LAU FEY

After winning her first Grammy, the songbird opens up about her Asian upbringing, body-doubling with her twin sister and how she sends her music through time.

- CHANDREYEE RAY

Like any good child of an immigrant, Laufey Lin Jónsdóttir spent most of her school vacations visiting family abroad. “We went to Beijing every summer,” she shares. “My grandparents are both classical musicians and they taught in a lot of different cities, so we’d often get to travel around China.”

Sitting cross-legged in front of an open window in her Los Angeles home, the 25-year-old, who performs under the mononym Laufey, is dressed simply in a black tank top and striped trousers. A single gold chain around her neck carries a small pendant, occasionally twinkling as it catches the soft sunlight streaming in. With her hair curling naturally around her temples, there is no trace of her signature cat-eye or retro frosty eyeshadow. She is fresh-faced, skin glowing healthily.

She continues: “I’m so thankful that my parents were able to give me that experience growing up. It was a huge privilege to connect with the culture like that.”

Born in Reykjavík, Iceland to an Icelandic father and Chinese mother, Laufey comes from—as she describes it—“the school of Asian parenting”.

“Icelanders are very relaxed. Kids roam free from an early age; you start making your own decisions very young,” she says. “I had more of a traditional Chinese upbringing. My parents, my mother in particular, were a little bit more strict on things like practising instruments. It had its pros and I’m grateful for it, but I felt very different from my friends. After school, many of them would go for their play dates, but I would go to a cello or piano lesson.”

After a thoughtful pause, she elaborates: “Iceland can feel homogeneous. There are very, very few Asians there, and few foreigners at all. When I would leave my school, it would feel like leaving a bubble while everyone else got to stay inside.”