September 8, 2023—Bewitched, the highly-anticipated new album from acclaimed Los Angeles-based Icelandic-Chinese artist, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Laufey, is now available worldwide via AWAL.
The album’s breakaway hit single, “From The Start,” has seen a meteoric rise since its release. It topped 1 million streams in less than 24 hours upon release and continues to garner 1.75 million streams per day across DSPs, with 120 million global streams to date. “From The Start” is currently the most streamed jazz song in the world. Watch / share the visualizer for new focus track “Lovesick” HERE. See full track list below.
On September 10, fans from across the world are invited to enjoy “A Very Laufey Day”—a curated “Laufey-inspired day” tailored to their city. Fans will be encouraged to go out and complete various hand-picked activities in each market, alongside a broader generic checklist that can be completed anywhere in the world. Every activity is matched to a song on the album paired with a prompt, and pulled through to a central gallery housed on https://averylaufeyday.com/.
Furthemore, Laufey will celebrate the new album with ‘The Bewitched Tour,’ which kicks off next month. The completely sold-out tour will make stops at iconic venues throughout North America including two nights at San Francisco’s Fillmore, Chicago’s Thalia Hall, New York City’s Town Hall, and Los Angeles’ Theatre at the Ace Hotel. Laufey’s performance at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra tonight and at The Ford with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on September 16 are both sold out as well. She will also perform with the China Philharmonic Orchestra at the Beijing Music Festival on September 26. Full tour routing below.
Laufey (pronounced lāy-vāy) is looking to bridge the gap between the past and the present, the history books and social media, the Reykjavik concert hall Harpa and the Los Angeles rock dive Troubadour, by writing, recording, and performing songs that are truly timeless, inspired by jazz greats and classical masters while possessing a point of view that could only be conveyed by a 21st-century twentysomething. Laufey explains, “As a musician, my goal is to bring jazz and classical music to my generation through a more accessible road.”
Raised between Reykjavík and Washington, D.C. with annual visits to Beijing, the Icelandic-Chinese artist grew up playing cello as well as piano and became hooked on the jazz standards of Ella Fitzgerald after digging through her father’s record collection. 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. Following the release of her 2021 Typical of Me EP, Laufey was named Best New Artist in Jazz and Blues at the Icelandic Music Awards and hosted her own show on BBC Radio 3/BBC Sounds. Laufey’s 2022 debut full-length, Everything I Know About Love reached #1 on Billboard’s Alternative New Artist Album chart, and she was the most streamed jazz artist on Spotify that year. Today, she has over 700 million streams across all platforms and is the biggest streaming artist from Iceland in the world.
