Olivia Dean has told Music Week that she has her sights set on headlining Glastonbury, as the buzz around her name reaches fever pitch.
The Art Of Loving, Olivia Dean’s second album, arrived on Friday (September 26) and is already making an impression according to early sales flash figures seen by Music Week. Dean missed out on the No.1 spot in the singles chart last week by just 704 copies, and now that its parent album is here, Man I Need could yet reach the summit.
According to the Official Chart First Look, Dean has taken an early lead in the singles chart with Man I Need. She is also on course to secure a new Top 5 peak with Nice To Each Other and a third simultaneous Top 10 hit with new entry So Easy (To Fall In Love). As we await the first Midweek albums sales flash, that early snapshot of the singles Top 10 suggests that The Art Of Loving is streaming very well indeed.
As of last Friday's published chart Man I Need, had peaked at No.2 and moved 324,320 copies to date. It had also risen to No.5 in Spotify's Global Chart – ahead of the No.7 peak for Lola Young's Messy. That makes Man I Need the biggest hit on the Spotify Global Chart for a UK artist so far in 2025.
So far peaking at No.6 in the singles chart, Nice To Each Other, the new album's lead single, has 407,321 sales to date. Lady Lady, also from the album, has 84,073.
As Capitol UK president Jo Charrington and MD Tom Paul have already told Music Week, everyone at Universal Music has high hopes for what Dean can achieve, with a chart double a distinct possibility this week.
In our cover story by Colleen Harris, which arrived in the wake of Dean becoming the first UK female to chart three Top 10 singles at once since Adele, and selling out four nights at The O2 Arena, the London singer laid bare her ambitions and lifted the lid on her creative process.
“I’d love to headline Glastonbury one day,” said Dean, who is soon to head out on tour with Sabrina Carpenter, another huge Universal success story for 2025.
“I’m yet to meet her, but I’ve heard she’s lovely,” says Dean. “I’m definitely in awe of her work ethic, so I’m excited to learn and see that kind of show in action.”
Live has been a key driver for Dean since the start of her career, with a post-Covid live show at the Jazz Café in London for around 100 socially distanced fans racking up in excess of seven million views on YouTube, marking what Dean calls the wow moment of her journey so far.
“That was the first time that we could afford to have a horn section on the show, and that was a big dream of mine,” she told us. It was so special because it was just out of Covid, so I was really hungry to play, and people were hungry to see live music. To see how that show travelled on YouTube, and how people still continue to say that they go back and watch it is, I think, a testament to the work that we put into it.”
Dean’s Mercury-nominated Top 5 debut album Messy came out via EMI, where Jo Charrington was co-president alongside Rebecca Allen. The singer is excited to be working with Capitol under Universal’s new UK structure.
“I think this is like the happiest I’ve been in the label space for a while,” she told us. “I feel supported and it’s amazing to have Jo at the helm, another boss woman who is completely in charge and just amazing at what she does, and Tom’s also excellent in his job,” notes Dean, fully aware she’s found something special. “I feel like for some artists, it’s very ‘us versus them’ with the label. But I don’t find that to be the case.”
“I just think life’s too short to work with people that you feel don’t respect you or respect your vision of what you’re trying to do,” Dean added. “I don’t believe in it.”
Dean made clear that the idea of social media numbers taking on increased importance in artist development doesn’t sit well with her.
“I find that quite depressing,” the singer said. “There are a lot of really talented people that are perhaps overlooked. It’s almost like you’re expected to be a great marketing strategist as well as a singer, writer or musician, and they occupy different parts of the brain.”
She also sang the praises of her longtime manager Emily Braham, who was nominated at the 2024 Music Week Awards for the Messy campaign.
“I don’t know if I could do it without Emily,” she said. “I really believe in the team that we’ve created and just as much as I’m in the front doing things, she’s behind the scenes making it happen. I’m very lucky, she’s my best friend.”
“I hear about people changing managers all the time, and I think it can be quite difficult to find that connection ,” Dean added. “We just committed to each other quite early on. I’m a very loyal person.”
Reflecting on her evolution as an artist, Dean said she has changed “in so many ways”.
“I feel like a completely different person,” she explained. “I know myself more, I’m more confident in my writing and what I have to say. So hopefully the music sounds more assured and intentional.”
“I understand myself so much more and how to deal with my emotions and the industry,” she added. “I can see a lot of ways how this industry can really affect someone’s mental health, but it’s my top priority that I always feel that my mind is a good place to be. I’m really happy right now, and I’m very present and grateful, and I feel like I’m inside my dream, you know, so I’m trying to just enjoy it.”
Read the full Olivia Dean cover interview in the new issue of Music Week, or online here.
PHOTO: Gwen Trannoy
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