Laufey – All About the Girl

At just 25, singer-songwriter Laufey (Pronounced Lay-vay) won a grammy, walked the Met Gala carpet and gathered a mass audience to be part of the Laufey universe. It’s one in which the girls in the crowd don bows in their hair and ballet flats on their feet while singing their hearts out to irresistibly relatable lyrics.

Chanel top, trousers & Omega watch

Laufey and I met over our screens the morning after she played at the Hollywood Bowl. A historic venue that’s hosted some of the most iconic musicians, such as The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and Bob Dylan. Her voice was soft-spoken, on vocal rest after such a triumph the night before (one of her top goals was to perform there). Along with her Grammy award for her album Bewitched, Laufey expressed that slowly ticking goals off her list allows her to believe anything is possible.

Grammy week for Laufey was a whirlwind of events. “I think I just turned my brain off,” she says – as one would expect it to be exhilarating while still holding a profound amount of nerves. “And then it came around, and I felt like the nomination was al- ready a win for me. I was like, ’I’ll be happy for the rest of my life just being Grammy-nominated’,” she recalls. When the moment came, and she walked up to centre stage to accept her award, Laufey did something we often don’t see established artists do in that position – she introduced herself. When I asked about this, she explained; “There were so many people, and some may not have known who I was.” Even after receiving the music industry’s highest honour of achievement, Laufey stays humble. However, one more pinnacle reason she chose to address the crowd was the common mispronunciation of her name. “Just in case anyone is unsure, which I truly expect everyone to pronounce wrong, so I really don’t mind,” she says, adding, “I’d rather people say it wrong than skirt around it.”

Speaking of her name, Laufey was given to her by her parents; it comes from Norse Mythology, meaning mother of Loki, the god of mischief. Regarding her Chinese name, her parents named her Lin Bing. Bing directly translates to ice – a charming appreciation for her Icelandic heritage. Her twin sister Junia was given the Chinese name Lin Hua (Hua as in Zhong Hua, an alternative term for China). “So she’s China, and I’m Iceland; our parents thought they ate,” she jokes, as we laugh about their creative process of naming her.

Tory Burch dress, The Row shoes

Louis Vuitton dress

Although Laufey’s childhood was spent in Iceland, she was raised in a traditional Chinese household, which sometimes caused her to feel a little lost around the peers she grew up with. It wasn’t until she moved to the United States, initially for college, that she finally felt connected to her Chinese heritage. “I felt so alone growing up in Iceland, but the second I came to America, I didn’t feel alone anymore,” she says. “There are so many kids who grew up with strict Chinese parents here and went to a super white high school. It’s a specific experience, but it’s something many people have gone through.” It’s the magic of Los Angeles and the Asian communities there that allowed Laufey to finally feel accepted. We reminisced on one of the first moments in which she felt a sense of belonging; it was at her first headline show: “I looked out into the crowd, and I was like, ’Oh my God, this is so diverse,’ a lot of Asian and mixed Asian kids, I thought to myself, ’Wow, they’re just like me’”.

The journey of finding a connection to her Chinese heritage has led her to advocate for more Asian role models in the industry. It’s the most crucial factor for her as she continues to rise in her stardom. “The single most inspiring thing for a young kid is to very directly look up to somebody who has a similar background and think, ’If they did it, I could do it’.” This reinforces the importance of role models. “Having role models is everything, and I didn’t have someone to look up to like that when I was younger. Maybe if I did, then I would have believed in myself a little bit earlier. I didn’t believe in myself until I started putting out music.” It’s one of the reasons Laufey felt confident in pursuing a career in classical music. “Because there were so many incredible classical musicians I could look up to. So you always know it’s a possibility when you see someone similar to you in those shoes,” she shares.

Alessandra Rich top, skirt & socks, Omega watch, Cartier earrings & necklace

Bite Studios skirt & shirt, Lacoste shorts, Jimmy Choo shoes

Chanel top, trousers & earrings, Omega watch

A major part of Laufey’s charm is her lyrics that resonate with young women in our generation, which, as a result, has garnered her over six million followers on TikTok; she’s coined them as ’the Lauvers’. Laufey started to explore writing in college, describing it as both healing and a form of therapy for her. We’ve seen the celebration of girlhood online, praising women for tapping into their inner girl and honouring their desires. It’s been seen through fashion trends such as ribbons, bows and ballet flats – a part of the uniforms Lauvers wear. She notices it too. “It’s back [girlhood], in the same forms as it was back when it was old-fashioned, but now we find strength in it rather than weakness,” she says. Flashback to the night before at the Hollywood Bowl; “There were thousands of girls running around in long skirts and ribbons in their hair and in ballet flats. There’s so much strength in this, which we didn’t find before, but we’ve just taken what’s ours and made it strong.” Although she doesn’t credit the rise of girlhood to herself, Laufey is undeniably one of the leading influences.

While Laufey wraps up her tour, we’re also overjoyed to learn that she’s started writing her third album. “I have a really clear idea of what I want it to be, so I’m excited to have it manifest into something other than an idea,” she says.