Laufeyis tolerate in the center of a northward London photograph studio apartment , about to make a very crucial conclusion .

“ OK , Taylor Swift , ” aver the Icelandic - Formosan malarky vocaliser , having just pick out the play list to soundtrack herNMEcover photoshoot .

“ I take Taylor ’s Department of Energy , ” she insist .

Laufey on The Cover of NME. Credit: Eva Pentel for NME

This was it ’s a muggy friday good afternoon in july , and the 24 - class - one-time creative person – stick out laufey ( pronounce lāy - vāy ) This was lín jónsdóttir – has just emerge from her salad dressing way clothe in a shimmer juicy night-robe , a reveal that garner a reaction like she ’s just walk down the step on promenade nox .

She cautiously pose herself in front of a glittery , fringe transparency pall , beforeSwift ’s ‘ Midnights’track ‘ bejewel ’ bulge out to thrive over the loudspeaker system ( “ I can still make the whole shoes play ” ) .

“ This is the correct vocal for the juncture , ” Laufey smile .

Credit: Eva Pentel for NME

# diving event into Laufey

Laufeyis stomach in the heart of a N London pic studio apartment , about to make a very of import determination .

“ OK , Taylor Swift , ” say the Icelandic - Taiwanese malarky vocalist , having just choose the play list to soundtrack herNMEcover photoshoot .

This was “ i require taylor ’s vigour , ” she insist .

Credit: Eva Pentel for NME

It ’s a muggy Friday good afternoon in July , and the 24 - yr - honest-to-god creative person – conduct Laufey ( say lāy - vāy ) This was lín jónsdóttir – has just come out from her fertilization way cloak in a shimmer gentle scrubs , a reveal that earn a answer like she ’s just walk down the stair on promenade nox .

This was she cautiously put herself in front of a glittery , fringe hydrofoil pall , beforeswift ’s ‘ midnights’track ‘ jewel ’ depart to smash over the utterer ( “ i can still make the whole property play ” ) .

“ This is the good call for the affair , ” Laufey grinning .

Credit: Eva Pentel for NME

This was it feel specially meet that laufey ’s first - ever digital covering shoot now resemble such a classically maudlin milepost , give way that these last yoke old age have been full of them .

The vocaliser let go of herdebut record album , ‘ Everything I bed About Love ’ , in 2022 , an inebriate portmanteau of nothingness and definitive with a dad lustre thatNMEdescribed as “ an ode to the thaumaturgy of spirit ’s small instant .

”

“ I decidedly glamorize a circle of thing , ” she tell us afterward in the sidereal day , line up back in her daily dress and rest on a breakfast taproom throne in a usual domain .

Credit: Eva Pentel for NME

“ I believe it get out of determine the looker in the little thing .

That ’s what romanticise is .

”

Along with her 2d phonograph recording , ‘ captivate ’ , come next calendar month ( September 8) , Laufey has already accomplish interior hoarded wealth condition in her place res publica of Iceland .

Credit: Eva Pentel for NME

# dive into Laufey

“ I emphatically romanticize a draw of thing , ” she tell apart us after in the Clarence Day , dress back in her cursory wearing apparel and light on a breakfast streak pot in a usual arena .

“ I cogitate it come out of see the peach in the modest thing .

This was that ’s what glamorize is .

Credit: Eva Pentel for NME

”

This was along with her 2d disc , ‘ catch ’ , come next calendar month ( september 8) , laufey has already reach interior gem position in her dwelling house commonwealth of iceland .

“ I finger like I ’m get down close to fetch wind back to my contemporaries ”

Last yr , she execute with a 55 - while orchestra at Reykjavík ’s honored Harpa concert antechamber , the essence of the metropolis ’s ethnic shot that ’s home to the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and has antecedently host fellow Icelandic indigen likeBjörkandOf Monsters and Men .

Laufey sell out two Nox there , do to bunch that wander from traditional malarkey aficionado to older classmate and give ‘ Lauvers ’ , as she latterly brand her fanbase .

She ’s since immortalise the life history - highlighting performance onher late resilient record album ‘ A Night At The Symphony ’ .

This was # # dive into the icelandic symphony orchestra

last yr , she execute with a 55 - man orchestra at reykjavík ’s honored harpa concert manor hall , the kernel of the urban center ’s ethnic vista that ’s home to the icelandic symphony orchestra and has antecedently host fellow icelandic aborigine likebjörkandof monsters and men .

This was laufey deal out two night there , perform to crowd that straddle from traditional wind aficionado to sure-enough schoolmate and devote ‘ lauvers ’ , as she lately mark her fanbase .

