Billboard Global 200<\/a>, No. 2 on the Official U.K. Singles chart and regularly appeared in the top 10 of the U.S. Spotify daily top 50 chart.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cEvery day, I\u2019m being told a new stat,\u201d Dean says with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019ve never been on the charts before, and I\u2019ve been putting out music for quite a long time, so it\u2019s a bit of a new world for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIndeed, the 26-year-old\u2019s mainstream breakthrough has been preceded by a decade of training: raised in Highams Park in North East London, Dean was accepted to the BRIT School at the age of 15, initially studying musical theater before switching her attention to songwriting. Soon after, Emily Braham, a manager who was then working with the U.K. drum\u2019n\u2019bass band Rudimental, had been invited to a BRIT School original song showcase and watched Dean perform for the first time. \u201cShe walked onstage, and there was something immediately captivating about her,\u201d recalls Braham, who signed her in 2019.<\/p>\n
\n\tRudimental happened to be looking for a new backing vocalist around the same time, and Braham connected her with the group. Dean earned the spotlight as the featured vocalist on the group\u2019s single \u201cAdrenaline\u201d the same year and then self-released her first EP, Ok Love You Bye<\/em>. (She also signed a deal with Island Records UK in 2019; by 2023, she had also joined the label for U.S. representation.)<\/p>\n\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tOlivia Dean<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLola Mansell<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\tAs she worked her way toward a debut album, Dean\u2019s solo music naturally gravitated towards elegant, jazzy neo-soul \u2014 a sound that had become mainstream during her childhood thanks to artists like Amy Winehouse, Jill Scott and Angie Stone, but had been largely out of vogue by the early 2020s. \u201cI\u2019ve never been somebody who has followed trends or made music because of what else was popular at the time,\u201d she says. \u201cI like old music, I like soul music, I like Motown. That\u2019s what I wanted to make, and in my mind, I\u2019m in my own lane in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAlthough Messy<\/em> scored a top 10 debut on the Official U.K. Albums chart upon its June 2023 release and was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize (which recognizes British and Irish music), Dean says that making her debut full-length in a variety of locations and recording sessions proved to be \u201ca bit fragmented, and I went through a lot of self-doubt in the process.\u201d Instead of hopscotching across different studios again, Dean built her own studio setting for her sophomore album.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cI decided that what I\u2019d really like to do is to rent a beautiful space in East London, bring my piano and the people I love to work with, and just work from there for eight weeks,\u201d she says. That period played out last March and April, with very few breaks \u2014 \u201cI slept there, we drank a lot of red wine, stayed up late, cried and laughed\u201d \u2014 and The Art of Loving<\/em> as the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\tIn addition to tweaking her creative process, Dean says that touring behind Messy<\/em> last year better informed how she wanted to arrange her next album in the studio. She road-tested some material from The Art of Loving<\/em>, including the subtly driving lead single \u201cNice to Each Other\u201d and the buttery, harmony-heavy follow-up \u201cLady Lady,\u201d during a monthlong U.S. headlining tour in July and August. If not for those recent live shows, Dean points out, \u201cMan I Need\u201d might have not been selected as the album\u2019s third pre-release track in mid-August. \u201cHonestly, it wasn\u2019t supposed to be a single,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I got to play it with my band in rehearsals, they were like, \u2018This should be a single.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018You know what? Yeah! This one is fun!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n
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