start conversations, because I was shy and didn’t want to talk to people, but the Tourettes would start the conversation for me.”

In the last year, conversations around Tourette’s have become particularly frank following the release of I Swear, a tear-jerking biographical film which saw Robert Aramayo hop into a BAFTA-winning turn as activist John Davidson. I Swear achieved what the very best TV and film is capable of: spreading awareness of stigmas and how to bust them. 

At the BAFTAs, the discourse took a different turn when black actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presented an award for their film Sinners, while John Davidson shouted a racist slur at the stage. The controversy was not this involuntary tic, but the BAFTA team’s decision to leave the mic on his table active. 

Grace says that this created a stigma we still need to bust as a society: “People were like, it must be in his vocabulary if he’s saying that. Kids, if they swear, they’ve heard swearing. Anything I’ve heard could become a tic. Anything I’ve been around or seen. It doesn’t mean it’s something anyone with Tourettes thinks about all the time. If you’re exposed to it, it could become a tic.”

Grace’s journey has been a very positive one and she has spoken at length about how her Tourettes no longer defines her. The music is fabulous, and very emotive, for anyone who loves introspective, often heart-wrenching songwriting, and it is clear she has a bright future in the industry. Closer to the present, when we chat, she is about to head out on a few live dates, performing these new singles for the very first time. 

As for "Kept it all Inside”, which you can buy and listen to wherever you get your music, Grace keeps its true meaning close to her chest: “When I write my songs, I write them in a way people can relate to them, even if the experiences aren’t the same. I write them like a diary entry but I don’t actually talk about the exact meaning behind the song. It’s about grieving someone you thought you knew but you didn’t. A person who is still alive, who you thought you could trust but they did something that destroyed that relationship.”