Olivia Dean turns The O2 into a love-in for the ages

“’The Art Of Loving’ has really changed my life,” beams Olivia Dean, onstage at London’s O2 Arena. “I never imagined I would sell out one of these shows, let alone six.” After years of club gigs, her gorgeous 2023 debut album ‘Messy’ had her comfortably packing out 2,000 capacity rooms but just two years later, she’s easily one of the most in-demand artists in the world. She swept the BRITs in February after winning Best New Artist at the Grammys and the 120,000 tickets for this homecoming residency at the O2 Arena were snapped up instantly. It’s a similar story for her upcoming European and North American headline tours. “There are so many people here, it’s unbelievable,” Olivia says, distracted by the crowd while trying to introduce one of her sleek, loved-up pop anthems.  

For all the wide-eyed disbelief of her onstage banter though, Olivia Dean is extraordinarily comfortable introducing tens of thousands of fans to ‘The Art Of Loving’, an album that’s all about togetherness and staying soft in a world that isn’t. The show starts with her silhouetted behind a curtain, performing the album’s dreamy, cinematic intro that’s equal parts James Bond title sequence and bewitching fantasy escape. From there, she slinks into a run of uplifting posi-pop tracks from her new album (‘Nice To Each Other’, ‘Lady Lady’ and ‘Close Up’) and quickly settles into best mate hype man mode. “If you don’t fancy yourself, how do you expect someone else to? You got to love yourself,” she explains before the sweeping ‘So Easy (To Fall In Love)’. “Everyone in this room deserves to be truly loved,” she says before the tender ‘Let Alone The One You Love’.

There’s giddy freedom to the way she twists ‘Messy’ into a searing, rock & roll belter after encouraging the crowd to always be themselves, ‘UFO’ is stripped down to its bare bones to amplify the quiet power of the shy love song, while ‘Time’ confidently adds Britpop to Olivia Dean’s pool of Motown, soul and pop influences. She leans heavily into funk and disco for the joyous ‘Baby Steps’. The whole thing screams Glastonbury 2027 headliner. 

The fizzying excitement that’s been coursing through the room finally teeters over from polite to feral when Sam Fender joins Olivia to perform their chart-topping collab ‘Rein Me In’. The boisterous, liberated singalongs continue as she closes out the show with ‘Dive’ and ‘Man I Need’.  Lush, open-hearted and driven by a dogged determination to have the best possible time, it’s a show designed to change other people’s lives too.