Laleh Pourkarim (Persian: لاله پورکریم, IPA: [lɒːleje puːɾkæɾiːm]; born 10 June 1982), known mononymously as Laleh (Swedish: [ˈlɑ̌ːlɛ]), is an Iranian-Swedish singer-songwriter, record producer, guitarist, pianist, actress and record company manager. Following a short acting career, she entered the music industry in 2005 with her self-titled debut album, which peaked at number one in Sweden and went on to become that country's the highest selling album of the year.
She has since released seven further albums, all of which have been produced, written, recorded, engineered and performed by herself. She has sung in both English and Swedish, in addition to her parents' native tongue, Persian. In 2011, she participated in the Swedish television show Så mycket bättre, which sees a number of artists create new interpretations of the others' songs. Her performances on the show were lauded by both critics and the public. Following the show, it was noted in the media that she had been given "a second breakthrough".
Her 2012 album, Sjung, was released across Scandinavia on 25 January 2012 to generally positive reviews. The lead single from Sjung, "Some Die Young", was a commercial hit across Scandinavia, peaking at number one in Norway for eight weeks and becoming the twentieth biggest selling single of all time in the country. It also went double platinum in Sweden and gave Laleh her second chart-hit in Denmark and first in Finland. Colors, was released across Scandinavia in October 2013. She signed to Island Records in January 2014, and followed with the September 2014 release of the Boom EP. In 2016 she released the album Kristaller and in 2019 the album Vänta!.