- The Icelandic star opens up about her journey to the top, from growing up in Iceland to her childhood love of jazz music and show tunes
- She also addresses a viral 2014 clip of her on Ísland Got Talent, saying she’s proud to have stayed true to herself as an artist
- Laufey also talks about performing with Role Model in Los Angeles and being friends with stars like Olivia Rodrigo
The drive from Los Angeles into the desert for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was dotted with a number of billboards, each cleverly advertising an artist with a scheduled slot.
Among them was a photo of a 25-year-old singer, shot in the close-up, imperfect style favored by Gen Z.
“Still struggling with my name? Visit SayLaufey.com to learn,” the billboard read, offering festivalgoers a cheeky, on-brand introduction to Laufey, the Icelandic singer bewitching listeners with her sultry, jazz-inspired sound.
A visit to the website offers just one clip: a snippet from Laufey’s visit to The Graham Norton Show, where she taught stars including Timothée Chalamet and Andrew Garfield how to pronounce her name (She later did the same with Kelly Clarkson).
“I’m very proud of my name. I’m named after my great-grandmother, so I think if somebody would’ve told me to change it, I would’ve told them to f— off,” she tells PEOPLE. “Listen, it was worth it for the billboard alone!”
Such humor perfectly encapsulates who Laufey is as an artist: deeply inspired by her roots, but with a modern twist. Her 2022 debut album introduced fans to her dulcet tones, and she broke through with her vintage sound a year later with the album Bewitched, which won a Grammy Award for best traditional pop vocal album. Earlier this month, she released the single “Silver Lining,” the first off her upcoming third album, which again showcases her knack for making even the most modern of feelings sound classic.
“I’ve always been a very open book. I’ll tell someone my whole life story within the first 20 minutes of meeting them,” she says. “It’s worth it if people relate to it, because then it just makes them feel less crazy. I really write for the young woman, because I am a young woman.”
Laufey grew up in Reykjavik, Iceland, the daughter of a classical musician mom and a dad who loved jazz music. She hardly even knew pop music existed, and was instead enthralled by classical sounds, jazz and show tunes like The Sound of Music.
“When I started singing, I just immediately started trying to sing Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, and Peggy Lee, and all these jazz singers of the ‘40s to the ‘50s to ‘60s,” she says. “I didn’t really think much of it. My parents just literally did not listen to any new music, so I was just not really aware of it.”
The isolation of Iceland, where she was raised alongside her twin sister Junia, a creative director and violinist, certainly had an effect on the music she’d go on to make, as its small population meant a small community of musicians, which meant “everybody just plays on each other’s records,” she explains. In doing so, the lines between genres became blurred; her mom played on everything from Beethoven symphonies to heavy metal records.
The family lived briefly in Washington, D.C. up until she was 2 years old, and then again from ages 6 to 8. She says her time in the States had a “huge impact,” as they were formative years, and she returned at age 19 to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Through it all, Laufey’s authenticity has put her in a league of her own. She ascribes to no one genre, though her music is often described as jazz or jazz pop, or pop with classical and jazz influences.
“I think [Gen Z] care[s] about relating to lyrics and relating to artists and relating to sounds,” she says. “They care about feeling a certain type of way and setting moods, and jazz music is so great for that.”
Getting to this point of confidence in herself and in her music, though, was a long time coming. In 2014, when she was 14, Laufey competed on the Iceland version of Got Talent, and went on to become a finalist.
A clip of her on the show recently went viral on TikTok, showing her in thick black glasses belting a cover of Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You” in a voice nearly unrecognizable to her current tone.
Laufey admits now that she finds the clip embarrassing, as her stint on the show came at “such a vulnerable time” in her life. She recalls how the high of appearing on Got Talent quickly plummeted into a low, as other contestants secured modeling contracts and producer connections, and she did not.
“I was kind of known as this singer that was a little bit odd, and I had an older voice. When I was 14, I just wanted to be a girl. So when I see a video of myself from then, my heart aches for her, but also is so excited for her because I didn’t change any of my dreams. I didn’t change up my genre to do what I do now,” she says.
Though the experience was clearly once a sore spot, Laufey says that now, she sees it as a benchmark that helps her better understand just how far she’s come.
“I hope it inspires people and inspires other singers to chase their dreams. I did everything in my power to try to become a singer. “I signed up for every single singing competition and talent show, and really wanted to put myself out there,” she says. “I never gave up, so I mean, I’m happy I did that. It’s so cool to feel that I’ve been able to stay me while still succeeding.”
So far, that success is showing no signs of slowing down. After performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Coachella, she’s set to play at the New Orleans Jazz Festival on May 3, which she calls a “dream” gig.
Then there’s her recent surprise appearance at a Role Model concert in Los Angeles, where she joined the star for his song “The Longest Goodbye” (Junia previously played violin with the “Look at That Woman” singer at his show in London in November).
Laufey says she and Role Model (né Tucker Pillsbury) share a producer in Spencer Stewart, and have recently become friends, as they both live in Los Angeles.
“His new album really resonated with me,” she says. “He strikes a fun chord between being hilarious and cool, but also just being a good musician. He’s a really good writer. I heard the song ‘The Longest Goodbye’ and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is so me.’ And so he asked me to sing on stage, and I was like, ‘Of course.’”
She’s also pals with Olivia Rodrigo, and supported the star at the premiere of her Netflix special GUTS World Tour in October.
“It’s so cool. It’s not something that I would expect with the kind of music I make, it’s really fun,” she says of befriending fellow young musicians. “It’s fun to be able to get advice and it’s good to have that community. We go through so many of the same things. But mostly I just love that I get to go to their concerts, and I get to know the lore behind the songs. The second a friend drops a song I’m like, ‘Okay, what’s the tea?’”
Laufey also has a friendly relationship with her fans, who connect with her through her book club (selections have included A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell) and her TikTok, where she shows off her goofy humor to some 8 million followers.
The comments section of her posts are a place of joy, often filled with inside jokes known only to those who have been in the Laufey fandom for some time; she joins them frequently.
“My fans are so funny. If I’m bored, I go read my comments and I’m on the floor laughing. I love interacting with them in the comments. It’s my favorite thing,” she says. “The amount of times I’m like, ‘Is this too unhinged? Am I pushing it now?’ I definitely feel like an artist, don’t get me wrong, but I am still just a music lover and I’m still kind of a teenager inside who just scrolls TikTok and Instagram all day. I just want to be a part of it! I’m like, ‘Don’t leave me out.’”
As she heads out of her Bewitched era and onto something new, the star has one thing on her mind: keep being Laufey.
“No matter what sounds I’m using or instruments, to me, the song and the words and how they make me feel are kind of the most important part,” she says. “I just let myself tell my story no matter what.”
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