Laufey was an 'odd fish' in native Iceland. Now she's a jazz-pop star
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For years, singer and musician Laufey knew she wanted to be a performer but struggled to find an audience. The child of an Icelandic father and a Chinese immigrant mother, Laufey sometimes felt out of place in Iceland. She tried out for local versions of singing competition TV shows -- The Voice Iceland and Ísland Got Talent -- but it wasn't until COVID-19 lockdown that things started to click. That's when Laufey began posting videos of herself singing jazz standards while also playing cello, guitar or piano.
"I was ready to do anything to get my voice to be heard," she says. "I knew that the first step to that was trying to get out of Iceland and see if ... perhaps my voice would resonate more in the big world where I wasn't an odd fish."
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Laufey's 2020 renditions of "It Could Happen to You" and "I Wish You Love" became viral hits. "I think people were like 'What?
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