I’m sure by now, especially if you are anywhere on social media, you have heard the name Olivia Dean. The 27-year-old has quickly become a huge music star, and everyone seems to love her music (with good reason). From releasing her most recent album to headlining Lollapalooza 2026 in Chicago this summer, Dean is everywhere.
Dean’s debut alternative EP, Ok Love You Bye, was released in late 2019 and included four songs. She began releasing more singles and EPs, but in 2023, Dean released her debut album, Messy. With hit songs like “Dive,” “The Hardest Part,” and “Ladies Room,” “Messy received widespread critical acclaim on release and cemented her status as one of the most compelling voices across neo-soul and pop,” according to her official site.
The Art of Loving
It wasn’t until 2025, with the release of her second album, The Art of Loving, that Dean’s music career really took off. NPR explains that she became the first British woman since Adele to have three coexisting singles on the U.K.’s Top 10 charts, following the release of her album, with hits like “Man I Need,” “Nice To Each Other,” and her collaboration on Sam Fender’s “Rein Me In.”
With numerous beautiful songs on her album, including ones like “A Couple Minutes” and “So Easy (To Fall In Love),” The Art of Loving is an album about self-love, platonic love, and hope, just as much as it is about romantic love.
There are so many lyrics that really speak to the love her album explores. “A Couple Minutes” is a beautifully written song that claims “I guess we’ve found a silver lining… there’s some good in goodbyes… love’s never wasted when it’s shared.” While this song takes listeners through a breakup, it doesn’t focus as much on heartbreak as on love. Though a breakup is hard and people typically view them negatively, Dean encourages listeners to take them as a chance to learn and grow. When you have loved someone with your all, and they have done so in return, there is ultimately nothing wrong with breaking apart from each other; it is natural. Additionally, every relationship, good and bad, is meant to teach us something, and I think that’s a wonderful concept.
Dean also brings a lot of self-love and self-confidence to this album, especially in her song “So Easy (To Fall In Love).” Dean tells NPR in an interview by Leila Fadel and Lilly Quiroz that “Often as women we always think about what we could be for somebody else and how we could kind of slot into their lives and make it better, and [we] forget to think about what that person’s bringing to us. Because we’re fabulous.”
The Art of Loving was inspired largely by reading Bell Hooks’ book All About Love. From this book, Dean learned that love is a skill that needs to be constantly practiced. Dean tells W that she’s “aligned with [Hooks’] view that love is the most important thing in the world, and we don’t take it seriously enough.
Grammy’s Best New Artist
Up against many other talented music artists, including Lola Young, another British artist, or R&B artist Leon Thomas, Dean won the award for best new artist at the 2026 Grammy Awards. It is tradition for the former recipient of best new artist to announce and give the award to the new winner, so Dean’s award was presented by Chappell Roan.
Dean not only used her acceptance speech to thank many people, including her team and her family, but she also recognized her heritage and immigrant rights amidst ICE raids occurring frequently throughout the United States. “I’m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant. I’m a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated,” Dean expresses before she ends her speech powerfully by saying that “We’re nothing without each other.”
The Art of Loving Live is her tour that starts late April in Glasgow, UK. Dean is then making her way to the United States in July, where she will also be headlining the 2026 Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago. There is so much more to come from Dean; she is a rising star and someone you should definitely take a listen to.