Surrounded by people adorned with crowns on their heads and ribbons in their hair, my cousin and I approached the giant blue castle that stood in front of us. There was a banner draped above the entrance of the castle that read, “Welcome to Laufey Land, San Francisco.” It was Sept. 30, 2025, when we arrived at the doors of the Chase Center two hours before they even opened. I was ready in my long, flowing white skirt, my silver necklace (with a pendant holding forget-me-nots in resin), and a bow clipped on the back of my hair. I was ready to witness the concert I’d been ecstatic for this year: Laufey’s tour for her latest album, A Matter of Time. For those of you who don’t know Laufey (pronounced “Lay-vay”), she’s a Chinese-Icelandic singer-songwriter from Iceland who records jazz-influenced and bossa-nova-influenced pop songs. I highly recommend you listen to her!
Since the tour started, I’d been scrolling on Reddit threads, looking at all the photos of the merch stand and trying to figure out which items usually sold out first. It’s safe to say that I was just as obsessed with this tour as I’d been with the album. Luckily, since I got there so early, I was able to get the items I’d been eyeing: the light-blue poster with silver foiled letters, a classic navy blue t-shirt with the name of the tour, and the cutest tote bag from the Laufey-and-Snoopy collaboration! As a lover of all things Snoopy, I must say this piece of merch is literally my personality in a tote bag.
I remember when I first learned of Laufey’s tour — while I wasn’t surprised she could sell out arenas, I also couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I’d hear jazzy, bossa nova pop music blasting in the Chase Center, a basketball arena. Flash forward to the start of the show: it was the dreamiest concert set I’ve ever seen. I’d never imagined that the Chase Center would be transformed into a floating castle in the clouds just like the kind I’d see in Disney Princess movies. Similarly to her album cover, the visuals on the stage maintained the “enchanted clock” aesthetic of the album with cinematic projections and twinkling stars. When Laufey entered the stage, she appeared wearing a gold dress that shimmered while the dancers followed and their costumes displayed the whimsical characteristics reminiscent of ballets like The Nutcracker.
She began with her album opener, “Clockwork,” and while I already knew she had a stellar voice, it was surreal to hear it in person. Believe me when I say she sounded better than the record itself! Her voice added a little extra flare to each note which made every performance heavenly. Usually at concerts, I love singing my heart out with the artist. However, this time, I didn’t for almost half of the show because I was completely enthralled by her voice. My favorite performances by her that night from the latest album were “Carousel” (in which the stage projected an entrancing, spinning image of one), “Too Little, Too Late,” and “Snow White.” I also have to mention how excited I was when she started playing the cello for her instrumental song, “Cuckoo Ballet (Interlude).”
In the middle of the concert, she did her own jazz club set. She set up in the center of the stage with musicians right behind her as she sang more jazzed-up versions of her songs. My favorite of the jazz club setlist was “While You Were Sleeping” from her Grammy-winning album, Bewitched. It was amazing to hear this song reinvented in a different style and I was pleasantly surprised to see how she turned the arena into its own jazz club.
Something I appreciate about Laufey’s concert is that while her newest album took center stage on the tour, she still performed some of her past tracks. The whole stadium turned into a choir for “Falling Behind” and “From the Start,” which she beautifully ended singing, “San Francisco, I loved you from the start.” To add, I must give her another shoutout for singing my favorite song from Bewitched, “Dreamer.” As she sang, she’d spin around and her skirt would twirl like she was floating on stage. It felt like we were levitating with her to a fairytale world that reminded me of the Barbie movies I watched as a kid.
She ended the concert singing two songs, with one being a surprise song that changes for every show. Her surprise song for our show was “California and Me,” which was on-theme as San Francisco was her last stop in the state. The final song was “Letter to My 13 Year Old Self” which left me in tears. It was heartwarming to hear her sing “Keep on going with your silly dream” to a sold-out crowd in her first ever arena tour. After the concert was over, I couldn’t listen to the original album for days. Her live vocals were so good that I’ve played my concert videos of her on repeat while twirling and swaying around my apartment. The magic that was Laufey truly captured the whole audience, and it left my mind under a musical spell that I can’t and won’t break.