You voted, it’s official — Olivia Dean has won the Hottest 100 of 2025 with her joyous track, ‘Man I Need’.
“It’s kind of crazy, I feel like this song only just came into my life recently so for it to just be everywhere — it’s changed my life,” Olivia told Concetta and Luka following her win.
“No other song has ever done what this has done, and I’m just really grateful.”
Olivia said the song just “fell out” of her while she was in the studio with her collaborators Zach Nahome and Tobias Jesso Jr, after the core chords were bounding around in her head.
“It was a joy to make, this song,” she said.
“I don’t know what it is, it just has some magic about it.”
“I think I was always waiting to have a song like this in the set to play, and for everybody to have a dance but also feel empowered.”
Loading
Building the ‘Man I Need’
Written in a house in East London where Olivia brought in her comforts from home, including her piano, she aimed to capture the warmth of being in a cosy space with your closest friends.
“I brought in photo frames, my mugs and my slippers,” Olivia told Lucy Smith in October.
“So those home comforts, but also the band that I toured with … it just felt very communal. A gathering of people in a moment in time.”
Olivia’s debut dance
With 2.1 million votes submitted, the UK singer appeared five times across the Hottest 100 of 2025, from #62 ‘Lady, Lady’ to the coveted #1 — tied with our homegrown heroes, Spacey Jane. The Hottest 100 of 2025 is also Olivia’s debut countdown, putting her in a coveted group of artists who have won the Hottest 100 in their debut year.
The others in that club include Chappell Roan (2024), The Wiggles (2022), Vance Joy (2013), Franz Ferdinand (2004), Queens Of The Stone Age (2002), Oasis (1995) and Dennis Leary in the inaugural annual countdown in 1993.
The Art of Loving (Australia)
It’s no surprise that Olivia penned your favourite song of 2025; we were some of the first in the world to hear music from The Art Of Loving when she visited Australia for Laneway Festival 2025.
“You know what’s crazy? I hadn’t even written most of the album at that point,” she told Chet and Luka after her big win.
“I had ‘Nice To Each Other’ and I was like ‘ok, I’m gonna come and test it out in Australia and New Zealand, because these guys will be a good vibe’.
“Then after that tour I was inspired to write the rest of the album because I was like ‘I know what I need to do now’.”
Loading
The album that was built after that experience was The Art Of Loving – a stunning body of work that Olivia hopes people will come back to time and time again as we move through our lives.
“Something that maybe you could return to in the future if you’re going through a break up or you’re falling in love, the way that I returned to my favourite albums when I need them in my life,” she told Lucy.
Let’s hear it for the girls
Olivia has officially completed a history-making hat-trick with her win, marking the first time in Hottest 100 history that women solo artists have won the countdown three years running.
Doja Cat with ‘Paint The Town Red’ in 2023, Chappell with ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ in 2024 and now Olivia in 2025 — the girlies are onto something!