The creative dawn of Zara Larsson

No, it’s not a number 1 like “Manchild”, it doesn’t shatter the internet like “Girl, so confusing featuring Lorde”, or start a movement like “HOT TO GO!” It hasn’t even charted in the US or UK. But what it lacks in commercial success it makes up for in vibes; a long-waited cultural shift is happening for Larsson, the momentum perfect for heading into her fourth studio album, the summery and hypnotic Midnight Sun.

Hours before her set opening for Tate McRae at Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena, Larsson tells me that the glimmering, climbing success of “Midnight Sun” is something she’s familiar with. “I feel people re-discover me every couple of years,” she says. “Something happens and then it goes off, then something else happens…” She imitates a frantic crawl, scaling up the walls of pop superstardom. “I’m here, I’m here!” Now with a closely-followed tour run, a bombastic, ever-replayable track, and piles of praise including her being knighted “Beyoncé’s white daughter,” this might be the moment. “It feels like we’re on the very last steps of walking up a hill. And we’re so close to being able to see the beautiful view.”

It’s true that “Midnight Sun” isn’t a worldwide hit — last year’s pop mega-smashes have set a high bar — but there’s more than a palpable buzz around it. Every day I see a video on Twitter of its music video or its live vocal run going viral. TikToks of her performing usually clock likes in the millions. Draped in crystallized hibiscus flowers, her look at the recent VMAs brought to life her now-signature early 2000s, sunkissed Baywatch look. “I love when people actually act like popstars,” someone wrote on X.

Larsson has been making pop music for a decade, but she’s right in that this song has propelled her to a new realm. 2017’s debut So Good was a streaming juggernaut — three songs, including her tropical pop staple “Lush Life” are in the billions club — and later singles were catchy anthems that evoked Carly Rae Jepsen and the Swedish melodies that produced so many superstars out of the nation. “Symphony” in 2018 (more on that soon), “All the Time” in 2019, “Love Me Land” in 2020, then “Can’t Tame Her” in 2023 were all sorta-hits — a week or so of praise on certain areas on X/Twitter, but when it came to chart success, Larsson was still a relatively unknown figure. The energy feels completely different for Midnight Sun, a project where her full creative control has resulted in her brightest and best music yet. “There’s a difference between having a big song and being someone people take interest in as an artist and the world you build,” she says. “I felt like I had the big song, but I didn’t have the world.”

The world came serendipitously, in the form of a meme. Last year, TikTok users were pulling “Symphony”, her song with Clean Bandit, out of the pop graveyard and into a technicolor world of smiling dolphins and rainbows. She put the dolphins in her shows at the time, but when it became big, “I didn’t know how to capitalise off of something like that. I spent so much time online, of course I was aware of what was happening. That’s so fun, to be inspired by something that happens [online]. And people might associate that with me now.” She decided to cement her brand in a way she had never done before. The video for “Midnight Sun” is basically a continuation of that Barbie summer energy, brought to real life: Larsson in a boardwalk-ready top dancing in cerulean water below a vibrant sunset or in a lush forest, stickers, dolphins, and butterflies eclipsing the camera. “I’m a little nymph who found her way into the city, but still going down to take a swim on lunch break,” Larsson says about the vision.

“When you look at the numbers, and you compare them to previous single releases, it’s kind of flopping,” Larsson says. “But I feel like culturally, people are really connecting with it.” Call it an underdog story, call it hard work paying off, but people are finally discovering her back catalog and realizing that a plethora of incredible pop awaits. Better yet, her upcoming album is filled with summery, electro-pop hits that feel true to her; this is the first time she co-wrote every song on an album. This is what matters, Larsson says, and growing up has shifted her perspective. “I want real people to care about the things I’m doing and feel they can relate to that or feel inspired in some way. Who cares about a Spotify playlist? I feel a different energy, and it’s so rewarding, because this album feels so me.” During studio sessions, she declined when people pulled up the Hot 100 to see what was trending: “Let’s lock in!”

