Laufey's management team and label partner AWAL have revealed their "big and bold" plans for the jazz-infused pop star's hotly-anticipated third album campaign.
The follow-up to 2023's Grammy Award-winning Bewitched (64,018 sales, OCC), the Music Week cover star's as-yet-untitled third LP has been trailed by lead single Silver Lining.
Manager Max Gredinger, a partner at Foundations Artist Management, described the new record as Laufey’s “coming-out party” and said it marked a big leap forward from anything she’s done before.
“On the touring side, we’re really ambitious,” he said. “We have a really robust plan on some of her ancillary businesses, so we’re taking the real step. We’re trying to be big and bold.”
Gredinger suggested that Laufey's success so far represented what he referred to as “the complete diminishment of the niche”.
“For so long, the implication has been that niche is small,” he said. “But you see there’s multiple nights of Dungeons & Dragons live performances sold out at Madison Square Garden. When we talk about niche, we’re not talking about small anymore.”
It’s one-of-a-kind artists like Laufey who truly shape culture and stand the test of time
Lonny Olinick
Laufey's monthly Spotify listenership is approaching 14.5 million, while she also has 8.1m followers and 307m likes on TikTok. The Icelandic-Chinese artist, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist extended her partnership with AWAL in late 2023.
“Laufey is unique in every way and that’s why there is no ceiling to where she can go,” AWAL CEO Lonny Olinick told Music Week. “She is such an inspiration because her vision is uncompromising, her musical talent is second to none and her work ethic is undeniable. It’s one-of-a-kind artists like Laufey who truly shape culture and stand the test of time.”
The 25-year-old's best-selling track is Bewitched cut From The Start, which has current UK sales of 279,185. Her strategy of festive releases has also proved fruitful, with top-sellers including 2023’s Winter Wonderland (211,752 sales) and 2024’s Christmas Magic (137,630) and Santa Baby (64,324), all of which breached the UK Top 40.
“Laufey has broken so many preconceived notions about an artist with that kind of background,” said Sam Potts, SVP at AWAL. “Name me an artist that can have almost eight million TikTok followers, do a Radio 1 Live Lounge, record with the LA Philharmonic, sell out the Royal Albert Hall, appear at the Met Gala and is pictured alongside Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo. You couldn’t name another artist that has those sorts of credentials.
“The key factor is getting this incredible album in front of as many eyeballs and ears as possible. For the UK, that is bringing her on to mainstream radio and achieving more mainstream TV appearances, getting those bigger looks and getting her really recognised by the UK mainstream media.
"Her Graham Norton performance last Christmas was a big moment for us because it got her in front of that mainstream UK audience, which I think joined the dots for a lot of multi-generational viewers that will have watched that. Achieving one of those big TV looks in the UK will be really important.”
We will be extremely ambitious with all aspects of the UK campaign, with a real emphasis on her mainstream visibility
Nathan Liddle-Hulme
UK-based Potts said AWAL's set-up allowed Laufey amplification in international markets.
“The way we’re set up is extremely global,” he added. “I think you take an artist like her who has Chinese heritage, Icelandic heritage but lives in the US, it resonates all around the world.
"It’s our job to find the fans and find the marketing levers and find the ways of communicating her music and her art individually that feel global in their ambitions, but completely local. So what we do in Southeast Asia, for example, is completely different to what we do in Iceland and what we do in North America. You have this cohesive approach, which is global in its ambition, but very nuanced and very local at the same time.”
Meanwhile, AWAL’s head of international Francesca Burton praised Laufey's storytelling as "second to none".
"With Laufey’s campaigns, we have always juggled the delicate balance of focusing on the macro moments, whilst paying attention to the micro elements that build to create real fandom and community. In 2025, we are doing this on a whole new scale.”
Indeed, AWAL’s head of UK marketing Nathan Liddle-Hulme said that this year presented the label with a major opportunity to take Laufey to the next level.
“We will be extremely ambitious with all aspects of the UK campaign, with a real emphasis on her mainstream visibility and audience across a wide range of demographics,” he said. “Everything will feel bigger and better in 2025, whilst always feeling considered. Laufey embodies this approach in everything she does and we mirror that in our partnership with her and her team.”
The full Laufey cover story can be read in the May edition of Music Week.
