For this year’s update of our ongoing Greatest Pop Star by Year project, Billboard will be counting down our editorial staff picks for the 10 Greatest Pop Stars of 2025, starting on Monday (Jan. 19). Before that, we revealed our Honorable Mentions for 2025 on Thursday, and our Comeback of the Year is coming later today. Now, we salute the artist who crashed the mainstream for the first time in the biggest way this year: British singer-songwriter Olivia Dean, who burst through at a time when few new pop artists were breaking out, and blew up bigger, wider and faster than anyone could’ve expected.
Listen to our Greatest Pop Stars podcast discussion about Olivia Dean’s Rookie of the Year campaign here.
It was fitting, perhaps, that Olivia Dean’s 2025 would kick off with an original song for the Renée Zellweger-starring romcom Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. The London-born BRIT School graduate’s 2023 debut album Messy was about the chaos – and liberating freedom – of rebuilding your life after romantic misadventures, something the film’s titular character knows a thing or two about. Released in February, “It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be” wasn’t a runaway success, topping out at No. 36 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart (Mad About the Boy, however, was the largest-grossing British film of 2025). But it bridged the gap between eras, and proved the first of many smart maneuvers in an electrifying breakout campaign.
The success of Olivia Dean’s 2025 was not about chance, but careful placement of an artist with cross-generational appeal. Savvy decisions, stellar songs and a unique artist persona put Dean in prime position to succeed. Released in late September, The Art of Loving became an immediate mainstay on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and a viral moment for “Man I Need” propelled it to global smash status.
Prior to 2025, Dean’s performance on the charts on both sides of the pond was modest. Messy topped out at No. 4 on the U.K. Albums Chart and in 2023, while a new, Leon Bridges-featuring version of “The Hardest Part,” first released three years prior, marked her maiden appearance on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart at No. 39. Not exactly a knockout blow, but it signaled that gains could be made for Dean stateside, an encouraging sign for the U.K. industry at a time when the chances of a new breakout star appeared slim.
The industry had faith in Dean, however. Her label Capitol renovated an east London house into a cosy recording studio – dubbed “The House of Loving” in the LP’s liner notes – complete with her own piano. The LP’s first single “Nice to Each Other” captured that homely feel, a subtle guitar riff complimented Dean’s understated vocals in a tale rife with domestic motifs: “I don’t know where the switches are, or where you keep the cutlery,” she sighed, painting an image of a romantic relationship close to combustion.
During the week of the song’s release in June, Dean seized another opportunity at the 80,000-capacity London Stadium appearing as the main support for Sam Fender after rockers The War on Drugs dropped off the bill. The slot showed off Dean’s confidence working with such a vast audience, one that potentially might not be familiar with her oeuvre. She later joined Fender during his headline set for a performance of his song “Rein Me In,” a collaboration which benefitted both acts: the track has since become U.K. top five hit, and cemented her (and Fender’s) credentials as a hitmaker.
In July, she embarked on her Across The Atlantic run at U.S. theaters in Brooklyn, Chicago, Philadelphia and other major cities, and scored a performance spot on The Tonight Show. The shows firmed up her base support and won over new audiences, while her “clean girl” aesthetic – monochrome and classy – were something of a hangover cure for Charli xcx’s lurid slime-green Brat era. “I’ve never been somebody who has followed trends or made music because of what else was popular at the time,” she told Billboard of her goal of making timeless music.
The positive response at shows convinced Dean to push for “Man I Need” to be issued as a single in mid-August. The following month the zippy pop anthem was Dean’s first Hot 100 entry (No. 82) and it continued to rise in the run-up to her album release. By the time The Art of Loving was released, that song had hit a new peak of No. 25; her LP debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 8, a startling achievement for a British solo star not named Harry, Ed, or Adele. Back home, The Art of Loving and “Man I Need” scored a rare No. 1 chart double on the U.K. charts, with Dean becoming the first British female act to achieve the feat in the same week since Ms. Adkins in 2021.
Despite competing in the shadow of Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, Dean’s October saw one win after another. She hit the Austin City Limits festival over consecutive weekends, and then joined Sabrina Carpenter as main support on a run of Short n’ Sweet arena shows including five nights at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
In mid-November, she headed uptown to 30 Rock to appear as the musical act on SNL, opting to capitalize on the continued growth of “Man I Need” (which would climb to No. 4 on the Hot 100 in late 2025, and has returned to that peak in early 2026) and introduce “Let Alone the One You Love” as a new hit contender. It was the bossa-flecked “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” – supported by a “one-shot” video that leveraged brand partnerships with Burberry and Cartier – that would soar up the Hot 100, and is currently nestled inside the top 15.
Dean’s star and confidence had grown to such stature that by November, she was taking on industry titans. When tickets rapidly sold out for her 2026 U.S. arena tour – including four of her own shows at MSG – the moment of joy was undercut by fan reports of scalping from ticket touts snapping up and reselling passes at a premium. Dean called out Ticketmaster, LiveNation and AEG by name saying they were “providing a disgusting service” and called on them to “BE BETTER”. She won a rare concession and apology from Ticketmaster and LiveNation; some of her fans received partial refunds. “It’s not every day that you feel heard and understood,” she wrote on her Instagram, “so today is a good day.”
By the close of 2025, she was a clear leader of a new wave of British acts seeing global gains, alongside Yungblud, Lola Young, Central Cee and RAYE. She played a key role in boosting the U.K. recorded music market to new heights and started the new year on the front foot. The Art of Loving currently is sitting hit a new peak of No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and next month, she’ll compete in the best new artist field at the 2026 Grammys, and eligibility criteria means that The Art of Loving and “Man I Need” could both be frontrunners at next year’s ceremony. A clean sweep at the BRIT Awards on Feb. 28 month feels like a certainty.
“Every day, I’m being told a new stat,” Dean told Billboard with a laugh back in September. “I’ve never been on the charts before, and I’ve been putting out music for quite a long time, so it’s a bit of a new world for me.” After tentative career baby steps, it’s now clear to the world quite how easy it is to fall in love with her.
Find our Comeback of the Year pick later today on Billboard.com, find our Olivia Dean Rookie of the Year podcast here, and check back our top 10 starting on Monday (Jan. 19)!
