Cottontail

A warm, vulnerable soul pouring tender emotion into song.

Perched on a tiny stage at Glastonbury 2023, visibly overwhelmed by the roaring crowd chanting her name, Olivia Dean pressed her hand to her chest and whispered "oh my god" — a moment of raw, unguarded vulnerability that felt less like performance and more like confession. This instinct toward openness defines her entirely: her debut album *Messy* is essentially a diary set to music, processing heartbreak, self-doubt, and longing with a tenderness that disarms rather than performs. Like the cottontail — a creature that survives not through aggression but through sensitivity, community, and an almost painful emotional attunement to its surroundings — Dean draws people in precisely because she never armors herself. Her quiet authenticity, her gift for making listeners feel seen in their softest moments, marks her unmistakably as one of the cottontail's own.