THE FUSE

With every day that passes, it becomes harder and harder to imagine a time before Olivia Dean released “Man I Need.” Nowadays, you can’t get through two aisles in a supermarket or spend five minutes in an Uber without hearing Dean begging the object of her affection to “Talk to me, talk to me.” But it’s not just that one song: whether we like it or not, Dean has served as the collective soundtrack to our 2026, thanks to her extensive catalogue of equally inescapable songs like “So Easy (To Fall In Love)” and “A Couple Minutes.” So when it came time for Apple Music to pick their Artist of the Year, the choice was obvious.