From the moment Laufey walked onstage at the Lincoln Theatre for a sold-out Saturday night performance, the audience knew that they were in for a magical evening.  

The 24-year-old Icelandic-Chinese singer-songwriter who gained fame via sharing her music on TikTok has blossomed over the past few years and has attracted a loyal following. She is on a mission to revitalize jazz singing and bring it to younger audiences. Her six-month American and European tour featuring her newest album, Bewitched, is sold out.

Laufey was accompanied by 27-year-old singer-songwriter Adam Melchor. The New Jersey native opened the show with a simple and honest setup: just him and his guitar with blue lights behind him.  “It's been really nice to play just like my acoustic guitar because usually I have a band,” Melchor said in an impromptu post-show interview. “So, it's been really nice to go back to my roots in that way.”

Like Laufey, Melchor is a storyteller with his music. However, Melchor likes to tell the audience about the funny, heartwarming, or heart-wrenching stories that inspired his songs before he croons his emotional ballads that made the audience feel like a part of his story. He writes very literal lyrics that reflect his life experiences and personal interactions.  After seeing Melchor perform and command the stage, he is certainly a hidden artistic gem. Although Melchor may not be widely known, he is an artist to keep a keen eye on.

When it was time for Laufey to come onstage, members of the audience–many of whom were dressed in blazers, dresses, and bows to channel Laufey’s style–cheered loudly.

Laufey may seem shy on the outside, but with her impressive range, she flourishes when she lets out her buttery, honey-like jazz vocals. She performs with such ease and poise. She let the Lincoln Theatre come alive in a theatrical set, fit with a wall of twinkling lights and warm glowing lamps behind her. She was accompanied onstage by a band, a string quartet, and Melchor singing background vocals on a few songs, as well as numerous instruments she played throughout the show.

As far as D.C. music venues go, the Lincoln Theatre is the only one deserving of housing such a graceful old soul such as Laufey. It has an atmosphere of warmth and sophistication, as if the concert is taking place in a classical art museum. It matches her style of music and her personality perfectly.

Laufey has been known to put cello into her songs, so when she sat down to play her cello, fans cheered once again. She also spent a few songs over at the grand piano in the center of the stage. Though she was “scared of her piano teacher” growing up, she now challenges herself by composing wordless pieces of music and breaking the rules she was taught.

Laufey created a strong connection to her audience. She even turned the audience into singers, teaching them a two-part harmony to sing with her during her song “Lovesick.” 

Through her use of social media, she has become very relatable to Gen Z and talks about things that can be hard to touch upon but are made easier when they start conversations about it. For example, when describing the story behind her inspiration for “Lovesick,” she said, “I had a feeling things were going to go terribly wrong. It’s called anxiety.” That made the audience laugh.

Her second to last song, “Letter To My 13 Year Old Self,” struck a chord with many members of the audience. The crowd was silent, absorbing every word. The only time they broke their silence was when Laufey sang the line, “One day, you'll bе up on stage / Little girls will scream your namе,” and the audience shouted “LAUFEY!” After that song, Laufey stood with her guitar and looked out into the crowd, taking everything in, before moving on.

The artist grew up splitting her time between Iceland and Washington, D.C. In fact, she wrote a lot of her first songs here, and she released her very first song from her bedroom in D.C. To show her appreciation for this city, she changed the ending lyrics to her new song “From the Start” to say “D.C., I loved you from the start.” 

She also concludes each of her concerts with a surprise song so that every city she plays for has a unique experience. For her set at the Lincoln, she saved one of her most emotional songs for last as she concluded with “Nightlight,” her song about packing up her childhood bedroom. A lot of the inspiration for her songwriting comes from real life experiences that are unique to her but can be relatable to anyone, for they are natural human experiences.

Laufey is on a mission to bring back jazz, and from the looks of it, she is definitely succeeding.

We wish Laufey and Adam Melchor wild success on the rest of their sold out tour and look forward to seeing each of them back in DC in the future where we will once again be enraptured by their music, hanging on every word of their stories and annecdotes, and the emotional journey their music takes us on.