Lauv
Quick Facts
Leo
Biography
Ari Staprans Leff (born August 8, 1994), known professionally as Lauv, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer based in Los Angeles. His debut EP Lost in the Light was released in 2015 and his compilation album I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist) was released in 2018. He has written songs for other artists including the singles "Boys" by Charli XCX, "No Promises" by Cheat Codes and Demi Lovato and "Imperfections" by Celine Dion.
His debut studio album How I'm Feeling will be released on March 6, 2020.
Early life
Lauv was born in San Francisco, California. He spent his early childhood in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, before his family relocated to a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He went to Radnor High School.As a child, he was interested in music and took piano and viola lessons before learning how to play the guitar at the age of 11. He started writing songs in middle school, at around 14 years old. During his time in high school, he played in several bands and studied jazz before moving on to electronic music. He has said that his sister would drive him and his friends on tour, where they often played "to zero people."
After graduating high school, Leff decided to pursue a behind-the-scenes role in music. He chose to study music technology at New York University's Steinhardt School. While at university, he studied abroad in Prague and was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity. He spent two of his four years at NYU as a studio intern for Jungle City Studios, where artists such as Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake and Alicia Keys recorded.
Career
2014–2016: Beginnings and Lost in the Light
Leff focused on writing and producing for other artists during college, straying from his personal song-writing style. During his sophomore year, he stumbled upon aninterview with Paul Simon, in which Simon described his song-writing approach as a process of uncovering his innermost buried feelings. The interview helped Leff to get in touch with the way he used to write. Afterwards, Leff adopted the stage name Lauv, Latvian for "lion" (lauva), as a nod to his mother's heritage. His first name, Ari, means "lion" in Hebrew, and his zodiac sign is Leo.
While getting over a break-up in fall of 2014, he co-wrote "The Other" with Michael Matosic. Although he was focused on writing potential songs for other artists, he felt "The Other" worked better as his own song. It would be the first song he released under the name Lauv. With "The Other", he also discovered his stripped-down electronic pop sound. The song is a fusion of rhythm and blues and indie-pop with influence from jazz guitar. The song gained blog attention and, after he uploaded it to Soundcloud in 2015, went viral, peaking at number three on blog aggregator Hype Machine, and hitting the Global Top 100 on Spotify.
After graduating from NYU, Leff signed to the publishing company Prescription Songs.
On September 25, 2015, Leff released his debut EP, Lost in the Light, which featured "The Other". Then, apart from releasing the single "Question" featuring Travis Mills in 2016, Leff worked on writing and producing songs for other artists.
Most notably, he co-wrote and co-produced "No Promises" for Cheat Codes and Demi Lovato, which reached number 7 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart. In an interview with iHeartRadio, Leff stated that he's been friends with Trevor Dahl from Cheat Codes since "back in the MySpace days."
2017–2018: I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist) and touring with Ed Sheeran
On May 19, 2017, Leff released the single "I Like Me Better", an up-tempo track inspired by his relationship that began shortly after he moved to New York City. It peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100, earned platinum certification in seven countries (including the US), and gold certification in three.
In 2017, he headlined his own Late Nights, Deep Talks tour, in which he performed in eight cities across the United States. The tour began on May 23 in Los Angeles and concluded on June 7 in New York City. On July 9, he also performed at Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
It was announced on September 4, 2017, that Leff would be joining Ed Sheeran as the supporting act on his Divide Tour in Asia. Several of Ed Sheeran's Asia tour dates were cancelled or rescheduled as a result of injuries he sustained from a bicycle accident, but Leff proceeded with promotional tours in cities such as Manila, Philippines, officially kicking off the Divide Tour with Ed Sheeran in Singapore on November 11, 2017.
Leff embarked on his first world tour, I Met You When I Was 18, in the first half of 2018. The tour began on January 18 in Seattle, Washington and concluded on April 29 in Oslo, Norway. Artists Jeremy Zucker and Ashe joined him as supporting acts in most of the North American tour dates. During the tour, he had a box named "My Blue Thoughts", in which he told fans to write down anything they wanted to and put it inside. He commemorated the notes on his blog mybluethoughts.world. On August 30, 2018, Leff released the single "Superhero", a song inspired by a note from the box. He performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 3, 2018.
