Singer Tom Grennan surprises shoppers to celebrate The National Lottery's impact on Performance Art

Singer-songwriter Tom Grennan delivered an impromptu, busking style performance in Coventry today as part of a thank you moment to National Lottery players who have helped invest over £2.2billion into the performing arts over the past 25 years.

Standing in front of Coventry’s Lady Godiva monument, guitar case open, and just a mic and his guitarist, the ‘Found What I’ve Been Looking for’ singer, treated crowds in Coventry to his huge Top Ten hit at Broadgate in the centre of Coventry - City of Culture 2021.

He was joined by Coventry’s own Godiva Academy of Performing Arts, who performed at a National Lottery funded event to announce Coventry as the City of Culture 2021 in March this year and also local dancers from the East Midlands Carribean Carnival Arts Network who themselves have received funding from the National Lottery.

Tom shot to fame last year, seeing out 2018 with a top 5 debut album and a sold-out nationwide tour. He also recently made it into the Guinness Book Of Records for performing the highest number of concerts (ten) in 12 hours.

The National Lottery has invested over £2.2 billion in 29,251 projects to help develop a diverse range of performance arts in England, spanning theatre, dance and music.

Over 44,000 theatre, dance and music projects that support the development of the performance arts sector in the UK, have been made possible thanks to National Lottery funding over the last 25 years.

Some of the UK’s well-known theatres and performers have been funded by The National Lottery over the last 25 years, including the English National Ballet and the BAFTA award winning adaption of ‘Ugly Duckling’ by Northern Ballet.

Tom’s performance is part of a season of events to celebrate The National Lottery’s 25th Birthday. Since the National Lottery began, over 565,000 individual grants have been awarded across the UK. That’s the equivalent of 200 life-changing projects in every UK postcode district. More than £40 billion has been raised for good causes in the areas of arts, sport, heritage, culture, film, charity and community.

We want to say thank you to National Lottery players for contributing around £30 million to good causes every week. The 25th Birthday National Lottery celebrations are a great opportunity to do just that.

Case studies

Aina More is a rapper, singer and MC from London. She began writing and rhyming in playground rap battles at her secondary school in South London and in 2014 she won an event organised by Urban Development, an initiative devoted to helping young people trying to make it in the world of urban music. A year later she won the Big Music Project, a National Lottery-backed scheme.

The Big Music Project started in 2014 and wound up four years later after helping thousands of young people with dreams of making it as a performer. Urban Development, which is also funded by The National Lottery, continues to encourage youth to both listen to live music and make it themselves.