2008–2012: Early years and Somersault Sunday Leff began writing music at an early age. When he was 12, he started his first rock duo with his best friend Mike Wagenheim, and by age 13, the two teens started a metal band. After starting to try and write music, Leff began experimenting with an acoustic guitar and some synth sounds. A few months later, he wrote his own solo acoustic song called
Parting Ways. Leff then formed his first solo music project,
Somersault Sunday, when he was 14 years old on April 28, 2008. He started it first "as a side project, just for fun," but continued it after receiving enthusiastic online response.
Somersault Sunday is an electro-infused pop rock solo-project. Under the
Somersault Sunday project, he was able to release three
extended plays namely,
Parting Ways EP (2009),
Intermission – EP (2010), and
Phone Calls & Weekends (2010). Trevor Dahl of
Cheat Codes (who was then making music under the moniker
Plug in Stereo) featured on his track "Wishful Thinking" from the
Intermission EP. The
Phone Calls & Weekends EP, was produced by Kevin Gates, who also mixed and produced some of the songs of
Never Shout Never,
The Ready Set, and the late
Cady Groves. He posted his songs on
MySpace along with some song covers, and kept close contact with his fans through the platform. He had a band playing with him during live shows and concerts. Leff was known for his basement concerts in his early middle and high school years. He even won a coveted spot to perform during the 2011 Vans Warped Tour.
2014–2016: Beginnings and Lost in the Light Leff focused on writing and producing for other artists during college, straying from his personal songwriting style. During his second year, he stumbled upon an interview with
Paul Simon, in which Simon described his songwriting 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. and hitting the Global Top 100 on
Spotify. After graduating from NYU, Lauv signed to the publishing company
Prescription Songs. Then, apart from releasing the single "Question" featuring Travis Mills in 2016, Lauv 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, In an interview with
iHeartRadio, Lauv stated that he had been friends with Trevor Dahl from
Cheat Codes since "back in the
Myspace days."
2017–2018: Breakthrough and Asia tour 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. earned platinum certification in seven countries (including the US), and gold certification in three. 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. 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. He released the single "
There's No Way", a collaboration with
Julia Michaels, on September 27, 2018. 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.
2019–2020: ''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. 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. It is the second single from his debut studio album ''
How I'm Feeling. He also announced that month that he would unveil his debut album How I'm Feeling'' track by track as it is being recorded, simultaneously with the tour. A little under a month later, on May 20, 2019, Lauv held his first ever arena show at the
Smart Araneta Coliseum. Lauv also debuted "
Sad Forever" during the show, which gave way to becoming the music video for the single. During the concert, Lauv stated that "This is officially the biggest headline show that I ever played," and he wanted to have the video shot in Manila. Eleven days later, on May 31, 2019, Lauv released the single and music video for "
Sad Forever". He also announced that all proceeds from the song will 100% be donated to mental health organizations that work to remove stigma around mental illness. He has raised over $150,000 to date. On August 1, 2019, he released "
Fuck, I'm Lonely", a collaboration with British singer
Anne-Marie for the soundtrack of the third season of
13 Reasons Why. The track was also included on his debut album. As of March 9, 2021, the song has amassed over 350 million streams on Spotify. The album is being promoted with the ''How I'm Feeling
Tour, which began in Washington, D.C., on October 5, 2019, 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 will be supported in the Asian leg of the tour by American singer-songwriter and social media personality mxmtoon. On September 19, 2019, Lauv released "Feelings", Two weeks later, on October 3, Lauv released the single "Sims". A "short film" for the single was released on October 28. On October 18, 2019, Lauv made his debut in K-pop through his collaboration with BTS for the song "Make It Right", which is an ode to ARMY (BTS fans). On November 14, 2019, Lauv teamed up with LANY for Mean It, with the music video following up on December 17. On December 22, 2019, 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 Bollywood film Good Newwz'' On January 2, 2020, Lauv released the eighth single and music video for his debut album ''
How I'm Feeling, titled "Changes". Two weeks later, on January 16, 2020, Lauv released the ninth single and music video for How I'm Feeling, titled "Tattoos Together". Lauv sings about getting tattoos with his significant other as a way to remember each other should they ever fall out. On February 20, 2020, Lauv released the tenth single and visualizer for How I'm Feeling'', titled "
