Singer-songwriter Olivia Dean performing her chart-topping single Man I Need at the 68th Grammy Awards, Los Angeles. Photo / Getty Images
The pop industry is now a battle between old-fashioned stars who just want to sing and those willing to be as brash, in-your-face and controversial as possible to grab attention. Unsurprisingly, in today’s self-obsessed world, the latter camp are often the ones dominating the global charts – until now.
The rapid rise of British soul-pop singer Olivia Dean has been a delight to witness, a refreshing return to a bygone era when stars were lauded for talent and charisma over their ability to go viral on TikTok (though Dean can do that too, of course, with numerous infectious chart toppers under her belt such as Man I Need, which spent 10 weeks atop the UK charts, and So Easy (To Fall in Love)).
Tearfully accepting her Grammy for Best New Artist on Sunday night – making her the first Briton to win the prestigious prize since Dua Lipa in 2019 – the 26-year-old Londoner looked every inch the classic superstar, dressed in a monochrome gown by Chanel that eschewed pop’s fondness for bare skin and sex factor in favour of old-school glamour.
I knew Dean was going to be a star when I first saw her live in 2021, at London’s Jazz Cafe. It takes some guts to walk on to a stage made famous by such luminaries as Amy Winehouse, Adele and D’Angelo and make it your own, but Dean, then just 22, made it look effortless. That performance’s pure star wattage was somehow surpassed a few years later when I watched her completely steal the show at Montreux Jazz Festival; no mean feat when you remember who has performed on those idyllic lakeside stages, from Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald to Prince.
In 2024, when she performed on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage to a crowd of tens of thousands in the middle of the afternoon, it was obvious that the next time she appeared she’d be higher up the bill – and lo and behold, she’s rumoured to be headlining the 2027 comeback edition, alongside Harry Styles and Oasis.
Dean’s Jazz Cafe early years aren’t the only thing that trace a line back to Britain’s twin soulful superstars, Winehouse and Adele. Born and raised in east London, Dean has credited her music-loving parents with instilling an appreciation of the greats in her from an early age. Her mother, a barrister, loved Angie Stone and Lauryn Hill, while her father admired revered songwriter Carole King; she was further inspired to pursue music after watching her cousin Ashley Walters, famous first as a member of garage outfit So Solid Crew then an actor in hit TV series Top Boy, climb through the ranks.
But it was when Dean was admitted to the prestigious Brit School – the Croydon comprehensive that has become a talent-churning machine in British pop, giving us Winehouse, Adele and Jessie J – that her music career started to take shape. While at school, Dean was in the year below Brit awards-sweeper and current chart-darling Raye; Lola Young, Dean’s fellow 2026 Grammy-winner and Best New Artist competitor, was in the year below her.
Stuart Worden, the principal of the Brit School, said the institution is “delighted for Olivia. Her dedication to songwriting, love of music and hard work has paid off. She’s a global musician with a huge future. And a lovely kind human being. A real triumph for her and free arts education”.
Dr Jo Twist, CEO of the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Ltd, said Dean joins a “lineage of iconic British musicians” to have received the Best New Artist award, from Adele and Winehouse to [Dua] Lipa and Sam Smith. “Olivia’s win, along with other wins from Lola Young, FKA Twigs, Yungblud and many other Brits at last night’s ceremony, is a reminder that British music is demonstrably a global headline act,” she told The Telegraph.
Dean has a certain magic touch that is often overlooked in pop: she appeals to everyone, whether it be teenagers, music critics, girly girls looking for easygoing soundtracks to their Instagram videos or Radio 2 listeners. It is the sort of universality that made Adele a megastar, albeit Dean’s vein of happy-go-lucky, cheerful pop is far removed from her fellow Londoner’s tear-jerking anthems of heartbreak and romantic ruin.
Unlike the current crop of reigning female pop superstars – Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo – Dean doesn’t alienate older listeners with risqué outfits or graphic songs about sex. She sings about love, yes, but in PG terms: it’s soft, gentle, and romantic (her breakthrough single Man I Need centred on the pithy chorus “Tell me you got something to give, I want it / I kinda like it when you call me wonderful”). There are no bad boys here, unless you’re choosing to believe the internet rumours from a few years ago that she was dating Harry Styles.
A music industry source, who worked on the campaign for Dean’s 2023 debut album Messy, adds that her success is the result of years of hard work. “Olivia has put the time in. She’s been doing non-stop gigs and festivals for years now and it’s finally paid off,” they tell me. “You couldn’t meet a nicer person either, she’s in it purely for the music.”
It was striking, too, how positively old-fashioned a pop star Dean seems compared to her fellow nominees for this year’s Best New Artist accolade: you had TikTok favourites Addison Rae and Sombr, the slickly manufactured “global girl group” Katseye and Christian crooner Alex Warren, whose dreadful 2025 chart-topper Ordinary almost made me swear off pop music for good.
Dean’s music and image, in comparison, owes more to the glory days of Motown than today’s pop charts. She makes uplifting, sugar-coated songs that still possess depth and soul, and her music offers a welcome respite to the trauma-dumping occurring in much of popular culture. Our world is growing ever more divided, toxic and brutal, and sometimes people want music that makes them feel good rather than reminding them of every one of life’s imminent tragedies.
However, despite what her playful sound and cheery demeanour on stage may suggest, Dean has guts. Last year, she dared to take on the music industry’s pervading beast, which even Taylor Swift and Pearl Jam have failed to slay: extortionate live music fees. When resale tickets for the US leg of her forthcoming The Art of Loving tour were listed at around 14 times their original face value – charging fans as much as US$1000 ($1650) for seats that should have cost a fraction of that – she went to war with ticketing bigwigs Ticketmaster and AXS, demanding a cap on what she called “exploitative” resale tickets. Ticketmaster duly responded by capping future resale tickets for the tour, and even refunded fans who had already paid the higher prices. Hooray for her.
It can feel reductive to connect a female artist’s success with her image, but with Dean it is critical: she is naturally beautiful, is always smiling, and unlike most of her contemporaries, doesn’t look like she is being crushed by the harsher realities of fame. Under the watchful eye of stylist Simone Beyene, Dean has become the singer fashion houses are dying to dress: as well as her Chanel gown at the Grammys, she has worn Miu Miu, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, while videos of her outfits regularly clock up millions of views on social media. She wears sophisticated, red carpet-worthy gowns even when on stage, going against the grain of prevailing trends that seem to dictate every pop princess worth her salt owns a wardrobe predominantly made up of sparkly leotards.
So with her silky voice, beautiful dresses and everyman appeal, Dean might just be the musical saving grace British pop has been crying out for. It’s inevitable she will steal the show once again at the Brit Awards later this month, where she’s nominated for five awards, including Artist of the Year. I’d say catch her live while you still can, but she’s already sold out six nights at the O2 Arena in the summer. Maybe set your alarm nice and early for the next tour instead.
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