Olivia Dean shares how struggling single mother inspired her to hit out at Ticketmaster and AEG’s “vile” re-sale practices

Olivia Dean has shared the story of how encountering the story of a single mother who couldn’t afford a ticket to her show inspired her to call out Ticketmaster and AEG’s “vile” re-sale practices.

• READ MORE: The UK ban on secondary ticketing explained by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy: “Time is up for ticket touts”

After tickets for Dean’s 2026 US tour went on sale and quickly started to appear on re-sale sites at inflated prices, the ‘Dive’ singer called out Ticketmaster, Live Nation and AEG and said that they were “providing a disgusting service”.

“The prices at which you’re allowing tickets to be re-sold is vile and completely against our wishes,” she added. “Live music should be affordable and accessible, and we need to find a new way of making that possible. BE BETTER.”

She also apologised to fans for the high prices on resale sites and said that she found it “extremely frustrating” that people were being “scammed or overcharged for our show”.

When speaking at a Soho Sessions and Grammy Museum event on Monday (December 15), Dean explained what drove her to speak up, and it was the words of just one fan on a low income.

“When the tickets went on sale, I was looking at some stuff I was tagged in,” she recalled. “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.”

“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.”

In response to Dean’s criticisms, Ticketmaster put a cap on the price of Dean’s resale tickets and offered to refund fans for any markup they already paid to resellers on Ticketmaster”.

“We share Olivia Dean’s desire to keep live music accessible and ensure fans have the best access to affordable tickets,” it said. “While we can’t require other marketplaces to honour artists’ resale preferences, we echo Olivia’s call to ‘do better’ and have taken steps to lead by example. We hope efforts like this help fans afford another show they’ve been considering – or discover someone new.”

The tour dates are in celebration of Dean’s second album, ‘The Art of Loving‘ – which has seen her become the first female solo artist to have four singles in the Official Charts UK Top 10 simultaneously.

The comments from Dean calling out Ticketmaster came just days after the UK government announced that it would be introducing new regulations, making it illegal to re-sell tickets for live music, sports, comedy and theatre events above original cost.

The move will make re-sold gig tickets roughly £37 cheaper on average, and save fans approximately £112million per year.