Olivia Dean

Why do Olivia Dean songs strike such a chord? Because they come directly from personal experience. “I would never, ever write something that wasn’t true or didn’t happen to me,” she told Apple Music’s Rebecca Judd in 2025. “It’s not interesting to me. It doesn’t do anything for me to make it up, because I’ve got to go out and sing it for maybe the rest of my life.” Born in 1999 in the London Borough of Haringey and raised in Highams Park, Dean dabbled in gospel choir and busking before studying music theater and songwriting at the prestigious BRIT School. Spanning a series of EPs beginning in 2019, early tracks like “Ok Love You Bye” revealed her evergreen soul and jazz influences while proving just how nimble yet emotional she could be as a singer and songwriter alike. Dean dug deeper into smoldering neo-soul with “Dive,” from her 2023 debut album Messy, but 2025 is when everything really happened for her. That year alone, she duetted with Sam Fender on “Rein Me In” before scoring her biggest global hits to date with the Fleetwood Mac-esque “Nice to Each Other” and the wonderfully retro “Man I Need,” the latter gilded with breezy funk and gospel flourishes. Both tracks appeared on her second album, The Art of Loving, and suddenly, she was selling out consecutive nights at London’s O2 Arena. At this rate, Dean will indeed be singing these songs—and many more to come—for the rest of her life.