Happy New Year! The start of 2026 is bringing all the good vibes you need and giving you the momentum to pursue your heart's desire. Make sure music plays a part in kick-starting the year, whether for listening pleasure, to get pumped up and into action, or to inspire you to tackle the next big new beginning.
Olivia Dean's 'The Art of Loving' official album art (Facebook)
And the first artist feature of 2026 checks out on all the aforementioned.
Olivia Dean is a rising artist in modern soul music. Born Olivia Lauryn Dean (her middle name a nod to the Fugees star), the singer is based in London and is of Jamaican-Guyanese and English heritage.
Olivia started her music journey at a young age. When she was eight years old, she was already singing in the church choir. She attended the BRIT School of Performing and Creative Arts, the same school where Adele and Amy Winehouse studied, where she took up musical theatre before switching to songwriting. She began her career as a backup vocalist before releasing her debut EP, “Ok Love You Bye,” in 2019.
Olivia blends modern soul, jazz, and classic pop, and listening to her songs from said EP, her sonic leanings are, as mentioned, indeed as described. Also quite obvious is her velvety singing tone that recalls the smooth delivery of Sade, like on “Reason to Stay,” or being washed in soul, a la Winehouse, on the track “Password Change.”
Olivia's name remained low-key local (to the UK) before her breakthrough album, but she’s already delivering a steady stream of music since her debut. And listening to early songs, she has a track record of not just staying in one place musically. For example, the indie feel of 2020’s “Crosswords” and her tender ballad “Baby Come Home,” from said early days, definitely keeps things interesting sonically and breaks her out of genre trappings.
Enter her album, “Art Of Loving,” which practically announced she’s ready for the big time. Here, over a dozen songs, warm-sounding, organic arrangements on piano, brass, classical guitars, and strings are used tastefully to flesh out Olivia’s themes of young adulthood, vulnerability, self-love, and navigating romantic relationships.
Opening with the strangely Fleetwood Mac-esque “Nice To Each Other,” where one chorus goes ‘Cause you know / I’ve done all the classic stuff / And it never works” seems more like a tease of what the album is all about, than a lyrical turn about a relationship hijink. Of course, Olivia is doing the classic sounds colliding soul, jazz, and pop.
Every other track on her sophomore release has a vintage patina, but still sounds modern. “Lady Lady” is Motown without ripping off any song we know. “Close Up” is smooth like Gladys Knight but seen through new lenses. And Olivia seamlessly switches to chill on the bossa feels of “So Easy (To Fall In Love).” The 26-year-old singer scored big on “Man I Need,” has over half a billion streams on one music platform alone, and went up the music charts. With good reasons, because it’s expressive, grooving, and she is just cool.
Check out “A Couple Minutes” for the sound listeners closely associated with the singer. And in the spirit of breaking away from what seems expected of her, she has the warm-sounding acoustic guitars of “Loud” to play out the relationship drama in her head. Even the album closer “I’ve seen it” leaves an impression with its simplicity, which is actually the hook of the song.
Being cool and bluesy comes effortlessly to Olivia Dean.
