It’s six hours before showtime and a queue of teenagers already lines the street outside east London’s EartH arts venue. They are sitting patiently on the pavement and finishing their homework or playing Uno, hoping to get to the front of the stage for the first of three sold-out shows by 24-year-old singer-songwriter Laufey Jónsdóttir. Overhead, the grey February afternoon threatens to break into rain.
Sitting in her dressing room, adorned in a beautiful gingham dress, Jónsdóttir appears unconcerned about the high levels of excitement surrounding her.
“Ever since we started hosting headline shows in 2021, they have consistently sold out,” she explains. “I never feel nervous before performing, because once I’m on stage, it’s an instant release to sing and engage with the live audience. It’s the most rewarding aspect of being a musician.”
Laufey, also known as Jónsdóttir, has consistently sold out her shows since the release of her debut single, Street By Street, four years ago. Her amazing achievements include a massive following on social media, with over 4 million TikTok followers and 2 million Instagram followers, and being the most streamed artist from Iceland in 2023, surpassing even Björk and Sigur Rós. She has also performed to sold-out crowds of over 60,000 people worldwide and collaborated with artists such as Norah Jones and Beabadoobee. She has gained recognition from notable figures like Billie Eilish, who congratulated her when she won the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in February, making her the youngest person to achieve this feat. Her upcoming world tour will include performances at prestigious venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, a tour of Europe, a trip to the US, and even a performance with the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra in the Philippines. As expected, all her shows are already sold out.
Laufey’s swift rise to fame is impressive, but even more remarkable is the unique genre of music she creates. Through her two albums, Everything I Know About Love (2022) and Bewitched (2023), she has perfected a blend of classic jazz vocals from the 1950s, accompanied by rich symphonic orchestrations and personal, Taylor Swift-esque songwriting. This new style of pop has been well-received and draws comparisons to Norah Jones, while also appealing to a teenage audience on platforms like TikTok. Laufey’s heartfelt tunes harken back to a nostalgic, sepia-toned world that many young listeners have not experienced before.
She states, “My music draws from older influences, but the lyrics are current.” She doesn’t view herself as someone who belongs in a previous era. She embraces being a 21st-century woman, as she believes it is the best time to be one.
Indeed, Laufey’s songwriting takes in every aspect of modern romance, from tales of spying a crush on the tube (From the Start) to the emotional perils of situationships (Promise), all couched in the warmth of her low-register, Ella Fitzgerald-referencing vocals.
The speaker believes that being a musician is extremely advantageous currently because audiences are more receptive than ever. There are numerous platforms available for listening to various genres of music, and the focus has shifted from genres to emotional response. Ultimately, younger generations prefer to listen to their peers rather than being lectured by older individuals.
Display photo in full screen view.
Laufey and her identical twin sister, Júnía, were raised in music due to their Icelandic father and Chinese mother. Their mother is a violinist in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and their maternal grandparents held positions as professors of violin and piano. Laufey was introduced to jazz records from her father’s collection and classical music through her mother’s devotion to the genre. At the age of two, Laufey received her first violin and then began piano lessons at four and cello lessons at eight. She initially needed encouragement to pursue music, but at 13, she found a passion for it.
As she became a teenager, Laufey joined a youth orchestra where music became not only a means of escapism, but also a social activity. Being one of the few people of color in her community, it allowed her to feel less isolated.
She confessed feeling out of place as one of the few Asians in Iceland and having spent some of her childhood in the United States from the ages of six to nine. Additionally, she was a studious musician and didn’t have typical friend hangouts after school. Instead, she dedicated her time to practicing music, viewing it as a potential pathway to the larger spheres of the United States or United Kingdom.
At the age of 15, she excelled as a solo celloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and also competed in the Icelandic reality show, “Ísland Got Talent”, making it to the final round which was televised. She recalls being very disciplined during high school, abstaining from alcohol and parties, as she was focused on her goal of studying at a foreign university on a full scholarship.
After putting in a lot of effort, she was able to achieve her goals. At the young age of 19, she left her family to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston with a prestigious Presidential scholarship. This marked the beginning of two years filled with new experiences: living on her own for the first time without her twin sister, studying jazz instead of classical music, and having her first romantic relationships. She reflects with joy, “It was my first taste of independence, no longer being part of a pair, and truly living as a woman. I wanted to experience life and grow, and suddenly I had all these new stories to write about.”
Display the image in full screen mode.
Laufey had been adding new experiences of love, disappointment, and yearning to her repertoire when the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted her plans. She explains, “As musicians, we had no gigs or venues to perform at, so the only option was to share our art on the internet.” Taking advantage of the lockdown, she began posting videos of herself singing her new songs and was pleasantly surprised by how well they were received. Through this, she was able to gain a following of young listeners.
In April 2020, she independently released Street By Street, a plaintive, folk-influenced ballad about reclaiming a city from its memories of an ex. But it wasn’t until Laufey made a TikTok video singing her song Valentine the following year that she fully went viral. “It’s just a jazz song that I wrote on Valentine’s Day, kind of as a joke, but once I posted it, my phone started blowing up,” she says. “Now it’s become like a new standard. It’s fun that a song I wrote as a homage to the past can be understood as new music.”
In essence, Laufey’s music resonates with listeners by using familiar sounds to evoke a longing for a past era that her young fans have never experienced. Though her first album, Everything I Know About Love, was primarily made up of songs written in her Berklee dorm room, her newest release, Bewitched, showcases Laufey’s growth in her musical abilities as she takes on co-producing and composing classical music for the first time while remaining an independent artist without a major label deal.
“I have matured as a person, which is reflected in the music,” she states. “Every note on the songs is personally played while I am present in the room, utilizing real instruments. Our goal is to introduce classical and jazz music to unfamiliar audiences.”
One standout track on the album is the poignant jazz ballad Letter To My 13 Year Old Self, in which Laufey expresses her youthful insecurities through soft vocals. She shares, “As a child, I always felt out of place. I felt like an outsider because I had a deep voice and there were very few Asian singer-songwriters for me to admire and aspire to.” With her head lowered, she explains the inspiration behind the song: “I wrote Letter To My 13 Year Old Self as a reflection on my big dreams that seemed unattainable at the time. I didn’t feel cool or pretty enough. Now, I have many young fans who share similar aspirations and I want to give them encouragement.”
When performing at EartH in Hackney, over 1,200 fans belted out a loud cheer as Laufey covered a range of songs, including the 40s jazz classic I Wish You Love and her own modern hit Valentine. As she finished her set, she addressed the crowd, singing her song Letter To My 13 Year Old Self. “I finally feel like I’ve become the artist I was missing in my youth, and it brings me so much joy,” she said, her voice trembling. “Looking out at my audience every night, it feels like the community I always longed for but never had.” Her fans cheered and some were even moved to tears, nodding in agreement with each other. It appears that the wait for this show was well worth it.
Source: theguardian.com
