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Regardless whether you’re a fan of the film “A Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey” (2025), which has “The Risk” as part of its original soundtrack (OST), this song is worth listening to and analysing. It’s of course better if you listen in context.  

An Icelandic-Chinese singer, Laufey has been actively building her career since 2020, during which her debut single “Street by Street” was released. “The Risk” speaks of one’s vulnerability to love again, even if one has had a difficult past with relationships. Despite it being a slow jazz ballad, the song’s piano intro gives you both calm and suspense, since it sounds like a river flowing. It is in the song’s first verse that you’ll hear the 27-year-old Laufey singing about self-forgiveness, letting go of the past, comparing falling in love with diving into a deep lake.

As usual, the chorus is the one that attracts you and pulls you in, as there is a change in melody. With a higher pitch and an expanded range, both the shape and emotional weight of the song shift. The chorus underscores a sense of emotional fragility, admitting to a longing to be held and loved, even when love feels terrifying.

Even if the song is slow in tempo, the song’s bridge offers you a different kind of magic. It gives you the “what if” you could rewrite childhood memories, in line with parts of the film.

Laufey was born Laufey Lin Bing Jónsdóttir to a finance executive and a violinist. Her violinist mother is the daughter of Lin Yaoji, a violin educator at the Central Conservatory of Music in China. Júnía Lín Hua Jónsdóttir is Laufey’s identical twin sister. Júnía is a violinist and Laufey’s creative director.

Laufey’s music is a blend of genres like classical music and jazz pop. Thanks to a presidential scholarship, Laufey had received her scroll from the US-based Berklee College of Music. Laufey also studied at Reykjavík College of Music, Iceland.  Initially, Laufey had intentions of studying economics at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, where her twin sister graduated from with a degree in international relations.

Laufey speaks English, Icelandic, and Mandarin Chinese. As part of her standard school curriculum in Iceland, she also studied Danish for seven years and is able to read and understand it, although she does not speak it. Besides learning the piano from the age of four and the cello from the age of eight, Laufey grew up doing figure skating and ballet.

Laufey’s influences include Adele, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frédéric Chopin.

International media outlets in the US and Australia have said that Laaufey’s music include elements of bossa nova, pop, jazz, and classical. She has also been described as a contralto, the lowest of the female singing voice.

Laufey gave a solo performance as a cellist, accompanied by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at the age of 15. While in Iceland, she participated in the 2014 edition of Ísland Got Talent—the Icelandic version of Got Talent—where she became a finalist. In 2015, when she took part on The Voice Iceland, she ended up on the semifinal stage. At the time, she was the youngest competitor in the series' history.

In January 2026, she was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Falcon by the President of Iceland for her contribution to music.

To date, the romantic fantasy film “A Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey” has been streaming on Netflix within Southeast Asia since January 2026.

The movie, with a runtime of 109 minutes, initially arrived in theatres in September 2025.