Icelandic jazz pop sensation Laufey (pronounced as Lay-vay) delighted Filipinos when she performed a Christmas song during the Manila leg of her “Bewitched: The Goddess Tour” on Monday.
The Gen Z jazz-pop icon posted a video of her singing a rendition of the classic Holiday hit “Winter Wonderland” on Instagram, where she captioned it as:
“A special wintery surprise for the Manila lauvers”
She also inserted a text within the video which reads:
“I heard Filipinos start celebrating Christmas in September…”
It was accompanied by a Christmas tree emoji.
Laufey is a Grammy-winning Icelandic-Chinese singer and multi-instrumentalist influenced by jazz and traditional pop.
She first went viral on TikTok in 2020 with her contemporary jazz-meets-classical tunes.
The 25-year-old artist has since won a Grammy award in 2024 for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her album “Bewitched.”
The nominees in her category included Bruce Springsteen and a cappella sensation Pentatonix.
Meanwhile, Laufey’s September 3 Instagram post has earned over 170,000 likes and several comments, including from Filipino users who were delighted at the Christmas song performance.
“Best start for the Ber months! Thank you for the performance!” an Instagram user commented.
“@laufey, been playing since Sept. 1, my queen! Our honorary Filipina slayyys!” another supporter wrote.
“I LOVED IT SM [SO MUCH],” commented a different fan with crying and heart emojis.
Another online user quipped of identifying as a “Filipino” since they also anticipate Christmas as early as March.
“IG [I guess] I identify as Filipino now, the way I start counting down the days in March,” the online user wrote.
The Philippines is famous for celebrating Christmas as early as the -Ber months begin, starting in September.
Malls and public spaces would start to play classic Holiday hits like Jose Mari Chan’s Christmas album and Mariah Carey’s festive “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
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Mariah herself also recognized the Filipino tradition, previously quipping that she would only allow her “Filipino lambs” to sing her Yuletide hit as early as September.
ALSO READ: Philippines’ early Christmas celeb takes spotlight as Mariah Carey gives shoutout to Pinoy fans
Meanwhile, colorful festive decorations would also be set up in Philippine malls as soon as the -Ber months roll in to usher in the Christmas vibes.
In the Philippines, the -Ber months (or the months ending in -“ber”) are almost always synonymous with the Holiday season.
These months are also associated with the onset of the northeast monsoon or the “amihan,” in which cool and dry winds from Siberia and China would make their way down to Southeast Asia.
This makes the air in the country cooler than usual.
It can also be considered the Philippines’ equivalent to the winter season, which also happens in December — the Christmas month— in countries in the Northern Hemisphere.