Turn on any pop station this fall, and soon enough you’ll hear Olivia Dean’s megahit “Man I Need.” With its jaunty piano part and strutting drum beat, the song has proved an ideal fit for not only the airwaves but the background of over 1.2 million TikToks, ranging from iPhone unboxing videos to clips of babies dancing to relationship edits. On the strength of that hit and the album from which it hails, “The Art of Loving,” Dean was nominated in early November for best new artist ahead of the 2026 Grammy Awards.
Madison Davis, a 25-year-old marketing manager in Jersey City, first stumbled upon Dean’s music this year — before “Man I Need” was released in August — as buzz about the singer was percolating. Dean’s 2023 debut album “Messy” and its hit single “Dive” had already helped build a fan base in her native Britain, but she hadn’t yet found a larger audience stateside.
“I wanted her to be a little secret for a little longer,” Davis said, admitting she knew Dean wouldn’t remain a niche favorite for long. “A part of me was like, ‘Oh my gosh, she is going to blow up.’”
And she did. The 26-year-old London-born singer-songwriter spent 2025 becoming one of the hottest pop acts in America. Though social media ubiquity has fueled her rapid rise, Dean’s success is more than a viral blip.
In November, Dean played her biggest hit on the “Saturday Night Live” stage, singing about how the early stages of dating someone can feel like “a type of alchemy” in front of a seven-piece band wearing matching pink outfits — spotlighting a fashion sense that’s become one of Dean’s trademarks. But for her second song, she didn’t play her latest single, “So Easy (To Fall in Love),” which was climbing the charts on the strength of its bossa nova guitars and tasteful horns.
She opted instead for a waltzing deep-cut, “Let Alone the One You Love,” which details the disappointments at the end of a relationship. It might seem like an unlikely choice, but leaning into those raw, personal feelings is part of why Dean’s new fans, including Davis, are enraptured by the singer-songwriter. Her candid approach to writing about romantic entanglements, combined with pop-soul grooves, allows Dean to tap into a mood that’s underrepresented in the current pop music climate.
According to Dean’s collaborators, that sound is a product of the singer’s assured creative choices. Her decision not to replace her band of several years after finding success in Britain, for example, or her choice of strong vocalists such as Carole King or Amy Winehouse as role models. Even as Capitol Records began positioning her for a big break in the states, they say, Dean stayed focused on her craft.
“That’s where Olivia’s confidence comes in,” songwriter Bastian Langebaek, who has production credits on both of Dean’s albums, said in a Zoom call. “She’s brave enough to do it her way.”
For American listeners, it might seem like Dean came out of nowhere. But her first break came at 18 years old, when British drum-and-bass act Rudimental hired her as a background vocalist. In 2019, Dean signed with Virgin EMI Records. “She was signed six years ago, so this has been a true artist development story, built step by step,” said Jo Charrington, president of Capitol Records UK.
By the time Dean’s debut album arrived, the enthusiasm around her songcraft had reached a roar in Britain. Matt Hales, who co-produced much of that debut, realized she might become a superstar after seeing a “raucous feeling of love” at her concerts.
“In the onslaught of data we have these days — who actually wants to buy a ticket to come and see an artist and come out on a wet evening — that is a pretty good indication still that something’s happening on the ground,” Hales, 53, said in another Zoom call. “Going to those first shows — which were already big. She never did small shows.”
Her fan base was also beginning to grow across the pond. As Dean embarked on a U.S. tour this summer, she performed to sold-out halls in New York, Boston, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Her label was feeling confident that a strong sophomore album would solidify her rise in America, according to Hales. “There were all kinds of plans being made on her behalf,” he said. “But it all hinged on, first of all, her finding the songs and also her being up for the adventure.”
Dean chose many of the same collaborators for “The Art of Loving,” including Hales and Langebaek, the latter of whom she’s known since her school days. Early on, Dean floated the album’s title to Langebaek, which helped clarify their goals as they set out to capture what the singer called a “bin fire year” in an interview with Nylon. “With someone like Olivia, it’s always these long conversations, crying and laughing, that sum up what the song wants to be,” Langebaek said.
Starting with “Nice to Each Other,” singles from the new record began trickling out in late May. But shortly after its release in August, “Man I Need” exploded on social media. Uniquely, its rise wasn’t attached to a particular trend or type of video. Plenty focused on romances, turning the hook of “Come be the man I need” into a complaint or a celebration, but Dean’s hit became the theme song for self-help TikToks, videos of puppies and influencers trying boba tea shops.
@Christopher Briney @Olivia Dean #oliviadean
But Dean wasn’t omnipresent only online. As “Man I Need” rose into the Billboard Top 40 in early October, she performed at the Austin City Limits festival. During Sabrina Carpenter’s headlining set, Dean was included in a scripted bit where Carpenter arrests an audience member for “being too hot.” The clip of Dean and Carpenter faux flirting has since received over 200,000 likes on TikTok.
A little over a week later, Dean left for a run of arena shows opening for Carpenter. “Once she was on tour with Sabrina — I didn’t even go to that tour, but that was on TikTok and Instagram — I started seeing a lot of stuff about her,” Davis said. And by the end of the month, Dean’s trio of singles — “Man I Need,” “Nice to Each Other” and “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” — were all climbing up the Billboard Hot 100.
Isabelle Murphy, 20, first heard Dean through her mom’s playlists and became intrigued by the emotional honesty of songs such as 2023’s “Dive.” If authenticity is always in short supply in pop, Dean “has such a beautiful way [of] showing the raw feelings,” Murphy said, “that aren’t necessarily always ones that people sing about.”
After Dean’s 2026 American tour sold out almost immediately, Murphy was pleased to see that Dean criticized live-music giant Ticketmaster for steep resale prices. Even though Murphy couldn’t get a ticket in time (“I lost the Ticketmaster wars”), it confirmed the feeling that Dean cares deeply about her audience. Either way, those arena shows would be hard to compare to last summer’s concert at Brooklyn Paramount in New York, where Murphy saw Dean right before “Man I Need” was released.
“She is just genuinely mesmerizing to look at because you could tell that she’s so joyful performing,” Murphy said. “Her smile is genuinely contagious when she’s up there doing what she loves.”
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