Lauv

Ari Staprans Leff (born August 8, 1994), known professionally as Lauv (), is an American singer best known for his breakout hit "I Like Me Better"; included on his compilation album I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist), which was released in 2018. His debut album, ''How I'm Feeling, was released on March 6, 2020, and debuted at number 16 on the US Billboard'' 200. Lauv has also written songs for other artists such as "Boys" by Charli XCX and "No Promises" by Cheat Codes and Demi Lovato.

== Early life == Leff was born in San Francisco, California. His father, Stuart Leff, is Jewish, and his mother, Silvija Staprāns, is Latvian. He spent his early childhood in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, and then his family relocated to a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He went to Radnor High School. As a child, he was interested in music and took piano and viola lessons before learning how to play the guitar at the age of 11. Leff studied guitar, recording, sound design, production, voice, and songwriting with Jason Brook Zimmerman, co-owner and founder of the music lesson organization, Traveling Musician. He started writing songs in middle school, at around 14 years old. Many of his songs during this period focused on heartbreak and breakups, despite at the time, never having had a girlfriend. During his time in high school, he played in several bands and studied jazz before moving on to electronic music. He has said that his sister, Aiva would drive him and his friends on tour, where they often played "to zero people". His early musical influences were Owl City and Never Shout Never. He would listen to Owl City's ''Maybe I'm Dreaming and study the production style and the abstract lyrical themes that use "dreamy" and "whimsical" images to describe love. He also adopted the artist name, Somersault Sunday'', and published some songs and extended plays on his Myspace account.