Songfacts®:

• "Valentine" is a jazz-pop tune about the unexpected joy and awkwardness of a first love. Laufey explores the butterflies, confusion, self-doubt, and vulnerability of opening oneself up to love.
  
  "'Valentine' is about being in love for the first time and not quite knowing how to react to it," Laufey told Consequence. "That electrifying and shocking feeling that you get when you realize that someone loves you back."
• Born in a dorm room of Berklee College of Music when she was a student, "Valentine" was an experiment that blossomed into something far grander. A casual TikTok post a year later sparked a viral wildfire, so Laufey decided to finish the song and record it. "I took inspiration from various styles in creating this song but was mostly inspired by the sounds of the jazz-age," said the Icelandic-Chinese singer.
• Laufey enlisted fellow Berklee alum Spencer Stewart to help her get "Valentine" to the finish line. The two of them laced the song with "magical harmonies and piano flares" that elevated its romantic ambiance.
• Released on Valentine's Day, 2022 as the lead single from her debut album, Everything I Know About Love, "Valentine" became Laufey's breakout anthem. "It's just a jazz song that I wrote on Valentine's Day, kind of as a joke, but once I posted it, my phone started blowing up," she told The Guardian. "Now it's become like a new standard. It's fun that a song I wrote as a homage to the past can be understood as new music."
• Laufey released a live orchestral version recorded with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra on February 14, 2023.