LOS ANGELES — Olivia Dean won the Grammy for best new artist Sunday night at the 68th annual Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena, topping a field that included KATSEYE, The Marías and Addison Rae. The British singer-songwriter’s win capped a breakout year fueled by her single “Man I Need” and her 2025 second album, “The Art of Loving,” Feb. 1, 2026.
Olivia Dean’s Grammys speech put immigration in the spotlight
Fighting back tears, Dean used her acceptance speech to salute immigrant families and call for solidarity. “I’m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant,” she said. “I’m a product of bravery … We’re nothing without each other,” according to an AP report of her remarks.
While best new artist often serves as a career launchpad, Dean’s win arrived with momentum already behind it. “The Art of Loving” has been praised for marrying classic soul songwriting to modern pop restraint, with “Man I Need” emerging as the project’s most visible crossover moment and a signature of her crisp, conversational delivery.
The win also came in a tightly watched “Big Four” category. The Recording Academy’s Best New Artist category page lists the full eight-nominee lineup, alongside eligibility rules that define the award as recognizing a breakthrough that “notably impacted the musical landscape.”
The show, hosted by Trevor Noah and broadcast on CBS with streaming on Paramount+, followed a full day of Grammys programming that began at the premiere ceremony. The Recording Academy outlined the schedule and telecast details in its rundown of the 2026 Grammys.
Before the category was announced, all eight nominees shared the stage in a special segment designed to introduce each act to the widest possible audience. In a Reuters recap of the Best New Artist race, Dean’s performance centered on “Man I Need,” underscoring the song’s role as the clearest bridge between her U.K. rise and her U.S. breakthrough.
How Olivia Dean built to Best New Artist
Olivia Dean’s “overnight success” has been years in the making, moving from early buzz to bigger stages without a sharp detour into trend-chasing. In 2021, she was named Amazon Music’s Breakthrough Artist for 2021 — early validation that her warm, soul-forward writing could travel beyond the U.K. circuit — as NME reported at the time.
Her 2023 debut album, “Messy,” widened the conversation around her music and highlighted the tension between vintage touchstones and her sharper pop instincts. Reviews weren’t uniform, but they helped cement her as an artist worth tracking: The Guardian’s take on “Messy” pointed to both her potential and the risk of leaning too hard on familiar soul signposts, while NME’s review praised the record when it turned fuller, weirder and more unpredictable.
Now, with the Grammys’ most visible newcomer prize, Olivia Dean steps into a lineage of best new artist winners whose careers quickly expanded after the trophy — and into 2026 with a wider spotlight and fewer “introductions” left to make.
