Who is Olivia Dean as she plays the iconic Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2024?-Lillie Rohan-Entertainment – Metro

Olivia Dean is one of the UK’s most promising rising stars (Picture: Richard Isaac/REX/Shutterstock)

It’s a big weekend for Olivia Dean, who has not only released her brand new single, Time, but she’s also set to take Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage this weekend.

So, who is she? And what do you need to know as she stuns thousands of festivalgoers at 1.15pm on Friday? 

From humble beginnings to overcoming stage fright, the North London star, 25, has a story just as intriguing as her ballads.

Whether Olivia is new to your playlist or a longstanding favourite, she’s no stranger to the music industry and, in her almost decade-long career, has sold out a European tour, collaborated with one the UK’s most recognisable drum and bass bands, Rudimental and become a Chanel ambassador. 

But like any artist, it all started somewhere, and for Olivia, that was as a young child in primary school. The musician, raised in Walthamstow by her English father and Jamaican-Guyanese mother, starred in her school play, Annie, as a young girl. While she enjoyed musical theatre and drama, she didn’t enjoy the nerves that came with it. 

In a past interview, she revealed that as she took to the stage to perform the song Tomorrow, she was ‘so nervous’, that she had to turn her back to the audience and compose herself. 

‘The pianist was just like, “Turn around, you can do this”. So I spun around and faced everyone, singing Tomorrow with tears streaming down my face. But it must have worked because I took second place,’ she told BBC earlier this year. 

The singer made her Coachella debut earlier this year (Picture: Daniel DeSlover/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

It was a moment that proved she could overcome her fears and provoked Olivia to pursue a life in the spotlight. Her determination paid off, and at the tender age of 15, she earned a spot at the Brit School, where she studied theatre. 

However, she soon realised she didn’t love the stage in the same way her peers did and quickly leaned into her love for music. Teaching herself guitar and piano, her natural talent landed Olivia a manager – Emily Braham. 

Even if it took a bit to get there, ‘she couldn’t get my email address because you weren’t allowed to message minors,” Olivia told BBC. 

Once the two were in contact, Emily (who still manages Olivia today) secured an audition for the young artist with the popular drum and bass band Rudimental. It was effectively the start of her career and set the tone for what was to come. 

After collaborating on the song Adrenaline in 2019, the then-17-year-old was invited to join the band at their Sziget set. It was her first show and saw her perform in front of upwards of 17,000 people. 

In an interview last year, Olivia spoke about the experience, claiming it was ‘invaluable’ and made her realise she isn’t very good at being a back-up singer, ‘There were times where I was supposed to be singing the harmony but I’d think actually I’m just gonna sing the tune, I would just zone out and get lost in it. So I definitely wasn’t very good at it.’

Olivia has gone from strength to strength in recent years (Picture: PA)

Thankfully, she didn’t have to stay a backup singer for long, and by the following year, she was well on her way to stardom with the release of her debut EP, Ok Love You Bye. 

It’s become one of her most well-known tracks and has earned more than 42 million streams since its release.

The single also generated a huge fan base of almost four million monthly listeners, and Olivia soon started receiving bookings for multiple festivals, festivals she and everyone else were unable to attend because of the COVID pandemic. 

Like many artists in the industry, Olivia was devastated she couldn’t perform, but instead of dwelling on the fact, she started looking at other options to continue doing what she loved. 

Not a huge fan of social media, she decided TikTok wasn’t an option for her, ‘I’m an in-person kind of artist’, she told The Standard, so she was forced to take a new direction. 

‘I wanted to cycle from door to door playing gigs for people, but then the idea snowballed and we thought, “what if we got a van?” and that’s what we did.’ 

Olivia travelled around the country performing in a custom yellow van and by 2021, she was making waves in the industry. 

As well as being dubbed breakthrough artist of the year by Amazon, following in the footsteps of the likes of Arlo Parks and JAY1, the then 21-year-old released her single Be My Own Boyfriend. 

Speaking to Metro.co.uk at the time of its release, she described the song as a self-love ballad and opened up about the inspiration behind it. 

‘I came to a bit of a realisation last year and I’d gone through a break-up where I was thinking about the concept of having another half and being another half. I thought, hang on a minute, I think I’m already whole and it’s really important to get to a point where you feel complete and you’re not waiting for somebody else to come along and make your life better, then you’re winning.’ 

Since releasing the single, Olivia has embarked on multiple sold-out tours, including in Europe and America, been signed as a Chanel ambassador, and released her debut album, Messy, in 2023, which peaked at number four on the UK charts and landed her a nomination for the Mercury Prize. 

Music lovers aren’t the only ones taking notice of the singer – Chanel is, too (Picture: Domine Jerome/ABACA/Shutterstock)

Olivia is playing at Glastonbury’s iconic Pyramid Stage on Friday (Picture: Getty Images)

The album was a collaborative effort between Olivia and musician and producer Matt Hales and saw the singer make a name for herself as both a vulnerable musician and one who can easily jump between genres. 

She told NME ahead of its release, ‘I don’t think that anyone is supposed to make any kind of music, you should just make what sounds good to you.’ 

It’s a choice her fans clearly support. In addition to selling out a European tour, it took just one minute for her show at KOKO in Camden to sell out last year, which resulted in a second show at Camden’s Roundhouse. 

Today, Olivia is considered one of the UK’s most promising rising stars. This year alone, she has made her Coachella debut and is in the middle of her Europe tour, which includes multiple festival slots. To top it off, she has three Brit Award nominations under her belt for Best Pop Act, British Artist of the Year, and Best New Artist. 

But she isn’t slowing down anytime soon, and despite just releasing her brand new single, Time and getting ready to take Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, she already knows what her end goal is. 

‘The endpoint is headlining Glastonbury. It’s always been that,’ she told BBC. 

The top five Olivia Dean songs to add to your playlist:

Dive

Ok Love You Bye

The Hardest Part

Be My Own Boyfriend

UFO

And don’t forget her brand new single, Time!

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