If you had walked the loop around Manchester's Albert Hall at 7pm on Saturday, you would have seen a queue of hundreds lining up to see the three-time BRIT award-nominated Olivia Dean take the stage for the Manchester leg of her sold-out UK tour.
The BRIT school graduate released her debut album, "Messy", in 2023 and this tour, named after the album, will see her perform her hits such as "Dive" and "The Hardest Part" to the thousands of adoring fans she's since acquired.
As 8pm comes around, the lights dim and Dean's support act, Aby Coulibaly, takes the stage, priming the crowd for Dean's set by describing what they will go on to experience as "a show", not "a gig".
The Irish-born Coulibaly blesses the crowd with an array of her music, notably, songs like "Taurus" and "Big Pharma", before reiterating that "it's not a gig, it's a show" as she teases Dean's arrival to the stage.
9pm. The lights fade to black and the crowd erupts into an applause that fills the restored chapel.
Dean looks ethereal as the light rises and she begins with her first song, "UFO", coincidentally also the first song on her debut album. As she treats the fans to an array of her songs, both new and old, it's almost as if every song is a fan favourite.
"This is a song I really love", Dean speaks passionately and confidently, introducing the title track to her debut album and tour "Messy". As she sings the outro "I'm a little bit messy", she picks up her tambourine and the crowd finds it impossible not to dance and sing along.
Dean goes on to introduce a new song that she wrote "a month ago", "Touching Toes", before moving over to the keyboard to begin a song "that was born out of pure anxiety". "Does anyone else have anxiety sometimes?", she asks the crowd who reply with roars of affirmation. "Everybody's Crazy", the penultimate song from her album, comes to an end as she sings "I'm not as strong as I appear" and the crowd give the loudest and longest applause yet.
As the night goes on, Dean continues to belt out her biggest hits, from one of the first songs that she put out into the world, "Reason to Stay", to arguably her biggest track "The Hardest Part".
Dean sips her Red Stripe, appearing to grow emotional as the crowd continues with their applause, growing louder after each song. A collective energy agrees that a star has been born.