That attitude is because of the freeform, easygoing atmosphere where Midnight Sun was born. Sessions with Larsson’s close-knit team — which includes longtime collaborator MNEK, songwriter Helena Gao and producer Margo XS — were filled with conversations, laughter, and idea-hopping. It couldn’t be farther from how she’s worked before, either with a larger team where she had little to no creative control, or with people that were excellent producers but with whom she didn’t feel a strong connection. “VENUS [her last record] taught me a lot of things about how I like to work, how I am in the studio, who I am creatively,” she says. Midnight Sun was made by friends. Songs usually started with a simple chat that Gao would transcribe, hunched over like a court reporter, emerging with a full song. “It was really like magic. And it was like that every time,” Larsson says.

It was an open, freeing environment where new sparks of inspiration suddenly emerged. Larsson had brought “Midnight Sun” to a couple of sessions for previous albums, but nothing clicked until the first day with the four. They finished lead single “Pretty Ugly” that same day and knew something big was in the works. “I think we all bring something out in each other. It was really inspiring and really amazing. There’s endless inspiration and motivation if you can access a part of yourself that isn’t judging, when you’re just in a creative flow.”

That’s why the hype around the music is so personal — the record feels like a piece of her. With previous albums, she either didn’t write her own material or felt sidelined by the presence of industry veterans. “I was always the youngest person in the room,” she says after being signed at 14, and felt massive pressure after So Good’s singles blew up. “It’s very hard when you start out and you get huge amounts of success very early without cementing who you are artistically,” she says. “I just wanted to hold onto my success. I didn’t have a team that I worked with creatively. I didn’t write everything back then. I was looking outside of myself so much: ‘‘Who am I?’ What will they think?’ I think I’ve always had a vision, or a taste level. I just wasn’t confident enough in myself to trust it.”

But Midnight Sun is built from the ground up, constructed from a vision of a Scandinavian summer like no other — friends, family, fun, sex and cigs. “The more I travel, the older I get, there’s something that makes me really grateful for the way I grew up and where I’m from,” she says. She’s lived in the same house all her life, still keeps in touch with older friends. The magic of the midnight sun, the dreamy, cosmic phenomenon she captured in a live performance, was normal to her as a child, but after traveling the world, she understands how special it is. “A lot of people don’t know it’s a real thing,” she says. “They just think it’s a beautiful, symbolic thing I made up. But that’s my life, every summer was like that.”

Midnight Sun is an analysis and ode to the earth and all its natural, cyclical forces — equal parts worship and confusion. She’s basking in the glow of a warm night with her boyfriend on “Blue Moon”, or feeling unburdened by the weight of the universe on “Saturn’s Return.” The chorus of “Midnight Sun” is basically seeing something so beautiful you just have to sing about it. “Connected, I’m so in touch with it all,” goes her breathy voice, “You feel protected by the moon and the stars.” I didn’t realize she was so earthy, I tell her. “I know!” she says. “I’ve become more and more.”

The album is “spiritual,” she says. “It’s a love letter to life. The best thing that I know is to go out to my country house, an hour outside of Stockholm, and just be in nature. There’s so many beautiful things about growing up there. I just wanted to capture the essence of that more. I travel so much, just like, take me to a tree. Let me touch grass! There’s something so grounding to that. I get so emotional when I see a beautiful sunset. A beautiful cloud. It’s so beautiful and I’m so thankful to be alive, to be doing what I do.”

Maybe it was Saturn's return, the phenomenon where the planet completes its orbit after around 27 years and goes back to the same position it was at your birth. The song she wrote about it was actually the last; it felt destined. “I really felt it in my body,” she says about the event. “Something is shifting in me. I realised a lot of the things, a lot of the patterns in my life, I felt a huge wave of self-love and self-esteem, I felt more sure of myself. It humbles you.”

In that song, Larsson is floating amongst waves of instability, learning not to drown, and even seeing the positive. Over a seismic, pulsing chorus, she sings, “It feels so good to know I don’t know what I’m doing.” It’s more of a cry, really, or a bellow. “Saturn’s Return” is a meditative, introspective song that’s a far cry from Larsson the pop star — it sounds like it could be a Caroline Polachek number. But she loves that it feels so unexpected, that growing up means fine-tuning your lyricism and writing about serious topics. “The more I experience, the more mysterious it gets,” she sings, “Better let it unfold.” Invokes the “keep calm and carry on” mindset recently back in vogue thanks to Addison Rae’s “Headphones On”; Larsson is embracing the unknown with open arms.

