Laufey will bring jazz for Gen Z to Target Center

In recent years, 20-something jazz singers Cécile McLorin Salvant and Samara Joy have found success with audiences their parents’ age and older. Then along comes jazzy 26-year-old Icelandic singer Laufey, who is old school cool, too. But she is finding success with Gen Z audiences.

Credit her marketing as much as her music, which is an amalgam of vintage jazz with a modern pop twist.

Laufey (pronounced Lay-vay) has used the internet to build her fan base, first by posting renditions of jazz standards on TikTok during the pandemic. Now she has amassed 9.9 million followers on TikTok and 7 million on Instagram. Playing Lollapalooza in front of more than 100,000 people in 2024 boosted her following, as well.

“Social media is how I formed my community and initially shared my music, so it means a lot to me,” said Laufey, who performs Saturday at Target Center. “Now, I use it mainly to connect with my audience and find new sources of creative inspiration!”

Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir grew up in Reykjavík with an Icelandic father and Chinese mother. She is a classically trained cellist with an affinity for jazz and pop. Her twin sister Junia is a classically trained violinist who accompanies her onstage and serves as her creative adviser.

Laufey earned a degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston and now lives in Los Angeles.

Like Salvant and Joy before her, Laufey grabbed a Grammy early in her career, for best traditional pop album for 2023’s “Bewitched,” her second album.

Q: Please explain your vision and concept for the show you’re bringing to Minneapolis.

A: Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been so inspired by golden age musicals and films. I have always wanted to find a way to bring together all of my inspiration sources, between classical music, jazz and these films, to the stage for a new audience.

Q: Last time in the Twin Cities, you played in a 1,000-seat theater, the Fitzgerald, in 2023. Why have you chosen to jump to arenas so quickly in your career?

A: In order to put on the show of my dreams, arenas made the most sense! Smaller cap venues couldn’t accommodate for dancers and set pieces like my dreamer castle and clock stage.

Q: What was it like to play Lollapalooza last year and what did it mean to your career?

Q: What’s the secret to getting Gen Z to buy into your old-soul sound?

A: I think Gen-Z really relates to the comforting sounds and instruments. In a rapidly moving, digital world, the older sound provides an escape and nostalgia.

Q: At what age did you realize you were an old soul?

A: I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself an old soul. I love living in 2025. There has never been a better time to be a woman, for instance. When I was a kid, my parents would play classical music and jazz around the house, and those sounds were represented in the first CDs I ever owned, so I suppose I’ve always been inspired by the old, but at the same time, equally inspired by the new.

Q: How do you think “A Matter of Time” differs from your previous albums?

Q: Which language was the most difficult to learn: Icelandic, Mandarin or English?

A: Icelandic.

Q: How do you communicate with your twin sister? What language do you use? Do you have your own secret language for just you two?

A: Mostly in Icelandic.

Q: Do you think being mixed race — or being neither one thing or another — somehow made it easier for you to become a mix of classical, jazz and pop instead of just one thing like a pop artist or a jazz artist? You’re never able to say you’re one thing or another.

Q: I heard you once say that you didn’t believe in yourself because you were this “different” person who liked classical music, jazz vocals and singer/songwriter pop. How did you find your voice?

A: It took a long time. When I left home for college, I slowly learned to let go of a lot of the rules I had learned about classical music.

Q: What stage names did you think about as alternatives to Laufey?

A: None! Laufey is my first name, nothing else felt fitting.

Q: Your music embraces different styles. Which artists should you be — or do you hope to be — a gateway to?

When: 7:30 p.m. Sat.

Where: Target Center, 600 1st Av. N., Mpls.