For the past year, Laufey has existed in her own unique realm. The Icelandic-Chinese artist’s sumptuous second record, ‘Bewitched’ (released in September 2023), had all the right shades of theatre, personality and unassuming jazz-pop nous to put her on the path to mainstream recognition. Across the album, the 25-year-old presented herself as a dreamy outsider settling into LA, taking in the lightning-quick pace of her new life with a gleeful, wide-eyed gaze.
Recent months have seen the 25-year-old (born Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir) make her Met Gala debut, headline a sold-out Royal Albert Hall and win her first Grammy. Yet she has settled gracefully into her celebrity; since all her early dreams of stardom came true, she now wants to take on other projects and wholly present herself as the type of curious, singular artist she wants to be.
Case in point: Laufey’s stunning contribution to ‘Bose x NME: C24’, a cover of the classic jazz standard ‘Where Or When’. “I feel like everything on my bucket list got squashed this year,” the recent NME cover star offers, with a gentle nod. “These goals, they come and they go, and I am very lucky to keep reaching them. But I hope that I can stay true to myself – especially now as more people than ever are watching [me] and the stakes keep getting higher.”
We meet at a photoshoot in London’s Bishopsgate Institute Library – an Art Nouveau-style building that beautifully complements her own charming, old-time aesthetic. Pristine pearl necklaces and racks of designer dresses are scattered around Laufey’s dressing room, while her twin sister Junia is keen to show us some AAA passes from the aforementioned Royal Albert Hall show, which have Moomin figures printed on them. It’s a scene of both glamour and giddy excitement.
‘Where Or When’ is distinct in that it marks the only cover on ‘Bose x NME: C24’. Laufey’s decision to take on a rendition of the track is deeply personal, however, stemming from her “lifelong” adoration of legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald, who recorded the song in 1956. “I’ll take any opportunity to kind of put my own spin on a jazz standard. All my favourite artists have covered this song. This version that we did is a little more classical; it has a touch of cinema to it and sounds a little more eerie than previous covers, which works well with the lyrics,” she says.
“You know, the only thing I can do is honour the version of myself when I recorded it,” she adds of the creative process behind the track. “I never look back after finishing a song and think, ‘Damn, why did I do that?’. I have learned to accept any decision I make in the moment, as I’m so indecisive and could edit [arrangements] forever. I’m just gonna let my music live.”
The track was first performed in the original Broadway production of Babes In Arms in 1937, later becoming part of the Great American Songbook, having been recorded by scores of popular jazz and soul artists over time including Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra. Laufey explains today that musical theatre has inspired her “indirectly”; she has never performed in a production, but spent a childhood in Reykjavík learning material from classic shows on the piano and violin.
Instead, it was Fitzgerald who became her guiding light – alongside a fascination with bebop, and seminal vocal jazz and swing acts like Billie Holiday. Around the release of her 2022 debut album ‘Everything I Know About Love’, Laufey’s own deep, rich timbre drew comparisons to the former. “The fact that people can make links between my work and that of one of my heroes is so powerful,” she says. “Ella’s voice really reminds me of a cello, and I was immediately drawn to it as it felt familiar, like the classical music I played growing up.”
Having just released the expanded ‘Goddess’ version of her ‘Bewitched’ LP in the middle of an extensive world tour, Laufey says that working on her version of ‘Where And When’ allowed for an opportunity to pause, quieten the noise of the outside world, and recharge. Later this year, she will tick off even more major goals by appearing at festivals across Southeast Asia and supporting Mitski in the US this autumn. For now, however, she has simply enjoyed revelling in the music that defined her youth while putting a fresh spin on a track she loves dearly for ‘Bose x NME: C24’.
“I think recently I’ve pushed myself to keep doing what I do, but have got marginally more confident,” she says. “All I hope is I can move forward with the same ‘I have nothing to lose’ mindset.”
Stay tuned to NME.com/C24 for the latest on the return of the iconic mixtape