NEWS
Olivia Dean once considered creating pop music "lame" before finding enormous success with her 2025 hit Man I Need.
The BRIT School graduate, who collected the Grammy for Best New Artist earlier this year, initially resisted producing chart focused songs before choosing to "let go" and explore the sound.
Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, she admitted: “I used to have kind of a thing about pop music, like wanting to make pop music is lame. Maybe this is a bit too far, babe?”
Man I Need went on to break several records, becoming the first track by a female performer since Adele’s Hello to top the Pop, Adult Pop and Adult R’n’B radio rankings.
During 2025, Olivia became the sole female solo act to place four songs inside the Official Charts UK Top 10 at the same time.
The soul influenced pop singer also became the first British woman since Adele to achieve three concurrent UK Top 10 tracks. Man I Need additionally ranked as the highest charting British release on Spotify’s Global Charts that year.
Her achievements continued with Man I Need at number two, So Easy (To Fall in Love) at number six, Nice To Each Other at number eight and her Sam Fender collaboration Rein Me In at number 10.
Rein Me In remained at the top for 22 weeks, setting a new record as the longest running number one song in British chart history.
Olivia made further history by becoming the first solo British woman since Adele in 2021 to hold the leading single and album positions together, achieving the feat with Man I Need and The Art of Loving.
The record also delivered the strongest first week sales for an album by a British female performer since Adele released 30.
In another part of the interview, Olivia remembered an unforgettable meeting with Stevie Wonder during Grammy celebrations.
She revealed: “I met Stevie Wonder the night before [the ceremony] and shook his hand, and he was singing along to Man I Need.
“I was just like, OK, that’s the only thing I need for the rest of my life. If I ever read a comment where someone’s like, ‘She’s rubbish,’ well, Stevie Wonder said that I wasn’t.”
