{"id":587872,"date":"2026-07-16T01:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/587872\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T01:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:28:14","slug":"olivia-dean-sings-for-lovers-and-fighters-at-crypto-com-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/587872\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivia Dean sings for lovers and fighters at Crypto.com Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

U.K. pop-soul singer Olivia Dean\u2019s grandmother took her first plane ride at 18, when she emigrated to the U.K. from Guyana. Dean poignantly recalled the move on her song \u201cCarmen\u201d on Tuesday during the first of a two-night run at the Crypto.com Arena . \u201cMy Grandmother made me the person I am,\u201d Dean said, introducing the song. \u201cBy the time she was my age she had four kids, one was my mum, and now I get to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny immigrant brave enough\u201d to leave their life behind for the benefit of future generations, Dean said, \u201cDeserves to be celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

That simple, honorable point about the dignity of emigrating remains painfully controversial in Dean\u2019s home country and here. In the U.K., an ascendant Reform party may pull the country deeper into the anti-immigrant far-right mire. In the U.S., ICE just killed Joan Sebasti\u00e1n Dur\u00e1n Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas.<\/p>\n

Dean made a similar point at the Grammys in February, where she won for New Artist on the same stage. In a broadly sweet, vivacious and gorgeously sung set Tuesday, that sentiment revealed the moral clarity that bolsters her songs about devotion and intimacy. To truly value love sometimes means being ready to change your life and fight for it.<\/p>\n

Last year, with her second LP \u201cThe Art of Loving,\u201d Dean became the latest British woman to earn global fame at the crux of old-soul balladry and modern pop panache. It\u2019s a lane with enormous, established appeal (Sienna Spiro<\/a> is already winding up to be next). Yet Dean brought a fresh, easy-wearing charm to singles such as the Hot 100 smash \u201cMan I Need,\u201d a Whitney Houston-caliber banger that heralded an artfully emotive record.<\/p>\n

With just two studio LPs to her name, Dean covered almost all of them Tuesday, beginning with the flirty yet measured \u201cNice To Each Other.\u201d There she vowed to \u201cNever say the classic stuff \/ Just show it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dean\u2019s set was full of classic stuff \u2014 pastel-hued horns, bossa nova piano, winking choreo from her full-suited backing band. In an emerald-hued cocktail dress, she brought a bit of Eartha Kitt\u2019s coy purr and Norah Jones\u2019 deft sophistication to \u201cSo Easy (To Fall In Love).\u201d \u201cIt isn\u2019t Perfect But It Might Be\u201d evoked Ms. Lauryn Hill\u2019s incense-soaked soul, and the live debut of \u201cSomething Inbetween\u201d was a singer-songwriterly pearl. With a refresh from the ambitious contemporary London jazz scene, she covered Curtis Mayfield\u2019s ageless \u201cMove On Up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But her perspective is internet-era cosmopolitan; young but preternaturally wise about self-reliance. \u201cLadies Room\u201d was a zippy ode to the sanctity of a room of one\u2019s own; \u201cTime\u201d promised that \u201cIt\u2019s up to me to spend my time \/ I gave you yours, so give me mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

On \u201cLet Alone The One You Love,\u201d she made it clear that she wouldn\u2019t be reduced to easy companionship for anyone. \u201cI\u2019m \u2018Too much to handle\u2019 and \u2018Just dial it back a bit,\u2019\u201d she sang. \u201cWell, I\u2019m not having it, babe … who would do that to a friend, let alone the one you love.\u201d<\/p>\n

What separates Dean from the U.K. pop-soul tradition she emerged from, though, is the simple fact that she has hits. Irresistible, wedding-DJ caliber singles that will get men and women, all the world over, from 9 to 90 on the dance floor. The besotted \u201cDive\u201d would make anyone swoon into whatever arms will have them. <\/p>\n

Her inevitable set closer \u201cMan I Need\u201d is the caliber of a track that will outlive her and all of us, a song that will always belong to the lovers yet to come. Let\u2019s hope they listen to Dean\u2019s message about what it takes to protect each other too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.K. pop-soul singer Olivia Dean\u2019s grandmother took her first plane ride at 18, when she emigrated to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,249365,238724,18,117,150270,3724,233498,19,249366,17,249367,2971,179039,24413,57331,32294,35204,1093,10689],"class_list":["post-587872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-classic-stuff","tag-crypto-com-arena","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-fighter","tag-grandmother","tag-home-country","tag-ie","tag-immigrant-family","tag-ireland","tag-lorenzo-salgado-araujo","tag-love","tag-lover","tag-man","tag-olivia-dean","tag-set","tag-song","tag-time","tag-tuesday"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116927064147346027","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}