Laufey releases Bewitched

Bewitched, the highly anticipated new album from acclaimed Los Angeles-based Icelandic-Chinese artist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Laufey, is set for release September 8via AWAL Recordings. The album’s first single, "From The Start” has amassed 20 million global streams since its release last month, with over 1 million release-day streams on Spotify.

The new album follows Laufey’s 2022 debut full-length, Everything I Know About Love, which reached #1 on Billboard’s Alternative New Artist Album chart and featured hit single, “Valentine,” that peaked at #1 on the Spotify Jazz Chart. Everything I Know About Love was praised by The Fader who said, “Mixing pop with classical flourishes, Laufeycaptures everyday emotions, like falling in love, and elevates them with a degree of musicality and flair that is anything but ordinary,” while Consequence furthers, “Laufeydeftly melds new elements of modern music with more traditional sounds of classic jazz, articulating the push and pull of love and loss with distinct eloquence.”

While Everything I Know About Love shows what Laufey calls her “hopeless romantic” side, Bewitched has a more mature outlook, although it’s still in love with love. Laufey notes, “This is a love album, whether it be a love towards a friend or a lover or life. The first album also touched a lot on things like moving out of my childhood home and moving into a new city for the first time—being an adult. With this one, I’ve experienced a little bit more of that, and I’m writing about the magic in the love of being young.”

Bewitched was co-produced by Laufey and Spencer Stewart, with all songs written by Laufey, apart from jazz standard “Misty.” Additionally, the London-based Philharmonia Orchestra played on tracks “Bewitched” and “California and Me.”

Additionally, Laufey will celebrate the album on the road this fall with ‘The Bewitched Tour,’ which sold out in minutes. The 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. 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. By 2022 Laufeywas the most streamed jazz artist on Spotify, with 450 million streams across all platforms.