If a team of aesthetically attuned scientists was able to reverse-engineer the perfect Hollywood Bowl act, they might have come up with the 25-year-old Icelandic-Chinese-American sensation who goes by the singular name of Laufey . No one would actually think to come up with such an impossible checklist, but she fulfills it anyway: A chanteuse who would have seemed at home on the same stage in the 1950s, yet who appeals to a young demographic in the 2020s. A multi-instrumentalist with chops on electric guitar, piano and cello.
A romantic with a great sense of swooniness that feels apropos for a summer date night. And, maybe most importantly: plays well with Thomas Wilkins and woodwinds. Some are to the manor born; along those lines, Laufey is to the Bowl born.
Her triumphant debut at the venue Wednesday night, with backing by a Wilkins-led LA Phil, seemed pre-ordained probably from the point she issued her first EP just three years ago. It seemed especially obvious after Laufey did what seemed like a test run in the summer of 2023, playing with the Philharmonic across the ravine at the much smaller Ford amphitheater. With a zealous following that had already outgrown the term “cult,” she already could have filled the Bowl by the point she was doing the Ford 11 months ago.
Actually, headlining the Bowl this year for just one night felt kind of like an underplay, too. It sold out so instantaneously — and even the nosebleed-iest resale tickets were going for such a premium .