{"id":171483,"date":"2025-09-26T21:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T21:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/171483\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T21:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T21:34:12","slug":"zara-larsson-hopes-new-album-helps-complete-her-pop-superstar-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/171483\/","title":{"rendered":"Zara Larsson hopes new album helps complete her pop superstar puzzle"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Zara Larsson is no stranger to packing dance floors around the world, boasting a catalog with several songs that have earned more than a billion streams. But despite possessing all the individual pieces a superstar career requires, her jigsaw has yet to be fully completed in the way she\u2019s hoped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s been a disconnect between what I\u2019ve released and who I am,\u201d said the 27-year-old. \u201cI feel finally people are starting to piece the puzzle together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"This<\/p>\n

(Sommer House\/Epic Records via AP)<\/p>\n

(Sommer House\/Epic Records via AP)<\/p>\n

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Larsson is betting that the image becomes more formed with her new album, \u201cMidnight Sun,\u201d out Friday. Serving as love letter to her native Sweden where summer sunlight can extend until midnight, her 10-track, fourth studio project follows up 2024\u2019s \u201cVenus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larsson, who entered the entertainment world when she was just 10, has never been shy about her desire to become the biggest pop star in the world. But her journey has taught her expectations may have to be tempered.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe my perspectives of life has changed, too, just growing older. And now, I\u2019m at a point where it\u2019s like maybe I want a family. \u2026 That, in a way, feels more important than just being amazing in front of people I don\u2019t know,\u201d said the artist, whose 2017 \u201cSymphony\u201d collaboration with Clean Bandit \u2014 already a megahit \u2014 recently went viral on TikTok. \u201cIt\u2019s maturity, but also actively \u2014 like really actively \u2014 having to say \u2026 I am good enough as I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"This<\/p>\n

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The \u201cLush Life\u201d singer, who recently opened on Tate McRae\u2019s tour, will headline her own dates starting next month in Europe before launching a North American leg in February. Larsson spoke with The Associated Press about \u201cMidnight Sun,\u201d the pressure to create more big hits, and becoming a \u201cbetter person.\u201d This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.<\/p>\n

AP: You wrote on every song and said you\u2019re most proud of this album. Why is it special?<\/p>\n

LARSSON: The older I get, I just wanna make what I put out, and just make it feel like it\u2019s coming from me. Because I\u2019ve had great songs and great projects and really real and heartfelt stuff, but it\u2019s different when it\u2019s my words.<\/p>\n

AP: Is there pressure to create another huge hit like \u201cLush Life\u201d?<\/p>\n

LARSSON: What was so fun about making this album is that, this time around, I felt no pressure. And it was kind of like coming back to when I first started making music, like my first EPs that I released only in Scandinavia. We were just having fun and trying things.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I felt a lot of pressure after my first album, \u201cSo Good,\u201d just to keep that huge mainstream success going, which led to me kind of like not be able to do anything for four years.<\/p>\n

AP: You\u2019ve made no secret of your desire to become the biggest pop star in the world. How do you respond when your goals aren\u2019t reached?<\/p>\n

LARSSON: I\u2019ve just had to actively work on how I view myself and life because I do still want to be the best, but I think life\u2019s about the journey. \u2026 Even though I\u2019ve been doing it for a long time, I just really, really feel like I am just at the beginning. <\/p>\n

AP: It takes courage to put out a song like \u201cThe Ambition.\u201d Why were you willing to openly express your professional insecurities?<\/p>\n

LARSSON: A lot of people that I play that song to, they\u2019re like, \u201cI feel that.\u201d And especially in an industry where \u2026 it\u2019s like how other people are seeing you and how much they like you. And you\u2019re chasing this thing that you will never really reach. \u2026 A lot of my success that I had so early on, it\u2019s sad that I can\u2019t go back and really enjoy what I got to experience.<\/p>\n

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\"Zara<\/p>\n

Zara Larsson poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa\/Invision\/AP)<\/p>\n

Zara Larsson poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa\/Invision\/AP)<\/p>\n

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I romanticized just moving out to the countryside and not caring about any of this, and just maybe record some music on my laptop. But then, it\u2019s like I know I don\u2019t want that.<\/p>\n

AP: \u201cSaturn\u2019s Return\u201d sticks out as one of the more introspective songs. How was that idea sparked?<\/p>\n

LARSSON: People say \u201cSaturn\u2019s return\u201d is when the planet Saturn returns to where it was when you were born, which is approximately 27 years. And that\u2019s when you enter real adulthood. And I really felt that shift. I felt like, \u201cOh, I\u2019ve always been quite reckless, irresponsible \u2014 done weird decisions.\u201d And now I can look back and be like \u2014 not hard on myself \u2014 but I\u2019d be like \u201cWhat happened there?\u201d I just grew so much.<\/p>\n

I have more empathy. \u2026 I feel I\u2019m a better person now than I was when I was younger, which hopefully is the evolution of life.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Zara Larsson is no stranger to packing dance floors around the world, boasting a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,3332,20165,3329,75,3456,88088,341,7425,57297,88087],"class_list":{"0":"post-171483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrity","11":"tag-celebrity-interviews","12":"tag-concerts","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-gary-gerard-hamilton","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-sweden","18":"tag-tate-mcrae","19":"tag-zara-larsson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}