Fresh Air – Laufey Is Unapologetically Herself

Host: Terry Gross
Guest: Laufey
Air Date: October 8, 2025

Episode Overview

This intimate, music-filled episode of Fresh Air showcases the Icelandic-Chinese singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and genre-blurring artist Laufey ("Leh-vay"). At just 26, Laufey is reshaping the boundaries between jazz, classical, pop, and standards, drawing from a richly multicultural, rigorously musical upbringing. With a Grammy-winning breakthrough and a passionate Gen Z fanbase, Laufey discusses her musical origins, the emotional honesty of her songwriting, her rise through social media during the pandemic, and how she remains true to herself—on stage, online, and through creative fusion.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Laufey’s Genre-Defying Identity

• Breaking boundaries: Laufey's music refuses strict genre labels. Her latest album Bewitched topped both jazz and traditional pop charts, signaling broad appeal. Her influences interweave jazz, classical, pop, and musical theater.

  • Quote: “I’ve never viewed myself as anything other than a modern artist, but I’ve always, of course, loved classical music and jazz music and had a love for all things a bit older.” (03:26)

• Festival Contrasts: Her debut at Lollapalooza—with a full orchestra—epitomized this fusion, sharing the stage with K-pop acts and rappers.

  • “I think it’s so beautiful that all of these different styles of music can exist in one.” (03:26)

Musical Origins & Family Influence

• Discipline and Heart: Laufey grew up in a deeply musical household: her mother is a violinist in the Iceland Symphony, her grandparents music professors in China.

  • “My mom has been in the orchestra for almost 30 years and she still practices every single day for every single concert.” (04:43)
  • Hard work never ends in music; artistry is lifelong.

• Learning in China: Summers were spent in China, immersed in language and classical music, receiving poetic instruction from her grandfather.

  • “It was a very, like, poetic way of learning... he would talk about how vibrato needed to feel natural and flow like wind flowing through the branches of a tree...” (07:18)

The Challenge of Being Different

• Cultural Hybridity: Laufey describes the pain and pride of being one of few mixed-race (Chinese-Icelandic) children in Iceland, her longing to be heard, and her drive to reach new audiences.

  • “There weren’t many kids around me taking a competitive pre-professional classical music route… I often felt like my voice wasn’t being heard. And I was ready to do anything to get my voice to be heard.” (19:59)

• Global Perspective: Growing up across Iceland, Washington D.C., and China infused Laufey with early awareness of the wider world and multicultural fluency.

Songwriting, Honesty, and Representation

• Beauty Standards & Vulnerability: In songwriting, Laufey channels personal struggles with confidence, aspiration, and beauty norms, notably in “Snow White.”

  • “It was very honest and I… never want to show, especially all the young women in my audience that I don’t believe in myself… But I came to this realization that perhaps it’s comforting to know that other people feel that way too.” (08:48)

• Friendship Breakups: Laufey fills gaps in pop storytelling—writing openly about subjects like friendship breakups (“Castle in Hollywood”), which are rarely addressed in song.

• Honoring vs. Defying Tradition: Though her family gave her a classical foundation (cello, piano, violin), her spontaneous attraction to the guitar opened new creative doors.

  • “I wasn’t following a set of rules that I had learned over years of classical training. I was just letting my heart and fingers wander.” (25:58)

Performance & Audience

• Unapologetic Authenticity: Laufey emphasizes staying true to herself across settings—whether singing jazz, pop, or classical—because “that’s how you connect with a diverse audience.”

  • “I’m very unapologetically myself… I just want to get young people into those [orchestral] rooms, get young people used to that sound of, you know, 60 plus instruments playing… There’s nothing quite like it.” (26:56)

• Stagecraft Inspired by Ballet: Laufey’s sense of visual and physical expression—her ethereal, flowing dresses—draw from ballet, emphasizing that behind apparent lightness is discipline and strength.

  • “In ballet, you have to be really strong… but you’re supposed to look totally weightless… That contrast between strength and the image on stage of the ballerina, it’s a huge difference. Kind of like your voice and the way you often dress.” (28:45)

• Touring With Theatrical Vision: Now on her first arena tour, Laufey brings together ballerinas, jazz dancers, a jazz club, string quartets, and her band for a 360-degree stage experience.

