Over the past year, Olivia Dean has seen a significant increase in popularity. Jumping up 41 million monthly listeners since the beginning of 2025, many of which came after the release of her second studio album, The Art of Loving, there’s really no doubt about her success. Most college girls have at least heard her name by now, and my social media algorithms certainly love to bring her across my feed.
Known for her smooth, soul-inspired music that seems to gently beckon listeners in, her rise can certainly be attributed to her talent for good music. What’s interesting, though, is that the popularity she’s so quickly gained also seems to reflect a shift in media towards female independence, exploration of identity, and gratitude for love in all of its forms.
Independence & Identity Within Love
Following her goal of authenticity, much of Olivia Dean’s music explores her experience with romantic relationships, and the consequent tensions between emotional investment and maintaining her independence. See, she characteristically has a very strong sense of self, and has emphasized in many interviews how her independence is quite “sacred” to her, being something she feels pride and confidence in.
This sentiment is especially clear in her song “Something in Between,” where she references how she’s scared of being changed by a relationship, and that it feels almost suffocating to belong to someone in entirety. She goes on to introduce the idea that “love needs breathing,” speaking to the forgiving kind of relationship she craves, and how much she values the preservation of her own identity within love.
In “Baby Steps,” at a seemingly different stage, she actually explores relearning her sense of independence after feeling lost, with lines referencing how she’ll be her “own pair of safehands,” and a house that’ll “love itself” in the absence of roses, a classic metaphor for romance.
However, even in the face of difficult changes such as breakups, her music reflects her deep appreciation for people and experiences all the same. In the song “A Couple Minutes,” she reflects on being back on old lover’s sofa, still caring because “Love’s never wasted / When it’s shared” – an idea that is beautifully sentimental.
Her narrative carries a lot of depth in that way, because the fact that she approaches love cautiously and with high standards doesn’t necessarily mean she’s not a romantic at heart. In fact, songs such as “Man I Need” and “Nice to Eachother” exhibit how Olivia Dean does crave the right person, and value the playful experience of discovering love.
In the latter of the two songs, I particularly love how she discusses the possibility of being right or wrong for each other, but either way rising to each other. She goes on to describe how she wants to give their potential love “Water, sunlight, talkin’ all night / Just enough to grow it,” a light-hearted and sweet approach to the beginnings of a relationship.
The push and pull of wanting love and individuality all the same has become quite a characteristic trait of her music, and it’s this candid complexity that makes her work hit so hard. Now, while Olivia Dean’s narrative in this area is certainly unique, it comes at a time when many others across the media are already questioning how independence exists within relationships in the modern world.
As I’m sure most readers have seen by now, Vogue’s recent article titled “Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?” provides an opinionated example of this discussion. Exploring how many women are now less inclined to publicly reveal or speak about their relationships, for fear of seeming boy-obsessed or narrowly defined, the article speaks to a shift in the attitude towards relationships from pride and success to irrelevance and even shame. The author actually notes how many women she’s spoken to have even received backlash from followers on social media on content containing boyfriends, and strong encouragement to keep their online presence distinct from their relationships.
While this seems to be somewhat of an extreme example, the interesting argument this article raises certainty points to a trend in current culture of valuing strong female identities outside of romance. This obviously applies to celebrating single life, but also simply prioritizing personal growth and independence within existing relationships. As she explores both of these ideas, Olivia Dean’s poignant themes then nestle quite naturally into this trend.
Romanticization & Appreciation of Love Beyond Romance
Besides the romantic aspects, her music also encourages the intentional appreciation of love in all of its forms. In an interview with Rebecca Judd for Apple Music, she mentions how even when romantic love is not at the forefront of someone’s life, love exists in so many places if you just care to look for it: in friendships, parents, strangers, and beyond.
This theme is certainly central to The Art of Loving, as we see lines such as “I’ve seen it dance with friends around the table,” and “The more you look, the more you find” in the very last song, a sentimental conclusion to the journey of the album. The emphasis she places on the dynamic qualities of what we define as love, and the importance of appreciating it, are another beautiful element of her persona and reason for the loyal support she’s earned.
It’s worth pointing out, however, that this theme is also one that happens to reflect current trends. In fact, her sentiment perfectly complements the virality of Charli xcx’s song “Everything is romantic,” that similarly explores falling in love with the world around you. As social media never gets tired of romanticization, it’s no surprise that this song gained traction fast, and I’ve since seen it played over montages of anything from weddings to post-grad cities.
Looking closer at the lyrics, the entirety of the song actually functions as a tribute to the beauty of even the most mundane of scenes, such as “Lemons on the trees and on the ground,” for example. This exploration of falling in love with the world is naturally one that Olivia Dean’s music is thus able to build on, and a narrative that certainly feels familiar across media as of late.
All that to say, Olivia Dean’s growing presence in the music industry comes at the perfect time, when her emotional authenticity and explorations of love and independence are reaching an audience that has already been primed by similar themes. Her success is, of course, her own, being a product of her smooth voice, warm disposition, and undeniable talent for music — I can personally attest to the fact that her work is quite comforting as a college student in the formative years of her life. The cultural context in which she arrives simply adds to it all.