She rose to prominence in the early s for her success as a jazz-inspired pop artist. Her father is Icelandic and her mother is Chinese, hailing from Guangzhou. At age 15, Laufey performed as a cello soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. The following year she also appeared as a contestant on The Voice Iceland and reached the semi-finals. At the time, she was the youngest competitor in the series' history. After high school, Laufey and her twin sister were together accepted to the University of St Andrews in Scotland, and she had intended to study economics while her sister eventually graduated from St Andrews with a degree in international relations.
On 6 April , Laufey released her debut single, "Street by Street", which charted at number one on Icelandic Radio. It includes "Street by Street" and six other songs, many of which were written in her college dorm room.
The same year, Laufey hosted a weekly music show on BBC Radio 3 during spring and summer and once again during December for a Christmas special called Happy Harmonies , on which she highlighted uplifting music in a wide variety of genres.
Laufey's United States network television debut was in when she appeared as the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Laufey also cited Taylor Swift , Norah Jones , and Adele as inspirations for her musicianship; she said "[Taylor Swift] has done for pop and country what I hope to do for jazz.
She has managed to unite people across the world which is one of my main goals as a musician. The genre of Laufey's music style has been subject for debate. She describes her genre as jazz or jazz pop , while organizations such as National Public Radio , [ 35 ] the New York Times , and The Sydney Morning Herald [ 36 ] have noted that her music includes elements of jazz, pop, bossa nova , and classical, describing the entirety as traditional pop or old-time pop due to the blend of styles in her songs into one.
