Budding Icelandic superstar Laufey isn’t a household name. Her music is household music, but if you drove to Coachella this year, billboards clued attendees in to exactly why her name isn’t instantly known: most people just pronounce it wrong. Once you figure out how to say “Laufey” out loud (“Lay-vay” is the easiest approximation), you realize that there might not be a singer rising faster in all of music.
And, for her part, Laufey is well aware at just how fast this is all happening. During the second of two sold-out concerts at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, the artist reflected on the three-year journey that saw her leveling up from The Troubadour in West Hollywood to this massive downtown venue. Laufey noted that performing in front of maybe 500 people a few years earlier felt like a worthwhile peak at the time, and that if it all ended there, it would be enough. She also noted that she didn’t have a proper chance to reflect at the time. Now, in front of an arena audience, she’s not making that mistake again.
There’s plenty about Laufey’s success that might feel surprising. As a Berklee-trained musician, she can play cello, piano, and guitar. Her style incorporates jazz and classical elements, while everything from bossa nova to Aaron Dessner-produced acoustic-pop is on the table in her catalog. This year, she made a surprise appearance at Coachella, not guesting with a big tent DJ, but being accompanied by the LA Philharmonic. Even when introducing the tender ballad “Let You Break My Heart Again,” she acknowledged how her music could seem hard to relate to for people of her age group, making the massive resonance her music is finding feel like a miracle.
Because looking around the audience on Saturday night, it was obvious that something was bringing people together from all demographics and age ranges. The crowd was definitely teen-heavy, with plenty of parental chaperones there. But there were also people of her own age, wearing their Oddli crowns and sporting their just-purchased Laufey merch. Many even did Laufey cosplay, which led to a portion of the show where Mei Mei, her bunny mascot/alterego, looked for the best-dressed fan at the concert. This night’s winner was a child who looked like a Laufey mini-me, complete with both princess and flapper dresses to combine Laufey’s biggest style inspos.
Laufey was just revealed to have a major slot at next year’s Coachella, where she’ll reach another career milestone and bring her old-timey sounds to even more of her peers. And some might see this as a fad, as part of the never-ending trend where old becomes new again. But that discounts the obvious talent of the songwriter, her genius ways of engaging young audiences through social media (she won multiple Webbys in 2024), and just how engaging and addictive her music is. “Castle In Hollywood” could easily fit in a Gracie Abrams set as a propulsive bit of confessional indie-pop, while “From The Start” evokes Caetano Veloso more than it does any of her contemporaries, to the tune of nearly a billion plays on Spotify.
It’s all very heartening, that young people remain open to music that might surprise the powers that be. Sometimes, quality indeed rises to the top, especially when it is made by savvy creators who know how to capture the attention of their own generation.
