Olivia Lauryn Dean (born 14 March 1999) is an English singer and songwriter.[3] She has released two studio albums, Messy (2023), and The Art of Loving (2025), as well as two live albums and four EPs. 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.
Olivia Lauryn Dean was born on 14 March 1999 in the London Borough of Haringey to an English mother and a Jamaican-Guyanese father.[4] Her grandmother emigrated to the UK from Guyana at age 18 as part of the Windrush generation.[5] Dean's middle name, “Lauryn", was inspired by the American musician Lauryn Hill.[4]
Dean grew up in Highams Park[5] and has said she sometimes felt othered for being mixed-race.[5] Her father often listened to music and they would dance around the kitchen together.[6] In primary school, she sang "Tomorrow" from the musical Annie in a competition and was so nervous that she initially turned her back to the audience and started crying due to stage fright, though she won second place.[5][4] She took musical theatre lessons in a Saturday school and participated in a gospel choir.[5][7]
At age 15, she was accepted by the BRIT School and made a three-hour round trip daily to attend.[5][8][9] She initially studied theatre, but switched to songwriting and convinced her mother to buy her a second-hand piano.[5]
Career
2017–2024: Career beginnings and Messy
Dean began writing songs at age 16, teaching herself the guitar and piano.[9] She performed at her graduation concert, which attracted the attention of Emily Braham, whom she hired as her manager.[5][9][10] Braham got Dean into an audition with Rudimental, who hired Dean as a backing vocalist.[4][5] Dean has said that she was not good in the position as she often sang the melody instead of just the harmony.[4] Her first show was at the Sziget Festival in Hungary, in 2017, before a crowd of 16,000.[5]
In October 2018, Dean self-released her debut single, "Reason to Stay" via YouTube.[11] She was featured on Rudimental's single "Adrenaline" on the album Toast to Our Differences, released in January 2019.[5] After Dean self-released the songs "OK Love You Bye" and "Reason to Stay", she was offered a recording contract with AMF Records, a subsidiary of EMI.[5] In November 2019, she released her debut EP, also named OK Love You Bye. It was recorded in a converted pub in East London.[5][12] Her second EP, What Am I Gonna Do On Sundays?, was released in December 2020.[13] In April 2021, she was named the breakthrough artist of the year by Amazon Music.[14] That year, Dean recorded an exclusive version of Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" for Amazon's Christmas Originals line-up, which charted at number 19 in the UK singles chart.[15][16]
2025–present: The Art of Loving and career breakthrough
In February 2025, Dean released the single "It Isn't Perfect But It Might Be" for the film Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.[21] Dean supported Sam Fender on selected dates of Fender's People Watching Tour, including shows at London Stadium and St James' Park, and collaborated with Fender on a duet version of "Rein Me In". The duet was first performed at London Stadium on 6 June 2025,[22] before being release as a single on 25 June. The single peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart.[23] Dean also made her way to Australia to perform at one of their biggest outdoor music events of the 'LANEWAY FESTIVAL 2025'.
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