Do that for a 2025 chart story: Olivia Dean spent 5 weeks at Quantity Two final autumn. The one factor blocking her was a pretend Okay-pop group from a Netflix cartoon referred to as KPop Demon Hunters. If that gave the impression of a joke, it was not. Man I Want stayed caught behind Golden by Huntr/x for 4 weeks. 4. And Dean’s different singles saved climbing anyway.
In October 2025, she turned the primary feminine solo artist in UK historical past to have 4 singles within the Prime 10 concurrently: Man I Want at Quantity Two, So Straightforward (To Fall in Love) at Quantity Six, Good to Every Different at Quantity Eight, and her Sam Fender collaboration Rein Me In at Quantity Ten. The identical week, The Artwork of Loving debuted at Quantity One on the UK Albums Chart whereas Man I Want hit Quantity One on the Singles Chart. She was the primary British feminine solo artist to attain the Official Chart double since Adele 4 years prior.
A neo soul singer from London turning into the fifth most performed artist on Spotify globally was by no means the apparent consequence, not till she stopped leaning so laborious on neo soul cliches and began pulling from 70s LA delicate rock as a substitute. The actual shift is easier: she refuses to sing lies.
“I don’t need to sing lies.”
The album treats love as one thing you construct, not one thing that occurs to you. The title monitor mentioned it in forty seconds: “It wasn’t all for nothing, yeah, you taught me one thing.” Each relationship was follow for the following one.
The debut, Messy, had all the appropriate elements. Classic horn preparations. Crackly vinyl intros. A Jools Holland Hootenanny look singing You Can’t Hurry Love. It was tasteful. It was positive. It was precisely what each British neo soul artist did.
The Artwork of Loving threw most of that out. Dean had been listening to 70s LA studios as a substitute. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. The Carpenters. Yacht rock funk. Child Steps was slick sufficient to slip off the deck of a Christopher Cross video. So Straightforward (To Fall in Love) borrowed the bossa nova lilt of The Lady from Ipanema however flipped the lyric into self-possession: “I’m the right mixture of Saturday night time and the remainder of my life.”
Dean advised Apple Music that the second album strain was actual: “How did I even make the primary one? Who am I?” She had written just a few songs she preferred, then bought misplaced. “There was a complete center chunk the place I used to be like, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I’m making unhealthy stuff.” So she rented a home in East London for eight weeks, introduced her personal piano, and mentioned no matter got here out on the finish could be the album. No extra writing. That was the document.
Right here is her artistic rule, said plainly to Apple Music: “I might by no means ever write one thing that wasn’t true or didn’t occur to me. It’s not fascinating to me. I’ve to go up and sing it for perhaps the remainder of my life. I don’t need to sing lies.”
She advised the And the Author Is podcast the identical factor, extra bluntly: “I’ve written a number of horrible music. There are a number of songs it’s important to write to get to that track. It’s a must to write ten unhealthy variations to get to the eleventh model that’s truly the idea crystallised.”
“I’m not anyone that writes on a regular basis. I’m going to reside after which I’m going to put in writing about it. I solely write good issues once I’m compelled to take action.”
What modified was the directness. Dean wrote like somebody who had truly been in a kitchen with a brand new accomplice: “I don’t know the place the switches are, or the place you retain the cutlery.” She advised the podcast that she loves bizarre lyrics. “There’s no purpose why the phrase ‘cutlery’ must be in a track. That’s ridiculous. However that’s what makes it particular.”
Let Alone the One You Love turned an anthem for everybody who had ever been advised they had been an excessive amount of. The road “In case you knew me in any respect, you wouldn’t attempt to maintain me small” may very well be learn as a breakup line, a household line, a buddy line. Dean didn’t specify. She didn’t have to.
Loud was the one the place you realised she may sing a Bond theme tomorrow. Her voice climbed over strings like somebody leaving a room for the final time. The pause after “All you needed to do was say” was louder than any scream. Then: “Right here I’m. Two palms on the piano.” Alone. That was the picture.
Dean advised NPR that Loud was the track that scared her most. “Vocally it’s fairly exposing. There was initially one take that was recorded after which I by no means sang it once more, as a result of I simply discovered it to be too intense… it’s not probably the most enjoyable factor to share that anyone didn’t need to fall in love with you.”
She advised the podcast that one of the best songs come from a selected place: “The deeper you go and the extra you scare your self, these are the issues that resonate probably the most. Each time I’ve been like, ‘That track’s an excessive amount of,’ or ‘I cried once I made that within the studio,’ these are all the time those that final. Folks can hear that.”
