One of the most unlikely — and utterly delightful — new pop stars filled Target Center to near-capacity Saturday night for the sort of performance rarely seen in the downtown Minneapolis basketball arena.
Icelandic-Chinese singer/songwriter Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir — who goes by her first name as a performer — makes music that sounds plucked straight out of a Technicolor blockbuster from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
To drive home the point, she performed on a castle-like stage, with a string section on one end and a jazz band on the other. Several times, her dancers performed mini ballet sets to let the main attraction change into her next gown or flapper dress. She even opened the show with an overture and old-timey credits rolling on the big screens.
Just 26, she’s already won a best traditional pop vocal album Grammy for her sophomore record, 2023’s “Bewitched.” Saturday night, she revealed a voice every bit as supple and lush as it is on her studio recordings. At times, it felt like she was leaning into her listeners, cooing a sweet secret into their ears.
That all sounds great, of course. Wine-sipping NPR listeners have been long overdue for a new Norah Jones, right?
Here’s the thing, though. Laufey (pronounced “Lay-vay”) built her audience through TikTok. The crowd leaned heavily young and heavily female, much like you’d see at, say, a Benson Boone or Sabrina Carpenter concert. And they let out the sort of lustful, large-lunged screams heard at those shows.
What was most notable, however, was that the screaming stopped every time Laufey began to sing. No one spoke and only used phones as the occasional Bic lighter stand-in. Laufey was just that compelling. It was tough not to fall under her spell.
The set included nearly everything from her third and most recent album, “A Matter of Time,” which she recorded in part in Minneapolis. (She told the crowd that one of her best friends, who was in the crowd, is a native. She also took a trip to the Mall of America and marveled over the experience: “I was smiling ear-to-ear.”)
Not to put too fine of a point on things, but her numbers truly do sound like they were plucked from a bygone era. Beyond the occasional electric guitar, the musicians stuck to acoustic instruments. The only nod to modern music showed up in the lyrics, where Laufey dropped the occasional four-letter word. She has said Taylor Swift is an influence and, lyrically speaking, it’s clear in songs like “Lover Girl” and “Castle in Hollywood.”
Laufey split the show into four acts, the second of which she played on the circular end of her stage accompanied by piano, upright bass and drums. She said she was as surprised as anyone how she can draw so many people and said she wanted to dedicate that part of her show to replicating the intimacy of a jazz club.
It worked, especially when she covered the 1939 classic “Seems Like Old Times,” famously crooned by Diane Keaton in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.” Laufey said Keaton was the only reason she knew the song and dedicated it to the actress, who died earlier in the day Saturday. (I must admit, I always thought there was a certain Keaton-esque flavor to her voice.)
It truly felt like a magical evening and it was terrific to see the kids so into it all. Hopefully, this is just the beginning and not the peak of Laufey’s fame.
0 Comments