Updated September 29, 2025 at 3:59 PM EDT
Olivia Dean explores romantic love and self-love with soulful notes and tender lyrics in her sophomore album The Art of Loving.
"I feel so comfortable," Dean shared with Morning Edition. "If someone was to say they didn't like it, I would just be like, 'Well, that's fine, I love it and it's real.' So it will never be bad for me."
This summer, Dean became the first British woman since Adele to land three simultaneous singles in the U.K.'s Top 10 charts. Her fun-loving flow and soothing vocals on songs like "Man I Need," "Nice To Each Other" and "Rein Me In" have already made her a pop success story, which is a dream she's had since childhood.
"I've been writing music and putting songs out for almost ten years now and wanting to do music since I was like 8 years old," the London singer-songwriter said. "So I feel like I've always been here."
Though Dean is on the road as the opening act for Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet tour, she took a few minutes to speak with NPR's Leila Fadel about her sophomore album, record breaking summer and love.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Leila Fadel: A lot of your music deals with romantic love, but there's also references to self-love and platonic love. What inspired "Something Inbetween"?
Olivia Dean: I think I used to view love in a bit more of a black-and-white sense and maybe from ideals that you kind of grow up with as a woman — that you need a partner, or once you're with a partner you lose an independence and your own sense of self. And I love, love, but I also can really function alone. And I was like, "Well, what is that something in between where I am in love with you, but I'm also able to remain myself outside of this relationship."
Fadel: The music is also very vulnerable and you said that's really how you write. I'm going to quote you, "The lyrics that you're scared to say are probably the best ones." So which song on this album scared you the most when you first wrote the words?
Dean: Probably "Loud." Vocally it's quite exposing. It's a single vocal with a guitar and then strings. There was originally one take that was recorded and then I never sung it again, because I just found it to be too intense.
Silence is so loud.
Dean: It's quite a thing, I suppose, to sing to the whole world that you have been let down or that somebody didn't want to fall in love with you. And you're broken by it. I think it's something a lot of people could relate to, but it's not the most fun thing to share. I think I'm attracted to that vulnerability.
Fadel: You've got heartbreak woven in here throughout this album, but ultimately there's a hopefulness to it. There's optimism. I'm thinking of the song "So Easy to Fall in Love."
I could be the twist
The one to make you stop
The icing on your cake
The cherry on the top
It's heaven in my heart
And we could find you some space
Fadel: "We could find you some space." I love how you know your worth in this song. Talk to me about getting to this place of finding how amazing you are, and letting the world know and letting people who want to be in your life know.
Dean: I am very lucky that my mom and my auntie are very strong, independent women. My mom worked with the Women's Equality Party, which is a political party in the U.K. So, it just would be impossible for me to not be a really strong feminist. And I think I forget sometimes, I suppose when you live in a bit of an echo chamber, maybe, that not everybody feels that way. So, I feel it's important for me to drum that message home, and this song, I'm really proud of. I think often as women we always think about what we could be for somebody else and how we could kind of slot into their lives and make it better, and [we] forget to think about what that person's bringing to us. Because we're fabulous.
Fadel: I hope that people wake up and say "We're fabulous!"
Dean: Right? You'd be lucky to go on a date with me. I'm great.
This interview was adapted for the web by Destinee Adams.
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