My Song, My Home: Grace in Liverpool
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Hello, thanks for listening to the Learning English Conversations podcast. This next episode is part of our music series, My Song, My Home, where we learn language from a different song each week. In each episode, we visit a different city and meet a new musician. It's a great way to practice listening to real English speakers and you'll learn lots of English expressions from the music in the programme. We hope you enjoy it.

It's got such a musical history, the city. Obviously you've got the Beatles, but there are so many other amazing bands that have come from here. There's so much music coming out of Liverpool. We're in an old library with wooden shelves full of old books and huge bright windows in the centre of Liverpool, a city in the north-west of England. My name is Grace Chloe. I am a singer and pianist and songwriter. I'm a singer and pianist and songwriter.

Like Grace says, Liverpool is probably most famous for being the home of the rock band The Beatles, who became famous in the 1960s. But there's a lot more to see. Welcome to My Song, My Home. In this podcast, we visit a different place in each episode and meet a musician that lives there. Today, Grace will explain why she decided to become a musician and tell us about living in Liverpool.

We'll also learn some vocabulary from her music later in the programme. Find a transcript of this episode to read along on our website bbclearningenglish.com Grace has always had an interest in music.

I knew like every word to every song that was on the radio, all the sort of old songs and the new songs I'd always be singing along. If we went to a restaurant, I'd sit there with my headphones in singing out loud, annoying people at other tables. I don't understand what's going on, I'm feeling that something's wrong.

Grace has been singing as long as she can remember and she began playing the piano as a child. I lost my eyesight when I was four and so I had to learn to read braille and stuff like that and

And it was the mobility teacher, so the person that taught me how to use a long cane and stuff, they suggested that learning the piano could improve my sense of touch and my strength in my hands and my wrists and stuff. Grace is blind and had to learn to read braille. This is a system for reading for people without eyesight, where small bumps can be read by running your fingers across the page.

Because Grace had to learn to use touch for reading braille, a teacher suggested learning the piano might help. I started playing it for those reasons, but then just as soon as I started, I realised how much I absolutely loved it. Music quickly became a huge part of Grace's life, and she began to love performing when she got a chance to sing on stage at a festival.

There was a group there called Rockyoke and they're basically a live band karaoke band. Rockyoke is a play on the word karaoke which is where just the music but not the voice of a popular song is played so that you can sing along yourself. This version was with a live band and Grace got picked to sing. And I just remember sort of

the second I opened my mouth the tent of people just went absolutely crazy by the end of the song everyone was singing there were people sort of running in from outside and

And when I finished, the crowd started chanting, saying one more song. When Grace performed, the crowd started chanting, repeating the same words, one more song. From that moment, Grace wanted to be a musician. Yeah, it nearly makes me cry talking about it. It was just such an incredible feeling. And it was sort of, that was the first time I really knew deep down that I would never want to do anything other than music.

So Grace moved to Liverpool to study music at the university and it has quickly become home. It is the friendliest, scariest, most off-the-wall, lovely place.

absolutely bananas place in the world. The people here are the loveliest people you will meet anywhere. Grace describes Liverpool as off the wall or unusual and bananas very silly. It's also been a great place for Grace to write and perform. Grace is going to perform her song Perplexed. Have a listen and visit our website to read the lyrics.

Walking around with my head in the clouds Got my feet on the ground and no doubts about me What we've been through, we can make it through anything Cause I love you but you set your back and I can't quite believe it See your lies in your eyes, even behind the green And I don't understand what's going on I'm feeling that something is wrong

I'm lost with you babe, don't keep saying we're great It's time we did some straight up talking I need some understanding, don't know where we're standing Don't know where we're at and I can't get no answers from you No, no, it's true, and I adore you when you say it too I'm waiting between the subtitles, got me perplexed

I can't believe I had anxiety that I couldn't love you as much as you love me but three months didn't seem so long and yet our positions have completely swapped I worship the ground you walk on you worship the ground behind begging for you at your feet begging just like the sign of me dying

I'm lost with you, babe. Can't keep saying we're great. It's time we did some straight up talking. I need some understanding. Don't know where we're sounding. Don't know where we're at. And I can't get no answers. No, it's true. I adore you when you say it too.

The song is called Perplexed because Grace wanted to include this strange word in a song. Perplexed means confused because something is too difficult to understand. You might be perplexed by a math problem, for example. But in the song, Grace is perplexed by a relationship with somebody.

In the song, Grace uses the phrase, worship the ground you walk on. It's a common expression in English. It means to love or admire someone a lot, so much so that the things they've touched, like the ground they've walked on, become special.

In the song, Grace uses the phrase straight up talking. Straight in this context means honest or truthful. Straight up talking means an honest conversation. You can also be a straight talker, which is someone who tells the truth, even if it's difficult.

One of the lyrics in the song is reading between the subtext. Now this is a playful take on a common English expression, reading between the lines.

If you read between the lines, you try to understand meanings or emotions that are not literally in the words on a page or that someone has said. This hidden meaning can also be called a subtext. So if you were reading between the subtexts, like Grace does in the song, you would be looking for an even more hidden meaning, maybe one that isn't even there. In the song, it's about being confused about a relationship and looking for answers.

Listen to the rest of Grace's song and read along using the lyrics on our website. Are there any other phrases she uses about being confused or perplexed? I used to feel safe, now I feel small.

I'm lost with you, babe, can't keep saying Lost with you, babe, can't keep nothing's my okay I'm lost with you, babe, can't keep saying We're great, it's time we did some straight up talking I need some understanding, don't know where we're in Don't know where we're at, and I can't get no answers from you You know it's true, and I adore you when you say it too

Thanks for listening to my song, My Home. You can watch Grace's performance of her song, Perplexed, on our website. Visit bbclearningenglish.com. Next time, we'll visit Leeds in the north of England to meet another musician and hear another live performance. See you then!