That’s one of her favorites at the moment as she tracks where she’s been, where she’s going. Her friends are growing up, having children. “Got me thinking like I might want that, too,” she muses, “damn, that’s new.” I mention that as I grow older, I feel more sure of the person I am. Larsson says it’s more about understanding the world around her, and the fact that it’s impossible to get it completely right. “I don’t think everything is as black and white as I maybe originally felt it was being a teenager,” she says. “When I was younger, I knew everything, personally. You couldn’t tell me shit about anything. I was so sure of myself. There was something that softened me over the years, but also made me more able to try things. It doesn’t matter if I know or not, what I’m doing in life, if this is forever, or I’ve decided to do this. I don’t know, and that’s kinda nice. I think [in writing] most of the lyrics, I was in a preaching vibe.” She imitates being in a didactic trance, somewhere in between a New Age guru and a headfast priest: “And also, I have my roots! That means my leaves can change!” Her collaborators said, “Yes, exactly,” wrote it all down, and came out with a song.

Other people remain a mystery as well. “Now that I’ve grown older, there’s so much nuance to so many things, and so many realities people live in,” she says. “There isn’t just mine, even though my world is my world. I don’t know everyone’s story. I don’t know why it’s like that, but I can empathize with that. It’s made me a better person. It’s made me less judgy. I don’t know everyone, I don’t know everyone’s story. I don’t know why it’s like that, but I can empathize with that. The world is so small, but it’s still so big. Not to be completely shroomy, but it’s like, ‘We are one! Why are we here?’”

There’s a ‘shroominess’ about the album, its wide-eyed embrace of the natural world, and to our conversation as well. I admit that after two glasses of wine, I get hopeful and emotional about the amount of art there is to produce and consume in the world. She shares my enthusiasm: “And it will never end! We all get inspired after each other. Art brings art and it keeps going on. I feel like there’s something universal about it in its core. And there’s endless inspiration with everything. We will keep making and keep doing. Nothing is static.”

Sometimes a pop song can be art, and Midnight Sun has some stellar ones. “Life is fun. Pop is fun,” Larsson’s mission statement goes. “Pretty Ugly” is a hedonistic shrugging-off of traditional roles by way of “Hollaback Girl”, “Blue Moon” is a dizzying, erratic Baltimore club love story, “Crush” desperately tries to ward off attraction to a forbidden subject, “Girl’s Girl” is what happens when the guardrails are removed. “What happens when a girl’s girl wants a boy?” she asks, and she chooses her words carefully when I ask if it was based on a real life situation: “I was sixteen… It turned out really shit.” The album closer, “Puss Puss”, (‘Kiss kiss’ in Swedish) is a sweet sign-off to a boyfriend on the phone that transforms into a raging banger. This is an album begging to be played in the club to memorialize a never-ending summer that can be conjured with the right vibe and the right beats.

But prioritising fun doesn’t mean Larsson stays away from serious subjects; she’ll use a song as a Trojan horse for a deeper, more meaningful conversation. She’s been teasing “Hot & Sexy” on tour, a three-in-one Frankenstein song that combines bubblegum bass, Brazilian funk, and techno, narrated by Tiffany “New York” Pollard’s iconic Big Brother quote. It’s fun, it’s bouncy (“K-Pop down!”), filled with it-girl quips (“Get in the car, girl, we gon’ be late / Puss puss 97 on the number plate”), but after its dance break, something like anger starts to calcify. Part of the song was taken from a demo called “Let a Girl Live”, meaning being able to have drinks with your girls without some rude guy bothering you, but unfortunately, its meaning can be literal. “Tale as old as time, crime on womankind” she sings with her voice warped, “I’m done feeling like I’m prey / Watching my back everyday.” It gets real quickly, a reminder that outside the bright strobes of the club, a dark night awaits outside.

That song ends with the plea to “let a girl be hot and sexy,” which has a political element to it, too. No matter which way a woman dresses, conservative commentators on the internet will find a way to slot it into their binary view: a tradwife or a slut. “Me dressing up in this tiny dress and these uncomfortable heels, maybe I am conforming to the patriarchy,” Larsson admits. “Maybe I am just a girl who lives in a world where I’m trying to survive and have a good time and be cute because that’s what’s expected of me, but even if I do, just let me be!”

