From Chanel’s ambassador to Sabrina Carpenter‘s Short ‘N Sweet tour opening act, the singer Olivia Dean has gained some popularity over the past years. She earned a large recognition with some of her recent projects, such as a collaboration with the singer Sam Fender in his song “Rein Me In” and also being featured in the Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’s soundtrack. But who is Olivia Dean?
WHO IS SHE?
Olivia Lauryn Dean was born in North London on 14th of March 1999. Being the daughter of a Jamaican-Guyanese mother and English father, big fans of Lauryn Hill, hence her middle name. Growing up, her love for music developed, which made her join musical theater lessons and participate in a gospel choir.
When she turned 15, she got into the BRIT School, where she studied songwriting, teaching herself the guitar and piano. She began writing songs at the age of 16 and performed at her graduation concert, where she caught the attention of Emily Braham. Who, later on, she would hire as her manager.
Her career started when her manager got her to audition with the band Rudimental, where Olivia was hired as a backing vocalist at 17. In 2019, she released her first solo work, a debut EP called OK Love You Bye.
She called attention to the French luxury brand Chanel, for which they made her an ambassador, 2022. She told The Standard, she still cannot believe this happened “If you would have told 16-year-old me that she was going to be an ambassador for Chanel, she would’ve said ‘you’re having a laugh!”
HER CAREER
Olivia has been releasing music on platforms since 2019, including one album and five EPs. Her debut album was released in June 2023 and featured twelve songs, being called “Messy”. Some of them are her most-streamed ones, such as “Dive”, “Ladies Room” and “The Hardest Part”. She said to BBC that “letting go” of all the uncertainty, expectations, and “allowing things to be imperfect and realizing the beauty in that” was the theme for this project
Her second album is set to be released on September 26th and already has a beautiful cover. With Olivia in a black and white blurry picture and three singles released, called “Man I Need”, “Lady Lady” and the viral “Nice to Each Other”, with almost 70 million streams on Spotify. The album is called The Art of Loving and will be released by Capitol Records.
Olivia was called the “Breakthrough artist of the year” by Amazon Music in 2023 and selected as the “Artist of the Year” by BBC Music Introducing. In the same year, she got nominated for the Mercury Prize with “Messy”, alongside some great artists such as RAYE and Arctic Monkeys. The next year, she was nominated three times at the British Awards 2024, for “Best Pop Act”, “British Artist of the Year”, and “Best New Artist”.
In her beautiful melodies and smart songwriting skills, you can hear her inspirations, some she has cited as Lauryn Hill, Amy Winehouse, and The Supremes. According to the BBC, with her “throwback pop-soul sound and pillowy, jazz-toned vocals”, she has been gaining attention since her debut album and hasn’t stopped ever since.
RECENT PROJECTS
Dean has been selling out her solo tour, mostly in Europe, and gaining major visibility throughout recent projects. She has already played at the major British music festival “Glastonbury” twice, in 2024 and 2025. In both sets, they are acclaimed and called the new “rising star”.
Olivia featured the song “Rein Me In” by Sam Fender, from his latest acclaimed album “People Watching“, released in 2025. On the 20th of June 2025, the version of the song featuring Olivia was launched on Spotify, and later on the 23rd, the live version from the London Stadium was added too. Dean gives a beautiful addition to the song, creating a dialogue between her verses and Fender’s. With the beginning of her part being “There’s nothing brave in walking alone”, the official video and fan edits went viral on TikTok.
One of her latest projects was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy with her song “It isn’t perfect but it might be”. The song stayed three weeks on the Top 40, according to the Official Charts and has almost 35 million streams on Spotify.
In her previous statements, Olivia has been very open about how society is becoming increasingly accustomed to a world shaped by medical procedures and how unsettling it is that people are starting to look the same.She told The File: “I hope that people are going to start to understand their beauty and encourage their differences, rather than all wanting to look the same” and added “I think we should all be trying to look like ourselves as much as possible, you know. Variety is the spice of life.” Also, an advocate of self-love and uniqueness, Olivia Dean is certainly in the moment.
__________
The article above was edited by Beatriz Gatz.
Liked this type of content? Check Her Campus Cásper Líbero home page for more!