A teenager from Hoxton will be mentored by Kaiser Chiefs’ lead singer Ricky Wilson after making it through blind auditions on BBC talent show The Voice.

Hackney Gazette: Kagan in The VoiceKagan in The Voice (Image: Archant)

Kagan, 19, came up against singing superstar judges, Paloma Faith, will.i.am, Wilson and Boy George when he performed his take on the Rhianna song Take a Bow.

It was broadcast as part of the show’s fifth series on BBC One on Saturday night.

The programme’s formula sees four coaches, all noteworthy recording artists, listen to the contestants in chairs facing away from the stage to avoid seeing them.

If a coach likes what they hear they press a button to rotate their chair to show they want to work with them.

Kagan, from London Fields, discovered his gift when he entered a talent competition in year 6 at school and won.

He applied to The Voice “to try to get where his dream is”.

“I want to become a professional singer,” he told the Gazette, “singing for everyone who would love my music, doing shows, going on tours.

“I just want to be able to do what I love and for people do love what I do.”

The former Bridge Academy secondary school student added: “Ever since I was doing my GCSEs and A-levels I knew I wanted to sing. As much as exams are important I wanted to sing.”

Kagan said writing his own songs was a good outlet for his feelings. “It’s getting my emotions across when I write my lyrics,” he said. “It’s me expressing myself –me and my notebook.

“It’s an art. If I’m feeling sad I’ll sing a sad song, or I might sing a happy song to lift my mood. It’s contagious.

“I write songs about anything that comes across my mind and my heart – about the world, about me, about people, just anything that I think I need to put down in my notebook.”

Kagan, who came second in the Crib youth club’s talent show Borough’s United last year, found it “surreal” to be on the talent show himself after watching it for three years.

He said: “Getting up there and singing in front of the audience with the massive band behind me was incredible, and then the button was pressed and the chair lit up, and I was just like: ‘Wow – this is actually happening.’

“I sang my heart out and I’ll never stop working hard.”