LIVE REVIEW: OLIVIA DEAN AT RHO FIERA, MILAN 22/05/26

Photo: Jack Davidson

The air was warm and buzzy as the sun set on the outskirts of Milan, where thousands of fans dressed in loafers and polka dots gathered to witness Olivia Dean’s first performance in Italy.

In our very many years of attending gigs, we have rarely seen such a uniquely serene and comfortable atmosphere amongst this big a crowd, where people spontaneously started singing along to Beyonce’s ‘Love on Top’ and Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’, until the lights went down, the band took the stage and the live music started.

Hidden behind old school theatre drapes, the singer’s shadow intonated the album’s titular intro song, ‘The Art Of Loving’, while the screens by the stage’s sides introduced the show in a classical font. 

As the notes faded, the curtains opened, revealing Olivia Dean, clad in a stunning Etro cocktail dress, happily swaying along to her album’s second track, the upbeat soul and almost bossanova tunes of ‘Nice To Each Other’ and calling out all the ladies in the audience before going straight to the record’s third track, ‘Lady Lady’. 

A rich and talented group of musicians accompanied the artist, with two incredible vocalists joining a guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboardist as well as a horn section, who each got their time to shine later in the show.

Greeting the crowd, Dean introduced one of the recurring themes of the night, also very prominent in her songwriting, the introspective search into the experiences and emotions of being a woman, learning to live with and eventually even love yourself. It’s at this point that she danced into one of her biggest hits, ‘So Easy (To Fall In Love)’, the charming tunes mixing with her soulful voice and effortless stage presence.

During her speeches in between songs, and sometimes even as she performed, Dean seemed to take small moments to look around in wonderment and joy, genuinely touched by the amount of people standing in front of her, as far as the eye could see. She shared that the evening was also particularly special because it was her mother’s birthday and she was in attendance, enthusiastically waving from the vip section. 

Things slowed down a little with ‘Closed Up’, after which the singer took a moment to talk a little bit about the meaning of her next song. “I think loving another person in your life is wanting to see them win, wanting to see them shine and be the best version of themselves and I think everybody in here this evening deserves to be loved like that. And I deserve that too.” And with that, ‘Let Alone The One You Love’ started playing, its raw honesty hitting as hard, if not harder than usual.

Six tracks into the show, all off her sophomore record, Dean reflected on her first album and the emotions that drove her in writing it, the difficulty in believing in yourself when taking on something perceived to be so big. “Nobody knows what they’re doing”, she finally shared with a small laugh, a realization that helped her in times of self doubt. “I wrote this song as kind of a lullaby to myself, a reminder to just be present and let life happen as it is going to. It’s for me and it’s for you.” The song perfectly mirrors the words, feeling like a supportive friend showing up for you when you most need it, the chorus exactly the reassurance one needs when feeling down: “Don't need to be ready / It’s okay if it's messy / I'm on your side”, the musical “la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da” a calming chant almost as effective as a well timed breathing exercise to alleviate stress. 

The singer took centre stage for a quieter section, with only her guitar and two band members with her. The soft lyrics of ‘UFO’, distorted by the song’s uniquely exaggerated synthetised vocal layers, depict the difficulty of letting yourself be completely vulnerable with another person. ‘Touching Toes’ elaborates on falling in love, the feeling of letting go and finally being comfortable with another person, comfortable sharing the little things.

Finally, with ‘I’ve Seen It’, a simple yet incredibly raw ballad, Dean touches on the importance of all kinds of love in life, and the beauty in the mundane of it - and it was, predictably, where we started bawling our eyes out, as it is one of our favourite tunes from the artist.

The final straw in this (very welcome) musical emotional attack came in the form of Carmen, a song close to Dean’s heart and history, as it narrates the story of her grandmother who came from the Caribbeans to the UK when she was only 18 and ended up raising her daughters in a foreign country. Dean’s mother being in the crowd helped the performance feel particularly grounded and poignant, the singer looking at her before turning to the sky by the end of it.

Giving the audience no time to recover, the setlist moved on to the groovier sounds of ‘Echo’, one of the oldest tracks of the night with a 2020 release, and ‘Time’, where Dean’s vocals shined and the horn section had the chance to showcase their talent, moving between the song’s calmer restrained verses and the chaotic outbursts of energy during the choruses seamlessly.

Loud is a particularly honest and painful depiction of heartbreak, containing one of the songwriters’ most effective lyrics in their simplicity, “we went straight to lovers / so we can’t even talk as friends”. The anger and sadness that permeate the whole song were palpable in Dean’s raw yet undeniably captivating performance. ‘A Couple Minutes’, a fan favourite, followed in a similar vein, but then with an outfit change, it was announced it was time to dance.

Dean jumped around between the two ends of the stage, and eventually just walked right into the screaming crowd, shaking hands and smiling through the last chorus of ‘The Hardest Part’. As promised, the next couple of tunes were upbeat certified bangers, everybody singing and dancing along to ‘Baby Steps’, trying to follow the singer’s instructions for a small choreography, and the groovy vibes of ‘Ladies Room’, where Dean yelled out “We’re not going home yet!” to the approval of thousands of people.

The dance party continued with a shiny rendition of Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Move On Up’, followed by the actual oldest track on the setlist - we checked - ‘Ok, Love You, Bye’, from the singer’s 2019 EP, and the dreamy ‘It isn’t Perfect But It Might Be’, from the Bridget Jones Mad About The Boy soundtrack.

‘Dive’ is uplifting, fun, combining sounds from soul, R&B, pop and jazz music, showcasing Olivia Dean’s vocal capability and simply being the perfect song to put on when one wants to feel like the main character.

No tricks, no white lies: “This is our last song”, the artist announced, launching into her biggest hit to date, ‘Man I Need’. It was absolutely perfect, confetti blasting off in the last minute before Dean thanked the audience, wishing everyone well and disappearing from the stage whilst the last confetti fell down and the credits literally rolled on the screens.