In May 2018, Leff released I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist), a 17-track collection of new and previously released tracks, including the singles "I Like Me Better" and "The Other", that he had been working on over the course of a few years. It has also been described as a "playlist" that Lauv updated gradually until completing it in May 2018. It chronicles his move to New York City and the first time he fell in love. By August 2018, it had been streamed over 1 billion times on Spotify.
In June 2018, Leff ranked number one on Billboard's Emerging Artists chart, dated June 9. As of September 29, he had been at the top spot of the chart for a total of 13 weeks.
He released the single "There's No Way", a collaboration with Julia Michaels, on September 27, 2018.
2019–present: Asian tour and How I'm Feeling
Lauv released the single "I'm So Tired..." with Troye Sivan on January 24, 2019. They first met at a rehearsal space, and after writing another song that didn't work out, Lauv played Sivan the chorus of "I'm So Tired..." which he had written a few days prior. Sivan liked it and they wrote and recorded the rest of the track together. They performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live on February 7, 2019.
In November 2018, Lauv announced his first headlining tour starting the next year in Asia, including India, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Japan. It began on May 13, 2019, in Mumbai, India and concluded on May 30 in Tokyo.
On April 25, 2019, Lauv released the single and music video for "Drugs & the Internet", which he says he wrote when he was struggling with feelings of emptiness and depression, and which will appear as the second single on his upcoming debut studio album How I'm Feeling. He also announced dates for touring his album. The How I'm Feeling Tour began on October 5, 2019, in Washington, D.C. and will conclude in Perth, Australia on November 26, 2020. It will travel throughout the United States, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. Special guests for the tour include bülow, Chelsea Cutler, and Carlie Hanson. He also announced that month that he will unveil his upcoming album How I'm Feeling track by track as it is being recorded, simultaneously with the tour. In November 2019, Lauv announced the dates for the Asian part of the How I'm Feeling Tour in the summer of 2020. He will be supported by American singer-songwriter and social media personality mxmtoon.
On May 31, 2019, Lauv released "Sad Forever". On August 1, 2019, he released "Fuck, I'm Lonely", from the 13 Reasons Why Season 3 soundtrack, with British singer Anne-Marie. He then released the singles "Feelings" on September 19, 2019 and "Sims" on October 3, 2019. All four songs appear on How I'm Feeling released on November 14, 2019. Lauv collaborated with LANY on "Mean It", which is on his How I'm Feeling album.
Lauv made his debut in Kpop through his collaboration with BTS (Bangtan Seonyandan) for the song Make It Right, which is an ode to ARMY (BTS fans) and puts the relationship between the artist BTS and audience front and center in a sweet animated fantasy adventure.
Lauv made his debut in Bollywood through a collaboration with composer Rochak Kohli for the song Dil Na Jaaneya, which features on the soundtrack of Karan Johar's film Good Newwz starring Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Diljit Dosanjh, and Kiara Advani.
Personal life
Lauv dated pop musician Julia Michaels for several months in 2018, before they broke up at the end of the year.
His mother and his maternal grandparents are Latvian and Lauv has frequently visited Latvia and to visit relatives and spend summers in his grandfather's cottage in the seaside city of Jūrmala.
