Lauv

Leff focused on writing and producing for other artists during college, straying from his personal songwriting style. During his sophomore 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.[15] 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.[14][9]

While getting over a break-up in fall of 2014, he co-wrote "The Other" with Michael Matosic.[8][14] 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.[14] With "The Other", he also discovered his stripped-down electronic pop sound.[8] 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,[8] went viral, peaking at number three on blog aggregator Hype Machine,[14][16] and hitting the Global Top 100 on Spotify.[17]

After graduating from NYU, Lauv signed to the publishing company Prescription Songs.[17]

On September 25, 2015, Lauv released his debut EP, Lost in the Light, which featured "The Other".[4] 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,[9] which reached number 7 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart.[18] In an interview with iHeartRadio, Lauv stated that he's been friends with Trevor Dahl from Cheat Codes since "back in the Myspace days."[19]

On May 19, 2017, Leff released the single "I Like Me Better",[20] an up-tempo track inspired by his relationship that began shortly after he moved to New York City.[9] It peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100,[21] earned platinum certification in seven countries (including the US), and gold certification in three.[18]

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.[20]

It was announced on September 4, 2017, that Leff would be joining Ed Sheeran as the supporting act on his Divide Tour in Asia.[22] 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,[23] 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.[24] 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.[8] On August 30, 2018, Leff released the single "Superhero", a song inspired by a note from the box.[25] He performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 3, 2018.[26]

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.[12][21][27] It has also been described as a "playlist" that Lauv updated gradually until completing it in May 2018.[28] It chronicles his move to New York City and the first time he fell in love.[18][28] By August 2018, it had been streamed over 1 billion times on Spotify.[8]

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.[29]

He released the single "There's No Way", a collaboration with Julia Michaels, on September 27, 2018.[30]

Lauv released the single "I'm So Tired..." with Troye Sivan on January 24, 2019.[31] 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.[28][32] They performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live on February 7, 2019.[33]

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.[34]

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.[35] 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.[36][37] Over the next year he released several such tracks including "Sad Forever",[38] "Feelings",[39][40] and "Mean It", the latter a collaboration with indie pop band LANY.[41][42] In August 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.[43] 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.[44][45] He will be supported in the Asian leg of the tour by American singer-songwriter and social media personality mxmtoon.[46]

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). He also made another song with BTS called "Who".

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[47]

On March 6, 2020, Lauv released his debut album How I'm Feeling.