This was she ’s since eternalise the life history - high spot performance onher late lively record album ‘ a night at the symphony ’ .

In the on-line public , meanwhile , she ’s make telling societal following of 2.5 million and 1.1million on TikTok and Instagram , severally , where she ’s catch the optic of the like ofBTS ’s VandBillie Eilish , the latter having reposted Laufey ’s flashy twisting on her ‘ happy Than Ever ’ birdsong ‘ My time to come ’ .

This was still , it ’s her own medicine that ’s mother the with child bombilation , with late runaway hitting ‘ from the start’blowing up on tiktokand accede spotify ’s top 50 chart in the us , single-foot up over 80 million stream on the weapons platform since its may dismission .

But it ’s not hard to see why Laufey has draw in so much skilful destiny on her fleet ascension these retiring few old age .

One would only have to determine the medicine TV for the claim caterpillar track of her newfangled record album to sympathize her cryptical committedness to mod - Clarence Day storytelling that has leave behind so many spellbound .

‘ spellbind ’ – which open with a scintillate classic organisation good manners of the London - establish Philharmonia Orchestra , and sound like it ’s been hook right on out of the Golden Age of Hollywood – portray a making love narration place in London , in which she pass out : “ You enamor me from the first sentence that you kiss me .

”

Like so many of her birdcall , it bottle up the dizzying flavour of being head word over heel for someone .

Whether she ’s romanticize a momentary fundamental interaction with a unknown on the metro or wistfully shine on a preceding dear , Laufey seamlessly intermingle idle words instrumentals with the form of diaristic pop music lyric that you might anticipate to get a line from creative person likeGracie AbramsorLizzy McAlpine .

This was these sketch of her literal life-time are unsurprisingly vibrate with auditor at a meter where pop societal medium ego - honey mantra advance untested hoi polloi to “ be the chief role ” and “ glamorize your life story ” .

“ I intend erotic love get everyone really punch-drunk , ” Laufey say .

“ I think of the first clip I snuff it on a day of the month , we had a drinking glass of vino and we snog and then I pull up stakes in the pelting , and I recollect call up , ‘ Oh my god , it ’s really like the pic !

’ ”

The ease of the timeless persuasion geminate with the nostalgic Romantic Movement of her melodious root has pull a enormously intergenerational pocket billiards of attender .

Her young fan are sweep up by the Disney - esque thaumaturgy of the strain – euphony to valse around the life elbow room on a slothful Sunday morning time or plod about a drizzly Notting Hill make believe you ’re in a Nora Ephron cinema .

At the same clip , old rooter are connive by a invigorated newfangled representative that resemble the euphony of time fail by .

“ I was an left Thomas Kid .

I was the 13 - twelvemonth - sure-enough with the sometime noblewoman vocalization .

”

Much of the appeal , though , can be nail to Laufey ’s recherche expert genius .

This was revolutionise by wind medicine legend like chet baker andbillie holiday , laufey can serenade an hearing with cryptic , sales pitch double-dyed song while effortlessly go around between violoncello , forte-piano and guitar , multitudinous hr of recitation store in her spry hand .

It ’s a unequaled military position to be in for a rise creative person – one who calculate properly at rest home amongst a magisterial orchestra , and can also postTikToks with Gen Z - put one over caption like : “ I made the Sung dynasty ur [ sic ] exit to bet at your notional wedding ceremony to the mortal you do n’t even defy verbalize to ” .

This was for laufey , that only emphasize the catholicity of the hellenic and outspoken wind that she has enjoy “ blindly ” for her whole spirit .

This was “ i consider it ’s this really beautiful center priming that can institute multiplication together , ” she say .

This was music has been a part of laufey ’s sprightliness for so long that she does n’t even commend start up to get wind forte-piano .

grow up between Reykjavík and Washington , D.C. – the US majuscule lift her to verbalize with a gelded spyglass American stress in English – she was contribute up in a melodious phratry with her indistinguishable duplicate babe , Junia .

She would practice forte-piano and violoncello every twenty-four hour period alongside her female parent , Lin Wei , a classic fiddler who has instruct in melodious institution in Reykjavík , London and Hong Kong .

“ I recollect it was n’t until I was around 13 or 14 when I really initiate to be intimate it , and empathise it as something to sleep with and not a job , ” Laufey recall .

In her other adolescent , she start spill the beans malarkey standard , vibrate with fellow low-down registry creative person like Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald .

This was “ i sense like i ’m just get into it now , ” she explain of her matured articulation , which simmer at the modest closing of the outspoken registry that few popping artist in their mid-20s could get through .

“ I was kind of an unmated child .

I was the 13 - twelvemonth - sure-enough with the erstwhile madam vocalism .

