Olivia Dean
Toyota Center
August 25, 2026
Love, as Joe “King” Carrasco once said, is a many-splendored thing. It’s the subject of countless poems, songs, and embarrassing letters your parents wrote each other. It also set the foundation for Olivia Dean’s first ever show in Houston.
The 27-year old Brit has released two full-length albums to date. Her most recent, The Art of Loving, topped the charts in the UK and several other countries (peaking at No. 3 on this side of the Pond). This tour also comes on the heels of her 2026 Grammy win for Best New Artist. In short, the timing for her inaugural date in H-Town couldn’t have been better.
Granted, “The Art of Loving Live” sounds less like the name of a tour and more like an act that’ll get you arrested on indecency charges. Still, Dean is unapologetic in her insistence that love is something we all deserve. And her frequent assertions of such to the audience ended up more positive than insistent. It was, in short, a real big sister vibe kind of evening.
That positivity was apparent from the jump, with Dean bringing plenty of energy and joy (and bringing the crowd to their feet) for the opener “Nice to Each Other.” She then asked if there were any ladies in the audience (spoiler: there were) as an introduction to “Lady Lady,” where she sang about “growing on” and “growing into” unexpected changes.
She then made the first of many references to this being her first ever show in Houston, thanking us for selling out the Toyota Center. She’d later comment that she wished “all first dates could be this good.” I appreciated the stage setup, a callback to the tiered setup of variety shows of yore. They also compensated for the under-construction TC’s lack of Jumbotrons by projecting enlarged images on the upstage curtain.
“So Easy” was introduced as a song about loving yourself (sensing a theme?), while “Let Alone the One You Love” came with an explanation that the song — and the new album itself — were Dean’s response to bell hooks’ book All About Love. But if you think all this talk about l’amour was a lot … sure. But then, Dean’s songs are surprisingly brief. I think the “longest” of the show — “Ladies Room” — clocks in at 3:40. So she can be allowed a little garrulousness.
“Messy,” from her first album of the same name, kicked off an acoustic mini set. This included “UFO” and “Touch Your Toes.” This was followed by the exuberant “Carmen,” dedicated to Dean’s Caribbean grandmother. She also chose that song to express her support and affection for immigrants. To my relief, the crowd was vociferous in their support.
The funky (her word) “Echo” came next, followed by the now-familiar trip to the secondary stage in the middle of Toyota Center for “Loud,” “A Couple Minutes,” and the straight bangin’ (as the youths say) “The Hardest Part.”
She returned to the main stage for the final stretch. And as if to emphasize the dance vibe of the last section — we got disco balls strategically places throughout the arena. They illuminated the likes of “Baby Steps,” a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up” (including band introductions) and “It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be,” from that Bridget Jones movie I forgot existed.
Closing with arguably her two biggest songs, “Dive” and “Man I Need,” Dean demonstrated impressive mastery over the crowd for one so young. Fittingly, it was one of the more enthusiastic Toyota Center audiences I’ve seem in some time. Olivia Dean’s music wouldn’t have been unrecognizable either in the dance-y ’70s or during the ’90s rise of neo soul. Songs like “The Hardest Part” and “Nice To Each Other” have that same upbeat tempo and singalong quality of those early jams. Others, notably “A Couple Minutes,” feel like they’d fit in alongside R&B legends like Sam Cooke and Diana Ross.
Artists recalling bygone eras are nothing new. Hell, there’s practically a constitutional amendment mandating a new Led Zeppelin knockoff emerges every ten years or so. But Dean breathes new life into her love songs, be they uplifting or suffused with longing. More than that, they’re comforting. You can imagine kicking back in a dimly lit room, maybe with a glass of wine, and enjoying a good hang with her music.
Well, maybe *you* can. I have three kids.
I confess, I went into last night’s show with a heavy heart. I’m a huge fan of Dolly Parton. Her music was in near-constant rotation in my house growing up. I’ve written about my love of 9 to 5. And just last Christmas my wife bought me surprise tickets to her Vegas residency. That was postponed/canceled in May and now … yeah. I thank Olivia Dean both for playing “9 to 5” as the final bumper song as well as paying tribute to her during the show. It really helped.
How Was The Opener? Baby Rose’s latest album is called Yearnalism, and she leaned pretty hard on that pun her entire set (asserting we’d all majored in it, for example). Think of a funkier Anita Baker. She won the crowd over with a slow jam cover of “Landslide” and a shout out to Dolly.
Ask A 17-Year Old:
ME: How would you describe her show?
17Y-O: In one word: ethereal.
Personal Bias: I’m getting to that age where new music misses me more often than not. Olivia Dean was not on my radar until several months ago, but holy hell, what a talent.
The Crowd: More polka dots than a dalmatian convention.
Overheard In The Crowd: “Are you Snapping this?”
Random Notebooks App Dump: “Holy shit! A sax solo!”
SET LIST
The Art of Loving (Intro)
Nice to Each Other
Lady Lady
So Easy (To Fall in Love)
Close Up
Let Alone the One You Love
Messy
UFO
Touching Toes
Something Inbetween
I’ve Seen It
Carmen
Echo
Time
Loud
A Couple Minutes
The Hardest Part
Baby Steps
Ladies Room
Move On Up (Curtis Mayfield cover)
OK Love You Bye
It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be
Dive
Man I Need
