Do we like Laufey?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Nothing harmful found and real, concrete good through her foundation; the score stops short of a nine only because the record on her views is thin.
Laufey is an Icelandic jazz-pop singer who started as a classical kid. She's a cellist and a singer-songwriter, and she has said she grew up with few role models who shared her biracial background. She also says she felt a bit off about her naturally low singing voice as a young teen, and that low voice became her trademark.
The arc since is a proper rocket ride. Her 2023 album Bewitched won a Grammy in 2024, and on 1 February 2026 she picked up a second one, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, for A Matter of Time. In March she played a homecoming show in Kópavogur that local media put at about 36,000 people, which the Grapevine called the biggest homecoming concert in history.
The nearest thing to a scandal is a business one. In February, Dork reported that Laufey had left the Wasserman talent agency, along with Chappell Roan and Orville Peck, after Justice Department documents surfaced about founder Casey Wasserman's ties to Ghislaine Maxwell. Her departure was reported by The Hollywood Reporter citing sources, and she hadn't commented. So we don't know why she left, only that she did.
On the harm check, we came up empty in a good way. We found no slurs, no conspiracy rabbit holes and no culture-war grifting, and no lawsuits or misconduct allegations against her either. The honest caveat is that she doesn't say much about politics, so we can't tell you where she lands on trans rights or the climate; there's no statement either way to quote.
Her recent work looks clean too. The video for her song Madwoman, from the deluxe edition A Matter of Time: The Final Hour, features Heated Rivalry actor Hudson Williams, Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu, Lola Tung and KATSEYE's Megan Skiendiel. That's a young, mainstream, diverse crowd, nothing to worry about in the company she keeps.
The good stuff is concrete. In 2025 she launched The Laufey Foundation to get young musicians into youth orchestra programs, with first grants to Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, LA Phil's YOLA, the Cleveland Orchestra's youth orchestra and two Carnegie Hall ensembles. She said the scholarships she received as a child led directly to her career, which is a nice way of paying it forward.