Montreal International Jazz Festival | Laufey: Bringing Jazz Back into the Modern Age

Laufey is a beautiful anomaly. The jazz singer is one of the most popular artists on TikTok, the platform for 18- to 34-year-olds. With viral videos (and Grammy awards), the Icelandic singer is bringing the genre back into fashion and making young music lovers nostalgic for a time they never knew.

The one we didn’t expect

Laufey’s (pronounced lāy-vāy) rise to fame, especially among young people, is a story of both unexpected success and the hard work of a determined artist. Because while she might not have been expected in the mainstream music world, where jazz is hard to find in the top ranks, it’s not entirely by chance that Laufey has gotten to where she is today—with a Grammy to her name, a world tour underway, and nearly 6 million TikTok followers—at just 25 years old. Born in Reykjavik to an Icelandic father and a Chinese mother, Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir, her full name, was predestined for music: her mother is a classical violinist, her grandfather was a violin professor at the Conservatory of Music in China, and her twin sister is also a violinist. At the age of 4 she started playing the piano, at 8 she started playing the cello, and then graduated from the Reykjavik College of Music. At 15 she was a cello soloist in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Around the same time she made it to the finals of the TV show Island Got Talentthen in the semi-final, the following year, of The Voice Iceland. These first forays into mainstream broadcasts began his transition from the more reclusive world of classical and jazz music to that of popular music. His goal was clear: to bring jazz to the ears of the widest possible audience. [Taylor Swift] did for pop and country music what I hope to do for jazz, she explained to the magazine Billboardin a 2023 interview. She managed to bring people from all over the world together [autour de sa musique], which is one of my main goals as a musician. »

The TikTok formula

As with many recent popular success stories, the TikTok platform has a lot to do with Laufey’s success. Gen Z loves the Icelandic artist’s music, a jazz pop that blends with classical music, between the old school and modernity, while putting forward a unique and contemporary voice which has no label. Her text-stories, à la Taylor Swift, also have everything to please. The one who started building her audience on social media during the pandemic (when she released her song Street by Street) has never stopped nurturing this vein. She began posting covers of jazz classics, from Ella Fitzgerald to Billie Holiday, on Instagram and TikTok. Soon, record company representatives noticed his growing popularity and made him offers. She surrounded herself with a team, continued to build her musical and public identity, continuing to focus mainly on social networks, interacting with her fans and regularly publishing new videos. She now has 13.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Nearly 4 million people follow her on Instagram. His Tiny Desk concert (to see!) has 3.5 million views on YouTube. “Even if you gave me all the money in the world, I don’t think I could come up with a better strategy than Laufey’s,” his agent, Max Gredinger, commented to the magazine Billboard. A jazz ambassador on TikTok, Laufey nevertheless has a reach that quickly ended up transcending the limits of the platform to reach the “real world”. The proof: her second album, Bewitched, has ranked very high in sales in several countries since its release last September (notably at number one on the American Indie and Jazz chart). If his TikTok videos work happily, Laufey also convinces young listeners to listen to his music elsewhere than in catchy clips lasting a few seconds, giving jazz a modern air again.

Laufey – Street by Street

A Grammy Award and Other Accolades

After his first album Everything I Know About Love (2022), the one she released just a year later, Bewitchedearned Laufey her first Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Album. She follows in the footsteps of Joni Mitchell, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Natalie Cole, who have all received the award in the past. In addition to winning over social media, Laufey has now gained recognition that no one can deny. While jazz has not been so appreciated for a long time, Laufey’s success seems to be part of a whole new trend that is also seen in the popularity of young American jazz singer Samara Joy, who received the Grammy Award for Best New Artist last year and who is also selling out concert halls, particularly in Montreal. But Laufey is even more present in pop music. Artists like Billie Eilish and Willow Smith have praised her work, accolades that have helped propel her rise. Many magazines have published flattering profiles describing her unexpected success. Many agree that Laufey makes young listeners nostalgic for a time they never really knew, the time when jazz was in vogue, tickling that increasingly common fiber that wants young audiences to be interested in what is ” vintage » (in fashion, in music, in literature, etc.). “I have the impression of having become the artist that I lacked when I was younger and that makes me really happy,” Laufey said during an interview this year with the Guardian. Every night I look out at my crowd, I feel like I’ve built the community I always wanted but never had. »

Laufey – Falling Behind

Repeatedly closed counters

Laufey’s admirers are also there in concert halls, another sign of his phenomenal success beyond social platforms. Its audience is young and devoted. It is those who follow her on TikTok who buy her concert tickets. “Since my first shows in 2021, they have always been sold out,” she noted to the Guardian. “I don’t get nervous before I play, because as soon as I’m on stage, it’s an immediate release to be able to sing and connect with the audience. That’s what I like best about being a musician,” she added. As if she were born for it, the singer demonstrates an ease that can only captivate. On stage, she plays the piano, cello, electric guitar or sometimes lets her voice carry all the emotions she conveys in her music. The Montreal public will also be treated to two performances in two different venues during the Jazz Festival… on a single day.

Laufey, June 29, at 2 p.m. at the Maison symphonique, then at 7:30 p.m. at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier

Check out the event page