UK culture is cool again in the States. Hamnet is vying for the Oscars, Adolescence is still a darling of the TV world, Harry Styles is playing 30 nights at Madison Square Garden… Now another British export is poised to triumph on the international stage: Olivia Dean, who’s competing in the coveted Best New Artist category at the Grammys. She’s one of the most exciting British prospects in years, not least because she’s managed that rarest of feats and broken the US, with just two albums to her name. And she’s managed to do it while maintaining a clear sense of individuality, a classic soul sound combined with sharp, pertinent lyrics about modern love.
Nominated after the runaway success of her second album, 2025’s The Art of Loving, the 26-year-old Dean has fast become one of the UK’s biggest music exports. The London-born Brit School graduate has been on a flawless run from fresh-faced newcomer to established star, taking in film soundtracks (the optimistic “It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be” in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy) and high-profile appearances at Wimbledon, film premieres and sitting in the front row for top designers at London Fashion Week. Before last year, she had modest success with her debut album Messy – a luxurious work full of introspective musings on relationships, identity and love. It was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2023 (won by jazz group Ezra Collective, with whom she’s also collaborated), placing at No 4 on the UK charts. So far, so good. Next, she and her team at Capitol Records (backed by the wider major label, Universal) built a studio in a renovated east-London house, “the House of Loving”, where she holed up for two months working on her second album.
