A FORMER New College Swindon student who topped the charts with his single Rover has been nominated for a Brit award.

S1mba – real name Leonard Rwodzi – is up against Dua Lipa, KSI, Harry Styles, and Stormzy for the British Single title.

The song, which reached number 3, was released in November 2019 and since then it has been listened to on YouTube 20 million times. It came to the attention of record label Rax Productions after it went viral on TikTok.

The 22-year-old said: “It’s crazy, I never thought I’d be nominated for a Brit this early in my career. It was only last year that I was getting excited that my song was in the charts and now being recognised like this is amazing, it’s the best thing ever.

“It makes me want to keep going and work harder. I’m glad that people love what I’m doing and I hope they keep loving what I do.

“I’ve always done music, I’ve been playing the piano since I was 14-years-old and started making my own beats since I was 16-years-old.

“My advice to anyone who wants to be a musician is to just not stop. People will tell you to stop and they might not believe in you, but just don’t listen. I used to beg my lecturers to let me use the studio after everyone had left because I wanted to be in there all the time. It’s not about talent, it’s about the time and effort you put into it.”

S1mba was a student at New College - now known as New College Swindon - and studied digital music production.

Will Brown, a lecturer in digital music production at the college, said: “It was clear from very early on in the course that S1mba had something special.

“It’s rare to find students as young as he is that have strong skills in all areas from song-writing to performance through engineering and production.

“We knew he was talented however hadn’t expected he would be as successful as he has been so quickly, although we know it’s down to his hard-working and humble nature. We can’t wait to see what steps he takes next.”

Another lecturer who taught S1mba between 2017 and 2019, Stuart Rowe said: “He was extremely hardworking, he was a good student and extremely focused. We just helped him develop his ideas, he was already very talented. He deserves every success.

“We were really thrilled for him when it became a hit, and we’re really pleased for him. He’s a role model for all our students here, some people have done the course just because S1mba did, it’s great.”

Brit Awards 2021 winners will be announced on May 11 at the 02 Arena.