World Service

Peter Cunnah is the frontman of the dance music group D:Ream, who found global success in the 1990s with hits like U R the Best Thing and Things Can Only Get Better. Peter has always been into performing, and he's always known that he'd been adopted at birth. He grew up in Northern Ireland with loving and supportive adoptive parents, though wondered where his passion for music had come from. It was as D:Ream was about to take off, when Peter was in his early 20s, that he received a letter out of the blue from his birth mother. He went to meet her, and discovered that both his biological parents had been in a popular band in the 1960s in Northern Ireland. When his mother became pregnant by a fellow band member her family sent her to give birth in a Catholic institution for unmarried mothers, where she had to give up her baby at just a few days old. Peter formed a close relationship with his birth mother, making up for lost time, but decided to delay searching for his birth father until after his adoptive father had died. When Peter eventually tracked him down, decades later, he found out that not only did his birth father have a career in music and show business, but his new half-siblings were all successful musicians too. It was the final piece in Peter's family jigsaw puzzle. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producers: Andrea Rangecroft and Rebecca Vincent Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707 (Photo: D:Ream frontman Peter Cunnah singing into a microphone on stage. Credit: Mick Hutson/Getty)