DARLING
Good For The Soul
IT’S OLIVIA DEAN’S SEASON. AHEAD OF THE RELEASE OF HER ANTICIPATED SECOND ALBUM, FULL OF HEART-WRENCHING POWER BALLADS, SHE TELLS OLIVIA PETTER HOW SHE FOUND HER STRENGTH
PHOTOGRAPHED BY LULU McARDLE STYLED BY HOLLY GORST
Olivia Dean wears Givenchy jacket, $9875, skirt, $6280, and boots, $2499; Cartier ring, $30,550.
Alaïa jumper, $4075, skirt, $12,725, and flower brooch, $1650; Cartier earrings, $26,540, and ring, $30,510.
Olivia Dean was in Bangkok when she realised her life had changed. “We did a show there in February and went to a bar afterwards,” says the singer, leaning towards me from the other side of the table, eyes excitable and in storytelling mode. “And the band was playing my track ‘Dive’. I was like, No way! This is crazy. I’m in a bar in Bangkok and they’re doing a cover of my song.” Did they do a good job? A grin stretches slowly across her face as she leans back. “They did a great job.”
Full of humility, Dean may not be the first to admit that her life changed a while before that. The Brit School graduate has been on a victory lap ever since the release of her debut EP, Ok Love You Bye, which was recorded in a converted east-London pub and almost immediately amassed millions of streams, earning her a deal with EMI Records. That was in 2019. Since then, Dean has played a sold-out European tour, garnered more than 12.5 million monthly Spotify listeners, and released her debut album, Messy, which was nominated for the 2023 Mercury Prize.