“Thank you for braving the rain to be with me and singing at the very top of your lungs.”

The lauvers did, in their laufeycore outfits, chantilly, frilly, avant-garde, cotton candy-like dresses and trademark white bow on their heads, in droves, and filled the Mall of Asia Arena on a stormy Monday night (Sept. 2) to see and listen to Grammy Award-winning Icelandic singer and multi-instrumentalist Laufey (pronounced as lāy-vāy) as she mounted her first arena concert, and her third performance in the country this year.

As Tropical Storm “Enteng” was battering the country with strong winds and rains, Laufey brought her Bewitched, the Goddess Tour to Manila from her successful performances in Hong Kong and Taipei and cast a spell on the Generation Z lauvers with a smattering of chaperones and Gen Xs (including me).

“I woke up this morning and looked out the window. It’s so beautiful. It’s so rainy. And I said to myself, oh, they will come,” Laufey confessed. “There is something romantic about listening to music in the rain.”

“Thank you so much for coming here. I am so honored that you have supported me. The Philippines has really given me so much warmth. This is my third concert here this year and certainly not the last,” she said.

On Instagram, Laufey later shared a photo of her during her Manila show with the huge awestruck crowd and swaying sea of lights with the words: “Manila, I’m speechless.” “Such an incredibly moving night in Manila. I don’t think I’ll ever believe that this is my life. Mahal kita Philippines!”

As she performed onstage, the awesome Laufey got awed by the warmth, the love, the sea of lights, and said: “This is so beautiful! Mahal kita!” The crowd roared.

Laufey dazzled, mesmerized, bewitched, and held the audience at the palm of her talented hands as she sang for an hour and a half and played the piano, cello, and guitar to the point that she and her music melded together, and you wouldn’t know where one started and ended.

The fluidity with which she moved from one song to the next, from her opening piece of “While you were Sleeping,” to the encore song “Winter Wonderland” because Laufey said: “A little birdie told me that you start celebrating Christmas in September,” mesmerized the lauvers so much that smiles were plastered all over their faces (including mine) throughout the night.

She breezed through Dreamer, Falling Behind, Beautiful Stranger, I Wish You Love, Let You Break My Heart Again, Fragile, Bored, From the Start, Letter to My 13 Year Old Self, and many other favorites, with no pause except for the occasional sips of water and instrumental meanderings.

It was a night of good, beautiful, soothing music with a multi-talented Goddess on stage looking like she was at home, in the company of good friends, but in reality, she was entertaining an arena full of music-loving Filipinos who welcomed her into their hearts.