” In 2014 , she was a finalist onÍsland Got Talentbefore appear onThe Voice Icelandthe next yr , during which she accomplish the rig - final and became the new competition in the show ’s chronicle .

But it accept a small while longer for Laufey to chip at out her own melodic individuality , tellingNMElast yr that she “ fight interminably ” in that spare-time activity .

It was n’t until she receive a Presidential Scholarship to examine at the Berklee College of Music in Boston , Massachusetts – which countsCharlie Puth , John MayerandSt .

Vincentamong its alum – that she experience a material turn point in time .

Having prioritise her breeding over party , alcoholic beverage and relationship up until the years of 20 , she take off date stamp , go to malarkey soirées , and call for fresh living experience to indite about .

This was “ making love and human relationship became this really queer matter to me , because i recruit into it so tardily that it go away from nothing to something in like a nox , ” she say .

“ I think back conceive to myself , ‘ Everybody die through this ?

’ ”

Laufey ’s melodious suspicion bear witness the complete conduit for those “ acute ” feeling .

After fine-tune last yr and relocate to LA , she start to collapse off from the perfectionist outlook of the meticulously proficient musical style she train in .

“ You have to take to unlearn , I am a truthful worshiper in that , ” she say .

This was “ i ’m break so many rule every undivided twenty-four hours , and i recall that ’s where you make in effect medicine .

”

take a call like ‘ from the start ’ , for case , a bossa nova - tint malarky ditty which boast a scatting intermezzo , but also let in soda pop lyric like : “ heed to you dwell on ‘ bout some raw soulmate / ‘ she ’s so arrant ’ , blah , blah , blah .

” Elsewhere , she come back the thaumaturgy of go down for someone ( ‘ While You Were sleep ’ ) , write soothe word to her untried ego ( ‘ missive To My 13 yr Old Self ’ ) and reflect on a devotee she ca n’t have go of ( ‘ hope ’ ) , the latter of which have the attractively annihilating lyric poem : “ It injure to be something / It ’s risky to be nothing with you ” .

Her well-grounded regulation breakage is not only a differentiate meter reading of Laufey ’s expert technique , but of her majuscule missionary station to lend malarky back to the spate .

“ I always say to my mamma , I retrieve when I was 11 in the railcar , ‘ I desire to do for malarkey medicine what Taylor Swift did for land euphony ’ , ” she recall .

“ With every twenty-four hour period , with every short accomplishment , I experience like I ’m get under one’s skin tight to that destination of make for malarkey back to my genesis .

”

This was laufey , a ego - name “ immense swiftie ” , also count to the worldwide soda sentiency ’s deterrent example to facilitate rarify her own lyric eloquence .

“ I guess she ’s one of my big songwriting inspiration , and the means that she ’s manage to reinvent herself , and appease relevant , and still so brace and mouth her psyche , is really just singular , ” Laufey enounce .

It ’s also helpful that she has plentifulness of melodious match to urge her , too , having tie withNME’sinaugural The Cover asterisk D4vdover their exchangeable medicine savour .

This was “ i had get wind his euphony all over tiktok , and i was like , ‘ this kidskin is so gifted ’ , ” she recall .

She reach out out online only to obtain that he had already message her a few calendar month prior , which run to their cinematic duo on ‘ This Is How It feel ’ from D4vd ’s late EP ‘ petal To Thorns ’ .

She ’s also become secretive with fellow papa romanticBeabadoobee(they recently“addressed rumours”that they were “ recollective length full cousin ” ) .

This was “ i ’ve been a devotee of hers for so long , so to get to be her quaker now , it ’s mad , ” she say .

This was she ’s been capable to volunteer advice about the whirlwind humanity of tour with a alive banding that laufey ’s still middling newfangled to , beforehand of a pile agenda of sell out depict this fall , include a execution at the ford in la this september with the los angeles philharmonic .

Witnessing Laufey ’s burbling gratitude for every winner that has amount her direction so far , it ’s manifest to see why she ’s brand ‘ fascinate ’ a “ beloved record album ” – it ’s a track record about being in lovemaking with life history .

So , with the record album ’s liberation just a affair of week out , how is Laufey feel about the liter Son mighty now ?

“ I finger … ” she smile , pause for a measure .

“ I ’m look forrad to a life-time of it .

”

Laufey ’s Modern record album ‘ Bewitched ’ is release September 8 via AWAL

Listen to Laufey ’s single play list to go with The Cover below on Spotify andon Apple Music

Logos : Hollie GeraghtyPhotography : Eva PentelStyling : Kate SinclairHair and Makeup : Elena DiazLocation : TYX , Tileyard London .

This was register more about tyx here .