Shadowing Practice: Olivia Dean: The Art of Loving and Writing Honest Music | Apple Music - Learn English Speaking with Video

It's Apple Music 1, you are tapped into me, Rebecca Judd, and joining me in the studio right now, the one and only Olivia Dean, everybody!

Come back!

You are back!

My absolute queen, you have arrived in the studio once again.

What an absolute joy you are every time you join me.

I wish I could do this literally every single day.

We do have a good time.

We do.

I mean, last time we caught up was actually back in June.

Which feels crazy.

I know right

and I remember saying to you next time you join me

in the studio it's going to be for the release of

your second album I was like are there any snacks that you want and you was like

I love chocolate raisins yes I have delivered stop it chocolate

raisins for you here you go my queen oh my god there we go wow you look after me

so well you are welcome but it is

so lovely to have you here literally I'm such a huge

fan of you I just kind of want to break it down

and kick it off like this

and kind of put context into how crazy life is for

you right now three months ago you were literally sitting in

that exact chair you were talking about you know getting ready to support uh sam fender at the london stadium

and how huge those shows were going to be now cut

to three months later you have sold out four o2 london

shows you've been dominating the top 10 three singles in there

what on earth is going on olivia babe i wish i knew what is going I wish I knew.

It sort of feels like all of a sudden it's all got really exciting

and everyone's just being so warm and receiving the music.

And it is crazy to think about everything that's happened since I last saw you.

Right?

I can't believe it.

Four O2s.

It's too many.

She said, I love everybody that got tickets, but call me, I need to work now.

Yeah, I'm like, damn, let me get in the gym.

Let's go.

For people around the world that maybe don't understand how huge it is to do an O2 show here in London, I feel like that is on the bucket list for artists here in the UK.

To do that venue is absolutely huge.

That is 20 ,000 people per night.

You have sold out four shows of them.

That's 80 ,000 people.

What's actually stopping you from doing your own London stadium show at this point?

I mean, fear.

No, we'll start with the O2s.

And I can't wait, honestly.

Like playing live for me is the best bit of what I get to do

and I'm gonna just put everything into those shows like it's my dream like to build a show in

that space and have the opportunity to really realize a lot of ideas

that we haven't had the space or like the budget to do previously

so I can't wait for people to see what we're gonna

do you have said though the album is about exploring the

theme of love I mean are the stories on this album

true stories absolutely 100 % 100 % I would never ever write something that wasn't

true

or didn't happen to me it's not interesting to me like

i don't it doesn't do anything for me to make it up

because it's like i've got to go out

and sing it for the maybe the rest of my life

and so it needs to mean something so

that i can make it mean something to you do you feel like i suppose with

that comes actual life experience yeah your life is like really

really just chill are you like nah something needs to happen

i need to make some songs you know what i wish my life No Rebecca, I wish my life was more chill.

Honestly, sometimes I look at my life and I'm like, no way that happened to me.

No!

Yeah, the material is there.

And I just also feel like to make the kind of music that I want to make, you've got to live.

Like I had a real good chunk of living before I came to

that eight weeks so that there was so much to say and so much to cover.

So yeah, my life is there.

It offers the material.

That's what I mean though, people can really tell that you make music from the heart.

I feel like that's another reason why we resonate with your music so much, because you can tell, like, you love this music that you're creating.

Even when, like, you're performing it live, that day seems like the best day of your life.

Having the best time.

You perform live, like, every single night at this point, but that one day, I'm like, she's having a great time up there.

It's an amazing job I get to do, and I get to create and make art and share it with people

and like i'm not doing it for like i don't make music

because i want to be famous or like

because i want to make loads of cash it's like i love making music

so much and um yeah i just want to make things

that last forever hopefully

and they're gonna um what song would you say has inspired

this album lots of different songs i was listening to a lot of prints

when i was making this album i want to be on stage

and i want to be dancing

and i want to see people dancing out there i just

think sonically like exploring more kind of 80s influences since

and different kind of drum grooves than i would normally look

at like i felt like a lot of stuff i was

making before kind of sat more in a motown space

which i still really love but yeah i just wanted to try something a little different and prince is just

just a wealth of inspiration in his discography i mean speaking

of inspirations uh you actually went to the brit school i mean for people around the world

that are thinking what on earth is that

so it's a performing arts college uh it's a known thing

that adele went there uh ray went there jesse j amy

winehouse uh more recently lowly young as well of course yourself uh

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when you were at brit school was the plan to always

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be a pop star i don't know about pop star like

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i think i was figuring it out at school like kind of where I wanted to take it

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but I knew it was always yeah

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writing and singing and then yeah it kind of just morphed into doing this now

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but yeah Brit just allowed me to also be with

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so many like -minded people in

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that way to be around all those people at school

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and also wanting to do that dream it felt possible rather than being

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that one weird kid in your school who wants to sing in all the assemblies

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and everyone's like we don't want to Can you sing Alicia Keys again, babe?

