Acclaimed Los Angeles-based Icelandic-Chinese artist, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Laufey celebrates her first GRAMMY nomination this year! She has been nominated alongside the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Liz Callaway in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category.
She is also featured as part of this year’s all-new slate of Holiday-themed Spotify Singles. For her single, Laufey’s cover is an homage to the classic “Winter Wonderland”, which she describes as capturing “the essence and warmth of Christmastime at my family’s home in Iceland.” Listen to the track here.
This single release and incredible milestone comes with the announcement that Laufey has extended her deal with label partner AWAL. After the widely successful release of her record-breaking and now GRAMMY-nominated album ‘Bewitched‘, Laufey will continue her partnership with the burgeoning record company.
“AWAL’s steadfast commitment to my creative autonomy has been essential in providing me the space and freedom to create music on my own terms. Their drive and progressive vision for the music industry runs through the company, and I’m over the moon to extend our partnership.”
Laufey (pronounced lāy-vāy) was raised between Reykjavík and Washington, D.C. with annual visits to Beijing. In 2020, while still a student at Berklee College of Music, Laufey released her debut single “Street by Street,” which went on to top the Icelandic radio charts. In 2022, she released her debut full-length, ‘Everything I Know About Love’, which reached #1 on Billboard’s Alternative New Artist Album chart, featuring the popular track “Valentine” that peaked at #1 on the Spotify Jazz Chart.
Her critically-acclaimed sophomore album ‘Bewitched’ was released in September, breaking the record as the biggest debut for a jazz album on Spotify in history. It debuted at #2 on Spotify’s Global and U.S. Album Charts, as well as #23 on the Billboard 200 (just behind the debuts from Olivia Rodrigo, and V from BTS), #1 on Billboard’s Independent Albums Chart, #1 on Current Traditional Jazz Albums Chart, and was recently nominated for “Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album” at the 66th GRAMMY Awards.
The album’s hit single “From The Start,” is currently the most streamed jazz song in the U.S. this year. Laufey is in the midst of her sold-out North American tour, with further UK/EU sold-out dates next year. Today, she has over 1 billion streams across all platforms and is the biggest streaming artist from Iceland in the world.