The writing process for this album has broadened her view of humanity, leaving room for nuance where previously, doubt remained. She mentions writing “Ain’t My Fault” with MNEK a decade ago, anxious that the lyrics — “It ain’t my fault your man’s calling my phone” — didn’t agree with the blog she was writing at the time, which focused on women's rights. “I felt like a bad feminist,” she says, “Even though I’m just a person.” Now, she can write a sassy song like “Girl’s Girl” and laugh. “I don’t have to be perfect, I know who I am. I’m more secure in knowing I’m a good person. My confidence in how I presented myself to the world was not completely solid [years ago]. I don’t think it’ll ever be solid, but at least now, I’m very sure of who I am.”

That opens the door for some messy topics, both on the album, and what she’s willing to share. “The Ambition” is an honest view of her competitive nature, something that wasn’t really allowed to be discussed openly back in Sweden, owing to its socialist roots. Their word jantelagen means you’re not better than anyone: “You can’t say, ‘I want to be the best. I want more.’” It hasn’t stopped her, as “The Ambition” is all about thinking competitively and pushing yourself to the top, a fervor she’s known all her life. “It’s just how I was born, in my DNA. It’s what I crave. It’s why I’m an artist.” It’s quite an American ideal, but one that took work to give voice to. “I think it’s a human thing, and people don’t really want to admit it, because it’s vulnerable,” she says. “I think there’s something kinda pathetic about it.”

On that song, too, she details the endless scrolling self-comparison to other girls. She’s off Twitter — “thank god I deleted it” — but now with this tour, the fans are praising her in ways that feel backhanded. “Everyone’s not in favour of Tate at all,” she says. “They’ve been so mean to her because they want to uplift me. It’s fun that people think I’m good, but they say, ‘What the fuck, why is she an opener?’ It’s nothing to do with Tate personally.” The girls have talked about it before — “Don’t listen to these people,” she told McRae. “Real people show up to your shows every night.”

Later that night, when I saw both artists perform, the crowd went up for each, almost like it was a double headliner. Larsson, decked out in thigh-high tie-dye boots, a watery teal skirt and Day-Glo orange top, sunkissed with her signature beachy blonde waves and hibiscus flowers, demanded attention from the opening notes of “Pretty Ugly” to her now-famous “Midnight Sun” run, to a star-making remix of her song “Ammunition” with Britney Spears’ “Gimme More”. “I’ve always seen myself as a performer first,” she told me, and now was her time to prove it — an inimitable stage presence and choreographic glee is in every moment. It’s clear why people say the ‘opener’ label doesn’t fit quite right: after a decade in the industry, she knows how to build a crowd.

But she’s trying to keep her head down and focus on the work — there’s viral tweets about her left and right, but it could just as quickly turn on a dime. “I’m trying to savour this moment of being this underrated underdog opener because it’s kind of no pressure. I don’t think people are expecting much from me, and that’s why it’s extra fun to give them a show.” Despite not performing much in the US, the momentum from opening for McRae resulted in her first ever headline tour, starting next winter.

Despite the surge of compliments and praise Larsson’s receiving now, X/Twitter is still a no-go. She’s posting on TikTok, usually after-show dances or a spooky Halloween edition of “Midnight Sun.” But Twitter — “It invalidates me,” she says. “I start searching for my name. It’s to stroke my ego with the good things, but I’m also searching for that negative thing to scratch my insecurities. Once I read that, I get really sad, and then I have to read twenty more good things. It’s this weird loop. I don’t think that it’s something our brains are meant to be doing. I want to feel it in real life a bit more.”

Thankfully, she’s doing just that — creating art that feels closer to her soul, based on conversations with her friends detailing messy feelings that need to escape. Those are real, just like the people who show up the tour, to scream along to her lyrics. She’s one of the buzziest pop stars around right now, but Zara Larsson is capital-O Offline. “Midnight Sun is literally about touching grass,” she says. “It’s the most amazing thing. And the small things, too. Feeling the wind. Listening to a good song when you’re driving. That’s the essence and the core of who I am right now.”