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And again and again.

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At the same time, though, going to Brit school, performing arts college, everybody low -key has the same dream.

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Were you always confident within yourself that what you had was special?

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Because there's hundreds of people there all wanting to do the same thing.

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How did you know that your talent was special?

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I think it's about just having the self -confidence to know that there's space for everybody.

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I've never felt like a competitive nature like when I see Lola winning

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or when I see Ray winning I'm like yes yes women you know

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and we're all so different and everyone has

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so much to bring to the table and I just I always knew

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that I had something to give how did the Brit school help you oh my god in

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so many ways I mean I met a lot of my band there like Finn Finn

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and Dan yeah like we met at school

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and we were saying the other day we've been 10 years we've been playing music together now

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which is crazy

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and you still like each other after 10 years yeah we're still on the road we're still rocking

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so i think just in that capacity it let me meet amazing musicians

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and you know taught you about the industry a little bit and

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and from the smallest things to how to coil a cable

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properly how to be a good band member you know production they had like a production suite

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or just all sorts like all the things you wouldn't think about

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that you need to know going into the industry yeah it's an amazing school do You know what?

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This leads me nicely into this next part of the chat.

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Now, every time you've come into the studio now, we've caught up quite a few times.

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Every time you come in, I'm like, I absolutely love you.

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I love everything about you.

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You know how much of a fan I am of you.

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We're gassing each other out.

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I love everything about you.

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But there's so many people around the UK and the world that are proud of you.

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And today during this chat, I've actually got a few surprises for you.

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So if you actually, no one's coming in, don't worry.

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If you look down at your iPad right now, somebody wants to leave you a message.

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Oh my God.

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Hi Olivia, it's Mike Offen here, your old form tutor.

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Huge congratulations on your new album.

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I had a really surreal moment the other day where my new tutees were talking about how good my nine need was.

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They were so shocked and excited when I told them

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that you used to be a member of 10 MOF and you just sold out the O2.

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Massive congratulations again.

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Hope to see you soon.

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Hi Olivia, how are you?

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Stuart Warden here at Brit School.

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How's it going? here we are in the ob where you

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used to sing only a few years ago oh we are

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wishing you all the best with the art of loving the

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tracks we've heard are amazing we can't wait to hear the

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rest of it you are extraordinary hopefully see you at the o2

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or in self you're trying to make me cry today

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how cute everybody that is so cute does that put stuff into perspective

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that like because life can be so quick quick paced

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when you see messages like that how does

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that make you feel olivia i feel

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so emotional like mr often like was my form tutor

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and me and my best friend rosie sang at his wedding yeah

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and like oh my gosh i feel yeah i feel really emotional like

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that was such a developmental time for me in my life

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and i really like struggled in the school i was in before

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and i never felt like I found my place and my people

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and yeah I really stepped into myself like with the help of those guys

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so that is

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so lovely you performed at his wedding anniversaries now you need

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to tell him the price has gone up B I've had it for free then

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but it's changed bro listen the price is up no but

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if we look back to your first album it was called

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messy do you still feel messy you know what in some ways not really i feel like i've done

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so much work on myself and like got my life a bit together since i wrote

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that album but i think also yes at heart i'm still kind of a mess

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but i think that i'm owning it now do you feel more in control now now

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that you you know

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when you got your debut out did you feel like okay

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now i know what this process feels like i'm gonna have

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a little bit more fun with the second one yeah i

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think sometimes a second album people say there's a lot of pressure and it's a bit scary and I was just like, oh no, I want to have even more fun this time.

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And I just took that pressure off myself.

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And I was like, you know what?

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At the end of this process, if you can say you had fun doing it, then no one can tell you anything.

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You can say you don't like my album, but you can't say I didn't have fun.

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Now, if we fast forward all the way or rewind all the way back to the beginning, when starting out, what would you say was the original goal for you in your head?

