Lady Lady

Album: The Art of Loving (2025)
Charted: 38
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Songfacts®:

  • "Lady Lady" is Olivia Dean's tender yet empowering reflection on womanhood, surrender, and personal evolution. It's about the oddly specific ache of changing just as you've gotten comfortable with who you are - that lurching, beautiful thing called personal growth.

    "Lady Lady is a song about the universe, mother nature and accepting and trusting in the plan that she has for you," explained Dean. "It's about the feeling of having to change just as you're getting used to a version of yourself. This song reminds me of the power we hold as women – I think it feels like peace."
  • Dean teamed up with her longtime collaborator Matt Hales (aka Aqualung) to write the song. Joining them were Leon Michels - he of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and the Norah Jones pedigree - and Dap-Kings drummer Homer Steinweiss. Hales and Michels co-produced the song with Zach Nahome, who also worked on Dean's "Nice To Each Other" single. They created a soothing blend of neo-soul, pop, and jazz that enables Dean's warm vocals to shine through.
  • Directed by Jake Erland, the song's music video stars principal Royal Ballet dancer Francesca Hayward, who performs alongside Dean and a young, Black (and gifted) all-female ensemble. The visual emphasizes movement and intimacy, and honors the underlying strength woven into the song's theme. Erland also directed Dean's "Nice To Each Other" video.
  • "Lady Lady" co-writer Leon Michels also played acoustic guitar, bass, guitar, keyboards and percussion on the track. Born in New York in 1982, Michels was a teenage jazz nut, inspired by a teacher who fed him Duke Ellington. By 16, he was playing saxophone for Sharon Jones and touring Britain rather than taking his final high school exams. "I didn't enjoy playing live, though. I got my spiritual hive when I was in a studio," he told Mojo magazine.

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