Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir (Icelandic: [ˈlœiːvei ˈliːn ˈjounstouhtɪr̥]; born April 23, 1999), known by the mononym Laufey [ˈlœiːvei], is an Icelandic singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who became popular in the early 2020s. She describes her musical style, a mixture of jazz pop and bedroom pop, as modern jazz.

Laufey participated in The Voice Iceland in 2015. She released her debut EP Typical of Me in 2021, before releasing her debut album Everything I Know About Love in 2022.

Early life and education

Laufey Lín Jónsdottír was born on April 23, 1999. Her father is Icelandic and her mother is Chinese. Her Chinese family is 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 who goes by the name of Junia Jonsdottir. She spent her childhood moving between Reykjavík and Washington, D.C.

At age 15, she performed as a cello soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Although she was influenced by and played classical music 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.

While in Iceland, Laufey participated in the 2014 season of Ísland Got Talent—the Icelandic version of America’s Got Talent—and 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 from the Berklee College of Music in 2021. She currently resides in Los Angeles.