'I feel at home on stage': Tom Grennan all set for Cork gig
Tom Grennan is at the Marquee in Cork on Thursday.
Tom Grennan is not one for sitting still. Literally or figuratively. As we chat in Cork about his upcoming Live at the Marquee gig on Thursday, July 9, he’s at times restless, at times laid back. “I like being nonstop. I like moving around. I don’t like sitting still.”
That’s why touring appeals to him, he says. Satisfying that itch, he’s going on a mini tour this summer mainly in the UK, with one show in Ireland, in Cork.
Live performing is where Grennan says he comes alive. “I'm a performer more than anything. And I'm a showman. I feel at home on stage.”
He’s an energetic live performer, feeding off the crowd. Industry reviews have at times called him a “hard worker” and a “grafter” but for Grennan it doesn’t feel like work. “I’m having fun. I’m playing music, not working music.”
The crowd reaction invigorates the Bedford-born singer. “When you’re performing live every night you're having a lot of people screaming for you. It's not a natural thing, but when you have it you become used to it. It's like a drug, innit? But then when I’m at home, and it's normal life, and I’m going down the shop to get some bread, I’m just a guy again.”
At home, Grennan is also a dad. His wife Daniella Carraturo gave birth to a baby girl, Dottie, in 2025. “Yeah, it’s different now I have a kid. Having her, it’s opened another chamber to my heart. I was pretty soft anyway, but she's softened me up even more. I'm definitely writing from a different place. I'm not writing about being a dad and that, but I am definitely writing from a place where she's in my world now. Like, it’s also now a chapter in her life, and I want to do it justice.
"I’m a 30-year-old man now. I'm not singing and writing about the things I was writing about when I was 20.”
Grennan’s latest album , is his fourth studio album. Though it was released in 2025, he says he finished it when he was 28, which feels like a lifetime ago.
“Even since I wrote that album I've entered a new phase of my life now - fatherhood, being 30. I'm in a completely different chapter of my life.”
Grennan has always publicly spoken about his mental health, his struggles with anxiety and depression. Being vulnerable isn’t something he says he’s consciously doing as a public figure.
“I've never been scared of being emotional. My mum and dad have always allowed me to be emotional. It flows through me. I think it's sad when people can't express their emotions because it's an important thing. It's a natural thing. I need to show my emotion. It's just that's who I am.”
Protecting his mental health is important to him. He says he’s come off social media – taking an Insta break as the kids say. “It was important for me to come back into the real world. And like, stop for a minute and actually look at what I've done and not look at what everyone else is doing, because I was forgetting about what I've done. And then I wasn't ever happy with what I had done, right? Because I was always too, I don't know. It's never a jealousy thing. Maybe I'm too competitive.”
Looking at Grennan, who has a youthful energy and openness to him, it’s easy to forget that he’s been around for over 10 years. For the 30-year-old though, the time has flown by.
“I’ve blinked and the 10 years have gone. I've always been like, what's next, what's next? Because I want to get to the next stage. Now, I don't know what that next stage is anymore.” He’s ambitious but with a healthy attitude to how much he can control his career in what is a fickle industry.
“I’ve always been ambitious. But now I feel like I need to allow things to happen naturally. I can't control anything. The only thing I control is today. I can't really control anything else apart from that. So whatever happens with my music, my career, or whatever, I need to look at it and let it go.”
He’s taking that relaxed, dare I say, more mature, vibe into the studio with him. “I gave being a pop star a really good go, you know. I went to America and didn’t get sold the dream, but like the dream was I could be the new Bruno Mars, but in reality I’m not Bruno Mars.”
As he listened back to all his music, Grennan realised he wanted to go back to that time when he was “having fun, being creative, being free with my music”. So now he’s writing new music, but this time he’s approaching it with his Irish heritage very firmly at the forefront.
“I'm taking it back to my roots. Back to live instruments, not sitting in the studio with like, laptops and shit. I'm listening to loads of different Irish stuff. I'm not making Irish music, but I'm listening to it and I know I'm from that place. I can feel it in my soul and in my bones and everything. I feel it because I've been brought up around it and it’s pulling me back into that and what that means for me. And it's been cool. There’s a kind of freedom in it.”
With an Irish father, and very much growing up in “an Irish household”, Grennan holds that identity close to his heart.
“There’s a freedom about the Irish people or culture. I'm learning that it’s very relaxed, and it's like, ‘try not to worry, because things will be sound’. Family is everything and no-one takes themselves too seriously. I've never been someone to take myself too seriously. And if I did, I’d have been snapped back into reality quickly. Yeah, I think Irish culture is unmatched, to be honest.”
- Tom Grennan is bringing his live show to Live at the Marquee Cork on Thursday, July 9, 2026. Cork will be Grennan’s only Irish stop on this summer tour
I'm listening to a lot of different music. Irish bands like Kingfishr and Amble, Bruce Springsteen, a band called Love. I listen to all sorts of different music; I don’t stick to a genre.
I'm re-watching at the moment, and with Sterling K Brown.
The latest Leonardo DiCaprio one – . I thought it was really good.
Unfortunately I'm not, and this isn't an excuse, because I can read, but I struggle with it. I'm dyslexic, so for me, reading takes a long time. I did order a book, and it’s been sat next to my bed for weeks. A friend of mine told me to read it – it’s called I can't remember the author but it’s all the thoughts that he has when he's running. I run a lot, and when I come back I ring people, and I have all these ideas of how I could put the world to rights.
It’s probably a ski holiday. It’s all about the action. I love skiing.
I support Coventry. We just got promoted to the Premier League!
