Olivia Dean was not happy when she saw how much her fans were overpaying for resale tickets to her upcoming tour — but it was one struggling single mother who sent her over the edge.
A little less than a month after the British pop singer called out Ticketmaster, Live Nation and AEG’s “disgusting” and “vile” resell prices — ultimately securing refunds for her fans — she opened up in a conversation with Gayle King at a Monday (Dec. 15) Soho Sessions and Grammy Museum event about how coming across one listener’s plea gave her the courage to do so. “When the tickets went on sale, I was looking at some stuff I was tagged in,” she recalled, according to People.
“I saw a video of a single mother, and she was like, ‘I connected so much to this album [The Art of Loving]. I can’t afford a ticket. I can afford the gas money and the babysitter, but can you just give me a ticket?’” Dean continued. “And I was like, you are exactly the person that should be coming to the show.”
The singer-songwriter has had one of the most rapid rises of 2025, breaking out with The Art of Loving in September. Shortly after her American tour dates in support of the album went on sale in November, she made headlines for putting AEG, Ticketmaster and Live Nation on blast on her Instagram Story. (The latter two companies merged in 2010 to form Live Nation Entertainment.)
“@Ticketmaster @Livenation @AEGPresents you are providing a disgusting service,” she wrote at the time. “The prices at which you’re allowing tickets to be re-sold is vile and completely against our wishes. Live music should be affordable and accessible and we need to find a new way of making that possible. BE BETTER.”
Shortly afterward, Ticketmaster announced that it would process partial refunds for fans who overpaid and implement a resell cap at face value for Dean’s tour. Michael Rapino, Live Nation’s CEO, addressed the change in a statement, saying, “We share Olivia’s desire to keep live music accessible and ensure fans have the best access to affordable tickets. While we can’t require other marketplaces to honor artists’ resale preferences, we echo Olivia’s call to ‘do better’ and have taken steps to lead by example.”
AEG did not respond to Billboard‘s request for comment when Dean called out the company in November.
While speaking to King at the Grammy event, Dean added of the situation, “It was unfair the way that the operation was running, and I just thought, ‘Let me have a go and see what I can do.’ And we did something, and Ticketmaster are gonna refund everybody their money that they paid, which is like $2 million or something.”
On her 2026 tour, Dean will play iconic arena-sized venues such as Madison Square Garden in New York City and Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Her sit-down for Soho Sessions and the Grammy museum comes after she was nominated for best new artist at next year’s awards.