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Like, what would you have been happy with? if you

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if you quit music the next day what was that thing

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that you wanted to achieve the original goal well the first

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day i met my manager we went for a coffee when i was 17 in my little dungarees

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she said what do you want

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and i said i want to play jules holland yeah i want to make an album yeah

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and i want to play glastonbury that was it

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that was all i wanted to do wow yeah that was it

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so i've had to stop trying to think of some new

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goals yeah i was gonna say how has it changed what's

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been added to it now i'd like to headline glastonbury one

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day yes my girl i think it would be a good

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time i'd love to tour like some other parts of the

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world i've never been to like i'd love to do a

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tour in south america i'd love to i don't know maybe go to india

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or just i don't know just see what's going on over

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there one thing i really love about this album is the fact

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that you're now two albums in no collaborations no collabs why is

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that i love the idea of collaborating and i've done

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so outside of my albums but i think for me

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because it's such personal stories it would almost feel strange to

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have another voice like coming into the mix like i want

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it to feel like i'm taking you on a journey it's you

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and me sis you know you me and these headphones

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and we're working through something come along for the ride exactly

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and i just think at least for the for these two

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albums it just hasn't felt sincere for me to have another voice in

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that way who knows in the future

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but um i think i'm still trying to establish my own voice

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and it's important for me to do

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that i mean outside of your albums as well you don't collaborate

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that often i feel like that's definitely a choice for you

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because right now you must be getting requests coming in the front

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and are what makes you actually want to work with someone

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and collaborate is there anything that stands out uh

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if i think they share a similar passion for music um

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and i also if i like the music i find it weird sometimes i don't know people collaborate

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and stuff and it's like do you do you want to do

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that who who else is going on so i just think

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if it makes sense you know um

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but yeah all the collaborations i've done have been really amazing

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and i'd like to do more in future but only

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if it really really felt right yeah i mean like you

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mentioned you have dabbled in collaborations rain me in with sam fender absolutely went off the one

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that i really really love is the hardest part with leon bridges what did he bring to

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that song and how fun was it to create with him for me

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that one was crazy because i'd been a huge fan of him before like mr often

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when those times when i was

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that age like i'd be doing up cover leon bridges songs with my friend rosie yeah

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that one i just didn't believe it was going to happen

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and i remember the day when the mp3 came through with his verse on it

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and i was just sat there like i can't believe he's singing lyrics

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that i wrote what's going on and then i got to meet him

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and we got to sing it live together in new york

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and that was the first time i'd ever sung in america like

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that and i was so nervous i was backstage

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and i said to my manager i can't go out there

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she said you have to well we're here now You have to.

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I said, I can't go out there.

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I can't go out there.

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Yeah, that was like the one time I've like almost not gone on stage because I was so nervous.

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Yeah.

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I mean, I did mention earlier on that I do have a few surprises for you.

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If you look down at your iPad again, there should be a lovely message for you, Olivia.

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Oh, I just want to say congratulations on your second album.

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I'll never forget the time we got to perform together at LPR two years ago, and it was so amazing to see you do your thing in that room.

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And I knew then that you were headed to great places.

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I'm so happy that we crossed paths

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and it's been incredible to see your growth as an artist

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and I can't wait to see where this record takes you

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you know I'm always going to be in your corner how cute is

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that stop who are you going to bring out next I'm like Beyonce everybody oh bless him

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but yeah that's the gig I was talking about when he got

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when I got to sing with him it was just like such a full circle moment

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and to be so far from home and have him there

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and sing that song that means

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so much to me was yeah really beautiful now i did

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mention uh sam fender earlier on in this chat we need

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to talk about it man you supported him on his stadium tour here in the uk

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and i know that a date

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that was really special to you was performing at the london

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stadium of course the home of west ham united you are a west ham fan you've been vocal about

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that you've been absolutely screaming it yeah how special was

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that date for you listen i've been meaning to talk to you about this

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because i saw you before right

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and we were gassed we were gas for it yeah

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so you gasped me up i went down there yeah

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and i was like i came out

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and i was like guys this is a special day for me because i'm a west ham fan got booed.

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Oh no!

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Babe, they booed me up.

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No!

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Because they're Newcastle fans.

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What did you do?

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I said, oh.

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And then I went, okay, never mind.

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This one's the hardest part.

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Yeah, babe, I got booed.

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I got booed.

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Thank God I didn't go out in my West Ham top because it could have been tomatoes.

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I actually have.

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I wish you were there.

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I know.

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I would have been like, come on, Irons.

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I've actually got something that's going to make you feel a little bit better

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if you look down at your ipad i have another surprise for you olivia take a look at

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that hey olivia it's jared here you're a massive west ham fan

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so thank you for your support congratulations on your new album

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the art of loving looking forward to you at the london

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stadium soon take care all the best no congratulations on your

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new album we're very excited for it to come out

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and we hear you are a west ham fan

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so thank you for the support We would love to have you at the training ground here at Chadwell Heath.

