Music was my salvation: the homeless man and the piano

While Francois Pierron was homeless in London he taught himself to play a public piano at St Pancras train station – from scratch. His mastery of music helped change his future.

Francois had a difficult start in life. He was abandoned as a newborn on the streets of Dakar, Senegal, shortly after his birth in 1994, but was found by police and taken to an orphanage. He was soon adopted by a French couple and grew up in a rural area near Calais in northern France. It was a happy childhood, but Francois says he struggled with issues of identity in the largely white community, and always felt he was looking for something beyond himself.

He was still a teenager when he started travelling around Europe, eventually arriving in London where he was almost immediately targeted by thieves who took his passport and all his money. This triggered a spiral into homelessness that spanned five long years. Francois spent a lot of this time in the crowds at train stations, one of the few places he felt safe, and one day came across a public piano in St Pancras station – the kind that is put in the concourse for anyone to play. He'd never touched a piano before, but says that something drew him to it with an almost magnetic force. He started teaching himself to play, spending hours every day experimenting with sounds and chords. He was obsessed. The piano provided solace, and even distracted him from his perpetual hunger.

Despite not having any lessons he developed an extraordinary skill, creating his own compositions that wowed the crowds at the station. His playing drew the attention of local media, and in 2024 he was invited to take part in the popular UK TV show The Piano, a competition in which amateur musicians perform publicly on street pianos in the concourses of major UK railway stations, all the while being secretly judged by famous musicians including Mika and Jon Batiste.

Francois says that his experience with the piano has helped him heal. He has been able to move on from homelessness, is in training for a career in system architecture, and has even started a family of his own – he hopes to share his love of the piano with his baby twins one day. He has also been back to visit Senegal, to begin the search for his birth parents.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producers: Rebecca Vincent and Rachel Oakes

Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.   Got a story to tell? Send an email to [email protected] or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784   You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice