Olivia Dean

Following her 2023 debut Messy, Dean’s ascent has been one of rare clarity. Shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, nominated for three BRITs, and most recently tapped to soundtrack the latest Bridget Jones film Mad About The Boy with ‘It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be’, she’s managed to walk the line between viral popularity and critical reverence without losing her footing.

Dean’s music resists easy classification, marrying soul, pop, and classic singer-songwriter structures with diaristic detail and featherlight production. Tracks like ‘The Hardest Part’ and ‘Dive’ gave listeners a front-row seat to her inner world, while live performances, from Jools Holland’s Hootenanny to Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, have affirmed her quiet magnetism.

That emotional generosity continues on her recent releases ‘Man I Need’ and ‘Nice To Each Other’, and as she prepares to release her second album The Art of Loving on September 26, Dean is shifting the lens closer. The record, she says, deepens her lifelong study of love – not the spectacle of it, but its smaller, more ordinary textures. “I think there’s a whole spectrum of how you can have relationships with people in your life and still make them really meaningful and honest,” she says. “But that’s a new thing for me, to be honest.”