It was met with critical acclaim and garnered Laufey's first-ever Grammy Award nomination and win, for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, where she performed with Billy Joel on his closing number, "Turn the Lights Back On."
Although Laufey was influenced by classical music, classical artists such as Frédéric Chopin, and played it from an early age, she turned to her father's records of female jazz musicians such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday to develop her musical style.
She has cited Fitzgerald and Chet Baker as her biggest artistic influences, naming the former as her favorite musician.
Laufey also cited Taylor Swift, Norah Jones, and Adele as inspirations for her musicianship; she said "[Swift] has done for pop and country what I hope to do for jazz. She has managed to unite people across the world which is one of my main goals as a musician."
1999
Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir (, ; born 23 April 1999), known mononymously as Laufey, is an Icelandic singer-songwriter and record producer.
Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir was born on 23 April 1999 in Reykjavík.
Her father is Icelandic and her mother is Chinese, hailing from Guangzhou.
Her mother is a classical violinist and her grandfather, Lin Yaoji, was a violin educator at the Central Conservatory of Music in China, which Laufey credits as partly inspiring her love of music.
She has an identical twin sister named Júnía Lín Jónsdóttir, who is a violinist and serves as her creative director.
2008
She lived in Washington, D.C., for two years and then moved back to Reykjavík in 2008, where she studied at the Álftamýrarskóli.
Laufey started learning the piano at the age of four and the cello at the age of eight.
2014
Having performed as a cello soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at age 15, Laufey was a finalist in the 2014 edition of Iceland's Got Talent, and a semi-finalist on The Voice Iceland the following year.
She released her debut EP, Typical of Me (2021), and graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Her debut album, Everything I Know About Love (2022), charted in Iceland and the United States.
Its follow-up, Bewitched (2023), won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards (2024) and performed its single, "From the Start", which found moderate chart success in Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
While in Iceland, Laufey participated in the 2014 edition of Ísland Got Talent—the Icelandic version of Got Talent—where she ended as a finalist.
The following year she also appeared as a contestant on The Voice Iceland and reached the semi-finals.
At the time, she was the youngest competitor in the series' history.
Laufey graduated with a presidential scholarship from the Berklee College of Music in 2021.
As of October 2023, she resides in Los Angeles.
2018
She graduated from the Reykjavík College of Music, where she also studied singing, in 2018.
She spent her childhood moving between Reykjavík and Washington, D.C., as well as visiting Beijing.
At age 15, Laufey performed as a cello soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.
2020
She achieved prominence in the early 2020s for her success as a jazz-inspired pop artist, with critics noting that her jazz-inflected songs have received considerable success for a genre that has largely declined commercially.
On 6 April 2020, Laufey released her debut single, "Street by Street", where it charted at number one on Icelandic Radio.
She then launched her first EP, Typical of Me, the following year on 30 April 2021.
It includes "Street by Street" and six other songs, where many of these tracks were written in her college dorm room.
Rolling Stone particularly praised her rendition of "I Wish You Love".
American Songwriter included the EP in its list of best albums of 2021.
Additionally, Typical of Me received attention from musicians such as Willow Smith and Billie Eilish.
The same year, Laufey hosted a weekly music show on BBC Radio 3 during spring and summer (and once again during December for a Christmas special) called Happy Harmonies on which she highlighted uplifting music in a wide variety of genres.
In November, Laufey performed at the London Jazz Festival.
Around the same time, she collaborated with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, to release her song "Let You Break My Heart Again".
In December, she collaborated with singer Dodie to release another single, "Love To Keep Me Warm", their cover of "Winter Weather" by Ted Shapiro.
2022 marked Laufey's United States network television debut when she appeared as the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on 21 January; there, she played her song "Like the Movies" from Typical of Me.
After five months, her debut album, Everything I Know About Love, was released on 26 August 2022 via AWAL to critical acclaim.
On Billboard's Alternative New Artist Album chart, the album peaked at number one on its debut.
In August 2023, it was announced that Laufey signed a global publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music (WCM).
The following month, her second album, Bewitched, was released on 8 September 2023.
A week before the release, she leaked the sheet music for fans to be able to pre-save the album.
