Olivia Dean tears up in acceptance speech as she wins first-ever Grammy

Olivia Dean won the Best New Artist award at the Grammy Awards 2026 and appeared visibly overwhelmed as she received the trophy.

The 26-year-old songstress teared up disbelief as Chappell Roan presented her the award, and delivered an emotional speech.

“I never really imagined that I would be up here, let alone nominated, so thank you so much. I guess I wanna say I’m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant. I wouldn’t be here … I’m a product of bravery and I think those people deserve to be celebrated. So, yeah, we’re nothing without each other,” the So Easy to Love hitmaker said.

Alongside Dean, there were seven strong contenders in the Best New Artist category, including Katseye, The Marías, Addison Rae, Sombr, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren and Lola Young.

The Nice to Each Other songstress had her breakout year in 2025, as her album, Art of Loving, took off on streaming platforms as well as social media.

Dean had her live performances on Saturday Night Live, as well as other television platforms, always delivering a dynamic performance.

All the artists nominated in the category took the Grammys stage for back to back performances, which was a new segment debuted only in 2025.

Speaking of the new artists’ performances, Grammys producer Ben Winston earlier said, “We just thought, well, we have eight incredible best new artists. We wouldn’t really want to pick two or three or one or four. So, we were like, ‘Why don’t we try and do what we did last year but super-size it [and] go all eight.’”

He continued, “It’s hugely ambitious, but we’re going for it, and we’re really excited to showcase [the] best new artists because the nominees deserve such a moment.”