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Please!

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Or at one of our matches at Dagenham.

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And we are very excited.

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We love your music and you're a West Ham fan, so we could be nice to each other.

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Guys!

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Yay!

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I'm basically on the team.

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There we go!

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I'm basically on the team.

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I needed that.

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That makes you feel better about getting booed, right?

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Yes.

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It does.

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How crazy is that, man?

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Jared Bowen, captain of the West Ham team.

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What's going on?

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what's going on i told you i had surprises for you

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girl no booze today instead we go irons i do feel

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like your touring is similar to like classic touring musicians who

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literally spent years on the road i can't remember the last

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time you had like four months off of not touring

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and i love the fact

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that you have done the smaller venues as well you've really

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started from the ground up you mentioned busking like you've started from the ground up

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and you've seen these venues get bigger and bigger

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and bigger now the o2 you've sold out four of them

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how are you mentally ready for this moment we're still getting there yeah

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and working up to like what it's actually going to feel like to walk out on

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that stage i need to keep my emotions i don't want to just cry the whole way through

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because that's not what we want we want to just be enjoying it

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but the journey has been crazy like we were talking about you know in lockdown

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when we were driving around in a van playing music for

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people like we did a gig for at a prawn restaurant we did a gig at a prawn restaurant

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and there were three people in the crowd

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and two of them were children uh we've done gigs just

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on the side of the road in cornwall like on a

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beach we did a gig actually i think it was like at a soho house

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or something nobody came we played for a field we played

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for an empty field we came this far we're gonna play anyway character building listen my character has been built

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so in that sense i'm ready for this moment

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because i still enjoyed those shows so i think yes there'll be more people there

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but um it's a gig's a gig

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and i'm just i'm lucky to do it you're ready how

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do you feel right now your second album the art of loving is out try

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and summarize these emotions

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that you're feeling pride i feel proud of myself i feel

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healed I think making this album brought up a lot of emotions for me

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and was quite confronting at points but I feel healed

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and ready to share that with people

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and I feel happy yeah it's a good time in my

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life I love this I have been dotting through some surprises

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throughout this chat I've got one more for you okay so

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if you take one more look at your iPad I love you

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and so many other artists out there Darling Olivia congratulations on the release of your new album Mel!

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You are an incredible songwriter, an extraordinary live performer, and I love watching your star continue to rise.

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Love you loads.

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Olivia Dean is from Beddingfield here, and I just want to say I am so glad you're getting your flowers.

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You are so wonderful, and from the moment I first watched you on TikTok years ago, I was like, who is this girl?

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You're so amazing, so just invectiously joyful,

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and ridiculously talented and I'm just sending you all the love and congrats on your new album.

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This is what I'm saying, girl.

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We love you.

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Natasha!

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Now!

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That's crazy, right?

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It is crazy.

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I used to sit in my room and cover a Natasha Bennington song. Which song?

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These were from my heart.

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Do you know what it is, though?

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The growth of you this year has been...

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You can't even describe what's happened for you.

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This has been like the dream since you started out.

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To see artists like that, that you've grown up listening to when you just had an idea to even like touch the success that you have already.

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How does it feel that these people are supporting?

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It's unbelievable.

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It just makes me believe that like anything can happen in life

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if you work really hard and just keep working towards a goal

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and working towards because you love it and for the right reasons like you never know what could happen.

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That is crazy.

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Do you know what though?

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If you were to scroll through like your Instagram comments that people that are in there showing you love is mad.

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Like Naomi Campbell.

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No, don't even get me started on Naomi Campbell.

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Like she's a huge fan of you i saw her the other day at the burberry show

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and i was sat there and i could see her

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and i was like okay i'm gonna after this i'm gonna go

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and speak to her i'm gonna work up the courage i'm gonna go

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and speak to her she came over to me did she she was like gave me a hug

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and i was like you've got to come to the show she said i'd love to

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and i was like i can't believe this like i have

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a book in my room that's just like naomi campbell

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and like you know images from her career

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and like she's such an inspiring like just black female role model for me

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so to feel that love back is yeah what other moments like

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that have have meant a lot to you i mean elton john yes

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that has been such an amazing experience for me like having support from him

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and like around glastonbury when we played the pyramid stage

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and getting to meet him

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and then you know just he like he called me up the other day

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and just said i'm really proud of you wow he said i'm really proud of you

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and you've been putting a lot of work in

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and now you're ready that's so sweet you don't have to do