  • “I feel like I’ve been able to show every part of my artistic vision at once… it just feels really, really special to finally get to kind of show the world exactly what I’m about.” (34:53)

Social Media, Pandemic & Rise to Fame

• Pandemic Breakthrough: Laufey started posting herself singing jazz standards and originals with cello, guitar, or piano on YouTube during lockdown—quickly building a global fanbase, especially among Gen Z.
  • “I did a cover of ‘It Could Happen to You’ and also of the song ‘I Wish You Love’... People were like, what? Why is this young woman playing cello and singing? It was like multiple things they hadn’t seen combined together.” (14:10)

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• On Identity & Modern Musicianship
  “Lollapalooza was such a perfect moment for me of showing exactly who I am to the world… I’ve never viewed myself as anything other than a modern artist, but I’ve always, of course, loved classical music and jazz music and had a love for all things a bit older.”
  — Laufey (03:26)

• On Inspiration from Ella Fitzgerald
  “I think Ella Fitzgerald was the very first singer that I really felt that I vocally resonated with. I think she just sounded like a cello, so I immediately was like, oh, I want to sound like her.”
  — Laufey (12:57)

• On Practicing Music Growing Up:
  “My mom spent the entire afternoon just drifting back and forth from the piano room to the string room… It was very disciplined. But I’m so thankful… It’s one of the reasons I’m the musician I am today.”
  — Laufey (06:11)

• On ‘Snow White’ and Young Women:
  “I never want to show, especially all the young women in my audience, that I don’t believe in myself, because how can they believe in themselves if I have trouble believing in myself?... perhaps it’s comforting to know that other people feel the same way.”
  — Laufey (08:48)

• On Stage Attire and Performance Artistry:
  “Ballet costumes, dresses, I’m very inspired by that in my dressing… When I’m playing with a string quartet or an orchestra… the movement of a tutu, the movement of a dress, the movement of clothing… adds to the performance.”
  — Laufey (29:30)

• On Being Unapologetically Herself:
  “I think I’m pretty similar in every single setting. And I’m very unapologetically myself… I kind of push against the classical medium of just kind of blabbering on stage, like in between songs, I’ll explain what the songs are about… just to show them that classical music… doesn’t need to feel like this foreign thing that exists behind a wall.”
  — Laufey (26:56)

Notable Performances (with Timestamps)

• “Clockwork” (studio track) — 02:02 → Upbeat love song, blends jazz and pop with modern storytelling.
• “Snow White” (live acoustic) — 08:47 → Honest, vulnerable reflection on beauty standards.
• “Cuckoo Ballet” (orchestral snippet) — 11:09 → Instrumental reimagining of “Snow White,” highlighting classical side.
• “It Could Happen to You” (live acoustic) — 15:06 → Jazz standard; one of the viral pandemic-era videos that led to her breakthrough.
• “Castle in Hollywood” — 23:09 → Song about the pain of a friendship breakup.
• “Silver Lining” — 33:36 → Soul-influenced pop ballad, written to showcase vocal range.
• “Valentine” (original jazz song) — 37:03 → Early original, performed in a more stripped-down version.

Memorable Moments and Reflections

• Choosing Cello as “the older twin”:
  “My sister chose violin and I think because I’m the older twin, so I thought I should play the bigger instrument.” (12:29)

• First U.S. Apartment:
  “The first apartment I moved into was this English storybook house in West Hollywood that had a turret and it was commissioned by Charlie Chaplin, actually, in 1928, I believe.” (24:50)

• On Songwriting on Guitar vs. Piano:
  “I started writing a lot on guitar, I think because it was this unknown instrument to me where I wasn’t following a set of rules that I had learned over my years of classical training. I wasn’t going back to any habits. I was just letting my heart and fingers wander.” (25:58)

• Returning to Iceland:
  “I do. I go home a lot. It really grounds me. And I write the best there. I wrote half the album there.” (38:09)

Laufey’s Name and Heritage (30:27)

• Laufey shares that her name has roots in Norse mythology (mother of Loki), and her full name, Laufey Lin Bing Jónsdóttir, blends Icelandic and Chinese family heritage—Bing, meaning “ice,” as a nod to Iceland.

Conclusion

This Fresh Air episode is rich with soulful live performances and candid storytelling. Laufey’s reflections reveal an artist who is both disciplined and daring, determined to bridge musical worlds while remaining unapologetically herself. For listeners new and old, Laufey’s gentle wisdom, genre-flipping arrangements, and heartfelt honesty sparkle throughout—a testament to why her work resonates across cultures and generations.