Olivia Dean

Olivia Dean was born in the London borough of Haringey and grew up in Highams Park. Her father is English, and her mother, a lawyer of Jamaican and Guyanese descent, introduced her to Jill Scott, Angie Stone and Lauryn Hill, after whom Dean takes her middle name; her father played her Carole King and Al Green.

She attended the BRIT School from age fifteen, switching from musical theatre to songwriting in her final two years and teaching herself piano and guitar. At seventeen she performed on London's South Bank for spare change before signing to AMF Records and Virgin EMI in 2019, after her self-released song "Reason to Stay" spread online.

Her music works in a soul-leaning strain of pop, drawing on neo-soul phrasing, jazz harmony and a conversational lyrical style, paired with warm, largely acoustic arrangements and vocals kept close and unforced. The songs tend toward observational writing about relationships, family and self-doubt rather than production spectacle.

Her debut album, Messy (2023), included the breakout single "Dive" and earned a Mercury Prize nomination. Its follow-up, The Art of Loving (2025), topped the UK Albums Chart on the strength of "Man I Need," her first UK number one, alongside the hits "Nice to Each Other" and "So Easy (To Fall in Love)."

Live, she performs with a full band that keeps the arrangements loose. Her collaboration with Sam Fender, "Rein Me In," became one of the longest-running number-one singles in UK chart history and won Song of the Year at the Brit Awards, the same year Dean won the Grammy for Best New Artist.