Words by Natasha Djanogly
Edited by Valerie Aitova
Whether it’s her distinctive soft-edged voice dominating every reel or her name plastered on every award nomination list, Olivia Dean is everywhere. However, unlike today’s endless stream of “viral” then fading artists, Dean’s unique cultural resonance and personal style ensures that she is here to stay.
Renowned for her soulful pop music style, the North London-bred artist has quickly become one of 2025’s most in-demand singers. Yet this rise seemed inevitable. Not only was Dean born into a music-loving family that gifted her the middle name Lauryn, after icon Lauryn Hill, and often saw her regularly dance in the kitchen with her record-loving dad, but she also attended the BRIT School, which boasts alumni such as Adele, Amy Winehouse, and Leona Lewis.
At 18, Dean was already performing as a backing vocalist for Rudimental at Hungary’s Sziget Festival, but her first real taste of fame came with her 2023 album Messy, which reached number 4 on the UK charts and won her BBC Music Introducing Artist of the Year. This modest, but growing, spotlight continued in 2024 with her performing at Glastonbury and then her production of the Bridget Jones: Mad about the Boy tune, “It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be”.
Amidst this growing spotlight, this September she released her 2025 album The Art of Loving and it was this that catapulted her to superstar status, boosting her Instagram to 3.6 million followers and counting. At once charming, uplifting, and airy, yet simultaneously heartfelt and introspective, the album featured now-viral songs like “Man I Need,” “Nice to Each Other,” “So Easy (to Fall in Love),” and “Lady Lady”.
“Dean interrogates her own experiences and feelings of love, why she loves who she does and in the way she does. Through her impeccable, sugary voice and instrumentation that places her somewhere between neo-soul star and old-style jazz singer, she presents something close to that 101 of love she believes should be taught in schools. Across the new album, love can be all butterflies and giddiness… an unstoppable force that simply just happens to you and love for yourself with no one else considered… These sometimes-conflicting feelings are transmitted on an album that sonically swerves from breezy, upbeat pop songs to moody ballads, sublime soul music and back again”.
-Will Richards, Rolling Stone
The album debuted at number 1 in the UK, and Dean became the first British female to have three UK top 10 singles since Adele.
She has since been nominated for a Grammy and three Brit Awards and landed a top spot on Barack Obama’s Spotify Wrapped.
Rather than being just a “great” singer, her natural, wholesome self-expression and persona have established her as a cultural icon. The media and fashion lovers cannot get enough of Dean’s uniquely whimsical, fearless, yet effortlessly chic style. From her Glastonbury Chopova Lowena dress featuring a black-and-white photo of her grandmother and her playful, sporty Miu Miu show look, to her legendary gold Diana Ross–esque two-piece, it’s obvious, according to one social media commentator, that “her stylist (Simone Beyene) loves her.” This has quickly caught the attention of major fashion brands, and she has become the face of Burberry’s new Her fragrance and Chanel’s brand ambassador.
It’s also her cultural relatability that has cemented her global appeal. Whether it’s her proud mixed-race identity, outspoken feminist nature, or genre-fluid music style, Dean openly questions and breaks boundaries and social norms, resonating with a younger, more open-minded, and progressive audience.
For instance, her music has often been pigeonholed as R&B, with some on Reddit and TikTok jumping to criticize her for producing “sanitised”, or in other words, more socially and commercially palatable R&B. However, she has highlighted the racist undertones of these labels and exposed the double standards applied more broadly to Black artists, who are expected to fit into a category and be non-“commercial,” “raw,” and “authentic.”
“Just because I look the way I look, please do not tell me I make R&B”.
Her fearless advocacy doesn’t stop there, whether condemning Ticketmaster and AEG’s “vile” and “disgusting” resale practices that barred a single mother from affording a ticket to her show, sharing empowering statements like “F them! Be cringe and be free!” and “No one can make you better, except yourself”, or most famously taking a clear feminist stance inspired by her mother, Christine Dean, the deputy leader of the UK’s Women’s Equality Party:
“I have this little feminist inside my heart, and she just doesn’t allow me to do anything that doesn’t align with my values”.
In a world in flux, Dean’s steadiness in her convictions, comfort in her own fluidity, difference and expression, and of course her musical talent, is magnetic and what has attracted such a fast-expanding fanbase. While there has been a trend of extreme virality and then evaporation of music artists thanks to the TikTok phenomenon, Dean’s ascent to stardom is full of momentum and shows no sign of slowing down. With 3.6 million followers on Instagram and counting, an endless incoming stream of media features, fashion show invites, and growing concert stadiums, Dean is set to become one of the generation’s biggest stars.
With the music industry so stale and tired, this is a godsend, because Dean is as fresh as a daisy.
