Grammy-nominated singer Olivia Dean, whose song “Man I Need” has been dominating the charts, says a single mother inspired her to take on Ticketmaster over what she deemed as exploitative pricing.
Back in November, when tickets for Dean’s tour were popping up on resale sites for sky-high prices, the singer blasted the ticketing giant on Instagram, calling the situation “vile” and “disgusting.”
“I think that live music should be affordable,” Dean said this week during a Q&A with Gayle King at a Soho Sessions event held at a loft in New York. “I don’t think it should be something that you can only enjoy if you have a lot of money.”
Dean said that the breaking point came after she saw a video from a single mother who had been tagged in one of her posts.
“This album specifically was just such an attempt to connect with people,” she said, adding that she saw “a video of the single mother and she was like, ‘I connected so much to this album. I can’t afford a ticket… I can afford the gas money and the babysitter, but can you just give me a ticket?’”
“I was like, ‘You’re exactly the person that should be coming to the show,’” she said.
Dean revealed that she sent out her Instagram post before taking off for a flight.
“I was just vexed,” she recounted. “And then the plane landed and it was in the papers.”
Ticketmaster responded saying it would cap the resale ticket prices for her shows at face value, saying it supported “artists’ ability to set the terms of how their tickets are sold and resold.”
Dean performed her hits at the event including “Dive” and ‘Lady Lady” for a crowd that included Maggie Rogers, Mariska Hargitay, Edie Falco, Dana Bash, Van Jones, Alexandra Richards and Lillian Hartley.
“I think sometimes people use music as a tool to get famous,” Dean, who is nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist, told the crowd. “I think I just wanted to make music and I’ve got a little bit famous on the side.
The Soho Sessions – an exclusive concert series founded by Greg Williamson and Nicole Rechter, which has raises money for charities — has recently seen concerts featuring Keith Richards, Maren Morris, Kate Hudson and Nile Rodgers.
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