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  • Heather Davis
  • Hollywood Records
  • heather.davis@disney.com

With her radiant presence and captivating voice, OLIVIA HOLT delivers a dynamic form of pop music that’s undeniably catchy yet emotionally raw. Hailing from Memphis, the L.A.-based artist grew up on the iconic Southern soul that originated in her city, and first discovered her own tremendous vocal talents at the young age of three. With over 600M combined streams, 9M+ social followers and making waves with songs like her #1 dance hit “Generous” and gold-certified smash “History,” OLIVIA devoted two years to creating new music and has delivered a magnetic body of work that brings a new level of boldness to every element of her artistry.

“When I first started working on this music, I was entering my 20s and had gotten to the point where I felt completely confident in speaking my mind,” says OLIVIA, who’s now 23. “For a long time, I’d felt closed off, which is something that can happen when you’re in relationships or friendships that keep you from your full potential. It’s like I was in this bubble I couldn’t pop—and then finally I popped it, and it was so liberating. I’ve found this incredible freedom to say and do what I want, and no one can hold me back.”

The follow-up music to her debut EP OLIVIA—a 2016 release that cracked the top 40 on Billboard’s Pop chart—found OLIVIA working with A-list songwriter/producers like Justin Tranter (Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande), Gian Stone (Dua Lipa, Selena Gomez) and Johan Carlsson (Demi Lovato, Katy Perry). OLIVIA and her collaborators dreamed up a gorgeously layered sound that draws much of its kinetic energy from organic instrumentation, with an emphasis on the lush guitar tones she adores. Equal parts edgy and euphoric, the result is a brilliant backdrop for Holt’s heart-on-sleeve storytelling and unbridled self-expression.

A collaboration with Moroccan-Dutch producer/DJ R3HAB, “love u again” was a powerful introduction to the thrilling new era of OLIVIA’s music, merging bright and bouncy beats and shimmering synth in its fearless confession of unrequited love. The sleek and spellbinding “Talk Me Out of It” presents a fantastically detailed portrait of an encounter on a wild night out, while the seductive “Sleeping Alone” (feat. Shawn Wasabi) unfolds in hazy and hypnotic textures as OLIVIA lays down a particularly alluring performance. And on “Next,” OLIVIA lends her luminous vocals to a groove-heavy dance track with an irresistibly retro swing thanks to the co-writing contribution of Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Meghan Trainor.

Raised in a music-obsessed family –her dad played in a hair-metal band, and took her to three Van Halen concerts before the age of 15– OLIVIA spent her childhood steeped in her hometown’s rich musical history. “Even just walking down Beale Street, you hear so much live music everywhere, and that was also so inspiring to me,” she says. Naming strong-minded female artists like Sheryl Crow and the classic storytellers of country music among her earliest inspirations, OLIVIA first stepped into the studio at age 15 for the recording of “Had Me @ Hello.” “The first time I performed that song and had people sing it back to me I said to myself, ‘This is something I want to do for the rest of my life,’” she recalls. From that moment on, she took every opportunity to work on her music as she moved forward with her hugely successful acting career, including starring in Marvel’s “Cloak & Dagger” and her current starring role in the much buzzed about thriller “Cruel Summer,” as well as making her name as an in-demand featured vocalist by guesting on tracks by heavyweights like R3HAB, Martin Jensen, Nicky Romero, and Banx & Ranx.

In the past year, OLIVIA has grown even further as an artist by venturing into songwriting and carving out her own distinct voice as a lyricist releasing her first co-written song, “love on you,” and notes, “Sometimes it’s scary to get that vulnerable, but I feel like it’s taken my creativity to a whole new place, and I’m so excited to keep exploring that more.” And with the release of new music, OLIVIA hopes that the newfound self-assurance she infused into each song might leave her listeners with a similar sense of empowerment. “My main intention was to make this album feel fun and resilient and bad-ass, in a way that I never really had with my music before,” she says. “I hope that everyone feels that when they hear these songs, and I hope it’s just as liberating for them as it was for me to create them.”

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