St Mary’s Alumnus Secures Top Two Spots on the Big Top 40

Tom Grennan, a Drama and Physical Theatre graduate of St Mary’s University, Twickenham, has secured the top two spots on the Official Big Top 40 chart.

Grennan’s collaboration with Ella Henderson ‘Let’s Go Home Together’ secured the Number 1 spot on last night’s Big Top 40, with his solo track ‘Little Bit of Love’ jumping 32 places to second place.

The Official Big Top 40 is now the most listened-to chart in the UK, with 1.5 millions listeners tuning in each week. Chart positions are based on an algorithm that includes a mix of streaming, digital sales and radio airplay across that week.

‘Little Bit of Love’ is taken from Grennan’s upcoming album ‘Evering Road’. This follows the immense success of his debut album ‘Lighting Matches’, which made the Top 5 on the UK Albums Charts when released in 2018 and received Gold certification last year after reaching 100,000 sales.

Grennan studied with the Drama St Mary’s department at the University between 2013-16. He has previously spoken about his time at St Mary’s saying that he chose to study here because of the “family feeling” of the University and that graduating from St Mary’s sits alongside the success of his debut album as one of his proudest moments.

Mark Griffin, Head of Drama, said “'What an amazing achievement for Tom. Everybody at Drama St Mary's is buzzing with the news. He's an incredible musician and one of the hardest working artists in the industry, nobody deserves it more.

"He's also a true Simmie who has done huge amounts of work in his community during lockdown and is always encouraging future creative talent. He's inspirational and we're very proud of him.”