Singer Olivia Dean: I feel very comfortable by myself

RTÉ News​

10-07-2025

Singer Olivia Dean said she realised her music career was a success when she heard a band play a cover of her song in Bangkok.
Dean, who recently collaborated with Sam Fender on his song Rein Me In, said she is still getting used to being recognised when she is out in public.
In an interview with Elle UK, she spoke of her trip to Thailand, saying: "We did a show there in February and went to a bar afterward. The band was playing my track, Dive. I was like: 'No way! This is crazy. I'm in a bar in Bangkok and they're doing a cover of my song.'"
The singer, whose debut album Messy was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2023, said she has become "protective" of herself in recent years.
"I don't take any sh*t from people," she told the magazine.
"Definitely not as much as I would have done when I was younger. I know my worth and how I deserve to be loved. I have no time for bul*****."
Describing the inspiration behind her next album, Dean added: "Love is something that can feel quite mystical. It's this thing we all crave but aren't taught how to do it properly. Why don't we have a module at school?
"So, the album was just me zooming into that and looking at the last two years of my life and everything I've learned until now."
But Dean, who wrote the song It Isn't Perfect But It Might Be for the Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy soundtrack, said she feels "very comfortable by myself and don't feel like I need to be in a relationship to survive".
"It should be additional as opposed to filling an absence," she added.
Dean, who appears on a special digital cover of Elle UK, told the magazine: "I try to work with as many women as possible because I feel comfortable in that space.
"Feminism to me is about being equal – and I've always felt completely equal to men."