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His upcoming track is a ballad of love. Really? She sings those?” Laufey is gently illuminated, holding a bright red electric guitar over a crisp white top. Despite her dry wit, she is about to serenade the audience with another enchanting love song from her latest album, Bewitched, which just won the Grammy for best traditional pop.
Combining elements of jazz and classical music with pop, Laufey creates dreamy and nostalgic songs that revolve around themes of love, longing, and heartache. Despite her cynical lyrics, her music has a cinematic quality that transports listeners into a world of wine-stained kisses, mysterious strangers, and romantic drama. In her latest track, “Dreamer”, the 24-year-old singer declares her decision to give up on dating, singing “I’m done with the lifeless conversations” – but the whimsical arrangement suggests a theatrical flair, as if it’s the moment before the leading lady is swept off her feet.
Since her introduction in 2021, the musician from Iceland and China, who has a classical background, has received somewhat condescending praise for “introducing” jazz to the younger generation. However, this diminishes Laufey’s ability to tell stories through her pop music and underestimates the dedication of her fans. At her sold-out show tonight, the audience sings along reverently to her unique, sweet contralto and goes wild for her cello solos, showing the same enthusiasm usually reserved for confetti cannons at a pop concert.
Laufey exudes a lounge-singer charm as she gracefully moves through her bossa nova track “From the Start”. She also teams up with her twin sister, who plays the violin, to deliver a sweet rendition of “Best Friend”. Adding a touch of jazz to the mix, Laufey performs “Like the Movies” and even includes a nod to the classic “Misty”. While her self-proclaimed traditional style may make her songs overly mellow at times, she breaks through the monotony with a more intense version of “Lovesick”, which brings a new dynamic and hints at potential future experimentation.
Laufey acknowledges that her younger self lacked confidence, as she presents Letter to My 13 Year Old Self with a sense of accomplishment. Standing alone on stage without the accompaniment of strings, Laufey sings as if she is looking at herself in a mirror. As she sings, “One day you’ll be up on stage, little girls will scream your name,” her fans do just that, fulfilling her childhood dream like a scene from a Broadway show. She then adds with a wide smile, “and you’ll even win a Grammy!” This subdued ballad is the true fairytale of the night.
Source: theguardian.com