Modern Loneliness". On March 6, 2020, Lauv released ''
How I'm Feeling'', unveiling three collaborations. "Who" with
Jimin and
Jungkook of
BTS, On May 22, Lauv once again teamed up with artists
mxmtoon and
Jeremy Zucker, alongside
Vivek Murthy for a three part one-on-one conversation regarding mental health. On June 24, 2020, Lauv released the
Without You, with tracks such as "Mine", "Dishes", "Love Somebody" and "Miss Me", a demo released by Lauv on SoundCloud a month prior. The music video for the song "Dishes" was also released. Also worth noting is that all songs on the EP were written and produced during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six days later, on June 30, 2020, Lauv collaborated with
Ellie Goulding for "
Slow Grenade". Over the remainder of the summer, Lauv collaborated with many artists for a variety of songs, such as "if i were u" with
blackbear and "Sweet and Sour" with artists
Tyga and
Jawsh 685. Most notably, Lauv, alongside
Saweetie collaborated with
Ava Max for the remixed "second" version of "Kings & Queens", which was released on August 6, 2020, titled "
Kings & Queens, Pt. 2". On October 10, 2020, in honor of World Mental Health Day, Lauv once again teamed up with artists, creators and experts from around the world as part of an effort to erase stigma surrounding mental health with a series of livestreamed conversations which can be found on Lauv's YouTube Channel. On October 13, 2020, Lauv released the single "Fake" with
Conan Gray, a song where both Gray and Leff take swipes at fake people who pretend to be their friends although they betray and lie about them behind their backs. On November 13, 2020, he was featured on "
Stop Crying Your Heart Out" as part of the BBC Radio 2's Allstars'
BBC Children in Need 2020 charity single in the United Kingdom. The single debuted at number seven on the
UK Singles Chart on November 20, 2020 – for the week ending date November 26, 2020 – and number one on both the
UK Singles Sales Chart and the
UK Singles Download Chart. On December 31, 2020, Lauv dropped the surprise single "2021" as a New Year's Eve special. "2021" is a song that looks to the incoming year to be brighter and more hopeful than the current year the world had to deal with. Overall, the song welcomes the new year.
2021–2022: All 4 Nothing and tour On July 27, 2021, American DJ
DallasK announced a new single "Try Again", featuring Lauv. The song was released July 30. On January 18, 2022, Lauv announced his second studio album is "done", with the lead single titled "26" released on January 28. Around this time, it was revealed in a Billboard article that Lauv finalized a distribution deal with
Virgin Music Label & Artist Services. On April 8, 2022, Lauv released the second single from his second album, titled "All 4 Nothing (I'm So in Love)" along with a music video. The previous day, his
Spotify About description had been edited with information regarding the title of his second album
All 4 Nothing. The album was released on August 5 along with the music video for the single "Stranger"; to support the album, Lauv embarked on a North American tour, stopping at many cities in both Canada and the US.
2023–present: In Between Albums tour and standalone singles On April 27, Lauv announced Asia dates for his "in between albums tour" where he played in Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Chinese mainland, followed by Europe/UK & Oceania dates on July 10. In June 2023, Lauv released "
Steal the Show", for the
Pixar Animation Studios film
Elemental. At the same time, he co-wrote
Mimi Webb's song "This Moment" for the animated teen comedy film
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. On August 4, 2023, Lauv released his new single "
Love U Like That". In 2024, Lauv released several singles, including "Potential" on April 24, and "Cozy," a collaboration with
Jeremy Zucker and
Alexander 23, on May 22. On September 12, 2024, Lauv released another single, “First Heartbreak” under his new partnership with
AWAL. In 2025, Lauv began his "I Love You, Mean It Tour" across Asia, with performances in Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Daegu (South Korea), and Nanjing (China). On July 18, 2025, he released a new single, "Combust.". Lauv release
Mad a pop dance collaboration with the Dutch DJ and record producer
Martin Garrix. It was released on May 27, 2025. The track premiered in March 2025 during Garrix's set at
Ultra Music Festival, where Lauv joined him on stage. In the Netherlands, "Mad" debuted at number 38 on the
Dutch Top 40 and later peaked at number 18, spending three weeks at its peak. It remained on the chart for a total of 22 weeks, also peaked at number 1 on US Dance Radio. The song also appeared on two national charts overall. On September 5, 2025, Lauv was part of the Coke Studio Season 9: LIVE’ joint concert which featured Philippine pop groups such as
Bini and
Alamat. == Personal life ==