Long before the Icelandic-Chinese artist Laufey became recognised the world over for her neoclassical-jazz-meets-pop music, she was a student answering a familiar yearbook prompt: โWhere do you see yourself in 10 years?โ
Her answer: move to the United States, sign a record deal and win a Grammy. The 26-year-old has done all three.
โI must have been so confident to write that because I remember that being a very far-sought kind of thing,โ the musician born Laufey Lin Jonsdottir says.
Those are not her only accomplishments: She has collaborated with Barbra Streisand and shared the stage with Hozier, Noah Kahan and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Laufeyโs third album, A Matter of Time, out August 22, is an unexpected nonconformist to the rules of contemporary pop, pulling inspiration from country and Icelandic folk music as well as classical and bossa nova sounds.