Olivia Dean

One Liner: Powerful neo-soul singer winning awards back in London
Wikipedia Genre: pop soul, soul, neo-soul
Home: London

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 6
Day: Saturday
Both Weekends.

American Express Stage at 2:30.

Thoughts:  I know it should be no surprise anymore about me not knowing artists, but she's on the 6th line and none of this is familiar at all.  Just odd.  Similarly interesting, I have made it down to her live album (2024's Live at Eventim Apollo) and the crowd is singing along to every word.  So, even if this is outside of my worldview, she's got some devoted fans!

Born in London, and named Olivia Lauryn Dean because her parents loved Lauryn Hill.  She took musical theater lessons and at 15 was accepted to the BRIT School (a performing and creative arts school with a lot of famous alumni like Adele, Amy Winehouse, and Tom Holland).  At age 17, she was hired as a backing vocalist for a drum and bass band called Rudimental, but it wasn't long before she broke out on her own.  In 2021, Dean was named the breakthrough artist of the year by Amazon Music and in 2023 she was selected as BBC Music Introducing Artist of the Year.  One of my favorite things about reading Wikipedia entries about Brits is that it will invariably say what soccer team they support.  So funny.  Like, as if at the end of George Strait's entry it mentioned that he supports the Houston Astros.  Anyway, Olivia backs West Ham.

Her second song on Spotify is entitled "Just For You (L.L. Bean Christmas Advert)."  It rings a bell and is pretty catchy.  Her first big hit was a single from 2019 called "Ok Love You Bye."  100.5 million streams.

Excellent voice, catchy little tune.  Hard not to bop along!  Loads of singles and EPs and whatnot up until her 2023 album Messy.  it sounds like another album is on the way soon, but for now just the one disc.  It has her other two big songs on it, with the biggest being "Dive" at 150.7 million streams.

I've just been letting her stuff roll for the past two days as I get some work done, and it is really a nice thing.  Fantastic voice - I don't think I can go so far as to compare her to Adele, but she flashes that power here and there.

She's got a handful of new 2025 singles, so I am betting a new album is on the way.  I'd go watch this.  Not my normal thing, I would almost always angle towards the harder rock stuff, but I am interested in that powerful and beautiful voice.