Though she only really only began releasing music of her own and finding a global audience in the 2020s, Icelandic jazz pop singer Laufey has been playing music for virtually her entire life; studying piano at four and violin at eight, and raised in a musical household (her mother is a classical violinist, and her grandmother was a violin instructor in China) where she grew up with an appreciation of classical and jazz. As a teen, Laufey performed with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and appeared on her nation’s version of Got Talent and The Voice, studying at the Reykjavík College of Music before eventually attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was during school that the incredibly talented vocalist and multi-instrumentalist began writing and recording her debut EP, Typical of Me, and amidst of the Covid lockdowns of 2020, she released her first single, “Street by Street,” and began attracting attention on TikTok, generating an impressive early following and praise from big artists like Billie Eilish, before the EP arrived in 2021.
Laufey’s debut album, Everything I Know About Love, would drop in 2022, met with widespread acclaim and followed by her first tour, with music press crediting her for helping bring jazz to Gen Z (much in the same way artists like Norah Jones did for millennials). The following year’s sophomore effort, Bewitched, was a bolder, more refined, and even more lauded followup, earning Laufey her first Grammy and scoring hit singles like “From the Start.” Her dreamy, soulful, timeless take on jazz pop and modern classical music has helped Laufey find a niche few artists her age (she’s now 26) have dared to explore, and in recent years her profile has skyrocketed, performing to increasingly larger crowds, releasing two live symphonic albums and a pair of holiday EPs, and remaining a critical darling for her genre-bending, earnest, and beautiful sound.
Her latest album, A Matter of Time, is another masterful work, and was once again met with critical acclaim, featuring the influence of in-demand producer Aaron Dessner, but never straying from the jazz and traditntal pop foundation of her prior releases. Laufey has made her way to Music City once a year for the last four, starting with an intimate show at The End in 2022, graduating to Riverside Revival in 2023, and making her headlining debut at The Ryman last year, but her latest Nashville outing should leave no doubt about just how much her career has taken off recently: tonight, Oct. 13, Laufey headlines Bridgestone Arena, along with English actress, model, and pop singer Suki Waterhouse. Tickets are still available right here while they last, and though a jazz show in an arena doesn’t have the coziness of The Ryman, it’s still sure to be one of the coolest shows of the fall.
Laufey and Suki Waterhouse perform tonight, Oct. 13 at Bridgestone Arena. The show is all ages, begins at 7:30 p.m. (6 p.m. doors), and tickets are available for $62.25-150.25.
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