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that like he is just his finger is so on the pulse

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and he's so supportive of young artists and i think that's amazing

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so that's been pretty overwhelming how do your parents feel like

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in their mind are you just their daughter like go do the washing up love

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or like how do they feel i think they're just like just proud like my mom is

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so across it like every show i do like she's she's

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seen it she'll text me she'll be like love this dress

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tonight babe she was like then you looked cute like i hope you had a good time

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and then she'll be like yeah i was really feeling

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that one babe i'm like thanks mom wow because you know what like

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when moments happen like obviously times have changed for

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when our parents were younger

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and stuff they may not get you know the instagram followers going up

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and if you got this many followers within a week like

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but when they see people like elton john supporting you is

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that when they really understand the levels of what you're doing

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when things like these happen yeah i mean that's the kind of stuff you can't even really imagine happening like

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that it feels like kind of far -fetched you know oh

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my god it is crazy the elton stuff like i remember

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when the rocket man film came out i went to the cinema by myself to go

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and see it and like to think that you know he would call me up on the phone now it doesn't

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it's like i don't really know what life is i need

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to paint the picture for me though like you're sitting there

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what was happening this is actually a really good story i

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went camping with my mates in wales i'd just woken up

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i had a little grill on i was making sausage

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and beans love that i get a text from someone on my team

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and they're like expect a call from elton john i said excuse me okay then my phone rang

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and i was like guys sorry elton's on the line what yeah

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and then just sort of walked off to the side

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and spoke to him and then i came back to the campsite

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and i just fell on the floor and collapsed

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and everyone was like are you all right

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and i was like no did you carry on making the sausage

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and beans yeah and then i had my sausage

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and beans that's what i'm saying man you're so grounded

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but you know i really hope

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that the moments like this continue to keep happening for you

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i would love to know like some of the you don't have to say the hardest things

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that you've been through but what are some of the things

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that you wish you know now gosh i've learned

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so much it's definitely been a roller coaster like the last 10 years

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when I think about when I first met my manager

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when I first put my first song out

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and all the things we've been through and like amazing

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but also really hard moments I think

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that I've just got really good at trusting my intuition I feel really I just trust myself I know

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when something's right and I know when it doesn't feel right

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and i do way less stuff

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that i don't want to do now like i don't really

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do anything i don't want to do i just eat chocolate raisins

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and i just make music and i think that um

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i think that just being consistently yourself and authentic and making stuff

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that you love always pays off and people might not get it

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and that's okay but i just i feel like i've really always stay true to myself

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and i've never done anything to follow a trend

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or like get an immediate viral hit

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or like you know i've just been myself

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and i think i'm proud of just sticking to

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that yeah i mean you've really been blessed with great people

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around you the best i have the best team i have the best band

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and i get to work with amazing people

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and i would never sit here

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and be like i do it all myself like it takes a village to make things

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and put on a show and you know make an album

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and I work with amazing people yeah what would you do

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if you got a number one album here in the UK Oh my god, me and my manager were joking we're gonna get our belly buttons pierced.

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How is that the celebration?

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That is so funny.

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Anything else?

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If you do any holidays?

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No. Oh, I don't know.

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That's just been the joke.

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That's what we're gonna do.

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I don't know.

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I don't know.

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I haven't thought about it.

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Yeah, belly buttons pierced.

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That's so funny.

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I want to run off this chat with the final song on the album.

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Olivia Dean, I've seen it.

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Why did you want to round off the album like this?

487

I think it was important for me to leave the listeners on a note of reminding them

488

that perhaps maybe romantic love isn't the forefront of your life right now.

489

But love exists in so many forms.

490

It's in your friendships.

491

It's in strangers.

492

It's in your parents.

493

And I think that, gosh, getting emotional, there is so much love to be shared.

494

And in the world right now, I think we need reminding that it's all around us and you just need to look for it.

495

It's so beautiful, but I definitely feel like people around the world are finding the love

496

when you continue to make music how you're making it.

497

We love you, girl.

498

It's been an absolute pleasure.

499

Thank you so much for finding time to come back through and have a chat with me.

500

I am so proud of you.

501

The Art of Loving is out.

502

Do you have any last final words, babes?

503

Just enjoy it.

504

I made it for everybody to enjoy and just sit with it and yeah, see what you think.

505

I love you, dude, everybody!

506

We love you!

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: Olivia Dean: The Art of Loving and Writing Honest Music | Apple Music - Learn English Speaking with Video

What You'll Practice in This Lesson

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Practice Tips for Shadowing

What is the Shadowing Technique?