On vocal efficiency, she is ruthless about emotion over perfection. “If the be aware’s a bit janky nevertheless it made you’re feeling one thing as a result of her voice cracked there as a result of she was unhappy, that’s extra necessary to me than it being pitch excellent.”
Zach Nahome, who served as govt producer on the complete album, saved each instrument audible and nonetheless blended. He produced Good to Every Different, Man I Want, One thing Inbetween, and had further manufacturing credit throughout the document. The excessive hats on Man I Want moved at a pace that made you need to snap alongside. The acoustic guitar on A Couple Minutes was miked so shut you heard the choose scrape. Each little flaw. Made it higher.
Dean described the Man I Want session to the And the Author Is podcast: “I got here in that day and there was a number of power within the room. We’d all by no means labored collectively earlier than. I used to be like, ‘Guys, let’s make one thing actually enjoyable. I need to make one thing I can dance to.’ We began with the drum beat. I sat on the Wurlitzer and went bang. By the tip of the week we had three concepts. I used to be driving to and from the studio on the weekend and I simply performed it repeatedly and once more. I used to be like, okay, if I can take heed to this repeatedly, I believe different individuals may need to.”
Not each early session went like that. Dean advised a narrative on the podcast about one in all her first occasions in knowledgeable studio. The producer mentioned he preferred to start out songs by wanting on the Prime 40 and selecting one to sing melodies over. There was a number of AutoTune. The monitor began with an explosion sound, then excessive heels panned from left to proper ear. She despatched it to her supervisor, who replied with three poo emojis. “I’ve listened to that track twice,” Dean mentioned. “I can’t pay attention again to stuff from that point.”
She discovered to outlive these rooms. “Get actually good at saying no. ‘I don’t like that.’ Or ‘Can we attempt one thing else?’ I might spend the entire day pondering I actually don’t like this concept however not having the braveness to say, ‘Can we begin one thing else?’ Then the day is wasted and also you sit there feeling small. I’m actually good now at going into any room and being like, ‘Hi there, I’m Olivia.’”
Dean advised Harper’s Bazaar that the primary time she tried to learn bell hooks’s All About Love, she put it down. “It is a bit confronting, bell. You’re screaming at me out of those pages.” She wasn’t prepared. “I’ve learn it perhaps two or thrice now. It’s the one piece of writing I’ve learn that talks about love as a ability and one thing that’s political, non secular, and therapeutic.”
She advised the And the Author Is podcast that the album title got here from an exhibition in Los Angeles referred to as All About Love, which was a response to hooks’s e-book. “I used to be like, it will be fascinating for me to make an album in response to the e-book and the exhibition, do a case research virtually on love. I may study myself. I may doc the final two years of my life. I may heal and shut the chapter.”
The album is chronological, she mentioned. “The chronology of the album is sort of because it occurred.” It strikes from the early flutters of So Straightforward (To Fall in Love) by means of the confusion of One thing Inbetween to the quiet decision of I’ve Seen It.
Love is absolutely scary, Dean advised Apple Music. It could actually make you’re feeling powerless. “However making this album made me realise that I’m so filled with it and I’ve a lot to offer, and it exists in all places outdoors of romantic love. By the tip, I simply felt such a love for my buddies and the ladies in my life and my household. It’s a ability, love. It’s not a fantasy mystical factor that occurs to you if you happen to’re fortunate. It’s a must to manifest it and domesticate it and maintain working at it.”
She advised Harper’s Bazaar that self-love didn’t come naturally. “I didn’t all the time really feel stunning. I had a number of imposter syndrome about my writing and my singing at first. It took time and dealing on myself to understand that I’m the one one who has to reside inside my mind, so I’d as effectively make it a pleasant place to reside. I believe I’m nice. I don’t suppose that’s narcissistic to say. I’m a great individual. Someone will probably be fortunate to fall in love with me.”
The closing monitor, I’ve Seen It, got here from an evening of crimson wine. Dean cried listening to it again. You might need too. It was not about romance. She advised Apple Music: “I believe it was necessary for me to go away the listeners on a be aware of reminding them that maybe romantic love isn’t the forefront of your life proper now, however love exists in so many varieties. It’s in your friendships. It’s in strangers. It’s in your dad and mom. There may be a lot like to be shared. On the planet proper now, we want reminding that it’s throughout us. You simply have to search for it.”
“I suppose it’s been inside me all alongside.”
Love wasn’t magic. It was one thing you needed to maintain doing, even while you bought it fallacious. Olivia Dean had been doing that for 2 albums.
She gained the Greatest New Artist Grammy in February 2026, bought out 4 nights on the O2, and toured arenas. 4 weeks behind a cartoon band. The chart gods have an odd sense of humour.
On this one, she lastly gave the impression of herself.
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