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2018 Teen Choice Awards | Breakout Artist | Nominated |
| 2019 | iHeartRadio Music Awards | Best New Pop Artist | Nominated |
| 2019 | MTV Video Music Awards | Push Artist of the Year | Nominated |
Discography
Albums
Studio albums
| Title | Release details |
|---|---|
| How I'm Feeling |
|
Compilation albums
| Title | Release details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | USInd | AUS | BEL(FL) | CAN | NLD | ||
| I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist) |
| 50 | 30 | 64 | 77 | 40 | 105 |
Remix albums
| Title | Release details |
|---|---|
| I Met You When I Was 18 (The Extras) |
|
EPs
| Title | Release details | Track listings |
|---|---|---|
| Lost in the Light |
| Track listing
|
| Spotify Singles |
| Track listing
|
| Lauv EP |
| Track listing
|
Singles
As lead artist
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | AUS | AUT | CAN | DEN | GER | NZ | SWE | SWI | UK | ||||
| "The Other" | 2015 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist) |
| "Reforget" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "I Like Me Better" | 2017 | 27 | 8 | 5 | 62 | 27 | 7 | 13 | 25 | 23 | 58 |
| |
| "Easy Love" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Paris in the Rain" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Superhero" | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles | |
| "There's No Way" (featuring Julia Michaels) | — | 37 | — | — | — | — | — | 94 | 86 | — |
| ||
| "I'm So Tired..." (with Troye Sivan) | 2019 | 81 | 11 | 22 | 57 | 40 | 42 | 9 | 37 | 40 | 8 |
| How I'm Feeling |
| "Drugs & the Internet" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Sad Forever" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Fuck, I'm Lonely" (featuring Anne-Marie) | — | 19 | 48 | 70 | — | 80 | 20 | 49 | 53 | 32 |
| 13 Reasons Why: Season 3 and How I'm Feeling | |
| "Feelings" | — | 53 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | How I'm Feeling | ||
| "Sims" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Mean It" (with LANY) | — | 42 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 87 | 83 | |||
| "Changes" | 2020 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Tattoos Together" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
As featured artist
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | AUS | CAN | NZ | SWE | SWI | UK | |||
| "A Different Way" (DJ Snake featuring Lauv) | 2017 | — | 59 | 78 | — | 65 | 63 | 85 | Non-album singles |
| "Make It Right" (BTS featuring Lauv) | 2019 | 76 | 53 | 65 | — | — | — | — | |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||
Notes
Other charted songs
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUS | |||
| "Chasing Fire" | 2018 | 94 | I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist) |
Song Writing credits
| Year | Title | Artist(s) | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | "Faking It" | Olivia Noelle | Non-album songs |
| 2016 | "Broken" | Tritonal & Jenaux featuring Adam Lambert | |
| "No Party" | Daniel Skye | ||
| "Plastic" | Laura Roy | Laura Roy | |
| "Because of Me" | Billy Gilman | The Complete Season 11 Collection (The Voice Performance) | |
| 2017 | "All My Love" | Cash Cash featuring Conor Maynard | Non-album songs |
| "Boys" | Charli XCX | ||
| "No Promises" | Cheat Codes featuring Demi Lovato | ||
| "Sorry for Myself" | CADE | ||
| "Made of Gold" | Olivia Noelle | ||
| "How Was I" | Jessica Jarrell | ||
| "Idea of You" | Arty featuring Eric Nam | ||
| "Beg" | Jack & Jack | ||
| "Cross Your Mind" | Wingtip featuring morgxn | ||
| "Never Loved Me" | Griffin Oskar | Hostage | |
| 2018 | "High for Me" | Olivia Noelle featuring Kid Ink | If Boys Could Cry |
| "Fck Around & Fall in Luv" | Olivia Noelle | ||
| 2019 | "Hundred" | Khalid | Free Spirit |
| "Nobody Else" | Backstreet Boys | DNA | |
| "Runaway" | Eric Nam | Non-album song | |
| "Imperfections" | Celine Dion | Courage | |
| "You Win" | Olivia Noelle | Non-album song |
Tours
Headlining
- Late Nights, Deep Talks Tour (2017)
- US (8 dates, May 23 – June 7)
- I Met You When I Was 18. World Tour (2018)
- US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway (36 dates, January 18 – April 29)
- Openers: Ashe, Jeremy Zucker
- Fall Tour (2018)
- Germany, UK, France, US (17 dates, September 15 – November 8)
- Opener: Charlotte Lawrence
- Asia Tour (2019)
- India, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan (10 dates, May 13 – 30)
- Opener: bülow
- Note: The show in Jakarta, Indonesia was cancelled due to political aftermath.
- ~how i'm feeling~ Tour (2019)
- US, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, France, UK, New Zealand, Australia (21 dates, October 5 – November 26)
- Opener: Chelsea Cutler & Carlie Hanson
- Summer Tour of Asia (2020)
- India, China, Taiwan, Indonesia (6 dates, June 16 - June 27)
- Opener: mxmtoon
Supporting
- Last to Leave Tour – Louis the Child (2017)
- Supporting on 5 dates in US, October 12–21
- Divide Tour – Ed Sheeran (2017-18)
- Supporting on 6 dates in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India and United Arab Emirates, November 11–23, 2017; and 5 dates in US with Snow Patrol, October 27 – November 9, 2018
- Tell Me You Love Me Tour — Demi Lovato (2018)
- Was going to support on 1 date in US (July 26), but show was canceled
Festivals
- Lollapalooza Argentina
- San Isidro, Argentina (March 27 2020)
- Lollapalooza Brazil
- São Paulo, Brazil (April 3 2020)
