{"id":444713,"date":"2026-05-12T09:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/444713\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T09:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:17:08","slug":"zara-larsson-claims-her-place-in-pop-as-she-revamps-midnight-sun-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/444713\/","title":{"rendered":"Zara Larsson Claims Her Place in Pop as She Revamps ‘Midnight Sun’ Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m never satisfied \u2019cause I want number one. Doesn\u2019t everyone?\u201d Zara Larsson<\/a> sings on \u201cThe Ambition,\u201d a deep-cut on her fifth album, 2025\u2019s Midnight Sun<\/a>, that captures her hunger for pop success. Through a distorted vocal effect, she confesses, \u201cI want it so much.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Larsson, achieving what she\u2019s always wanted isn\u2019t necessarily cause for celebration. It\u2019s what was always meant to happen. Pop stardom is a rapidly moving target, but she\u2019s been training for a chance to dominate pop. Larsson has witnessed first-hand the many transformations the genre has undergone over the past decade. She understands what it means to be a star, what it takes to become one, and that the status doesn\u2019t always last. At 28, the Swedish singer knows that anything that feels like a breakthrough might actually be a blip. Now, with four Hot 100 hits currently stationed on the chart and more cultural ubiquity than ever, she\u2019s committed to making this moment last.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen she scored her first hit with \u201cNever Forget You\u201d in 2016, Larsson was ready. The song had already been out for nearly a year when it broke through, so she\u2019d had plenty of time to dream about how it could change her life before it actually started to. More Hot 100 entries followed with \u201cLush Life\u201d and \u201cAin\u2019t My Fault,\u201d both from her album So Good, from 2017. But then the momentum stalled until 2019\u2019s \u201cRuin My Life.\u201d Larsson\u2019s vocal performance on the single was commanding, and the song\u2019s replay value was endless. Although it never climbed much higher than the bottom quarter of the chart, the aspirational voice in her head told her more hits would follow, even if it took a while.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s rarely enough to have talent and popular songs \u2014 Larsson, for essentially her entire career, has had a surplus of both. At any point in her career, she could have bought into the illusion of numbers and been content with what she\u2019d already achieved. The songs were familiar, but didn\u2019t feel as connected to the artist behind them. Her current ascent to stardom is the result of her relentless patience: Larsson\u2019s entire ethos as an artist is rooted in longevity and the desire to leave an identifiable mark on pop history. Not only does she have the hits, she also has the cultural currency that makes them distinctly her own.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tShe bolstered this on Midnight Sun, with the addition of her now-unmistakable, maximalist Y2K branding. \u201cStateside,\u201d the PinkPantheress<\/a> single she revamped on Fancy Some More, added even more reinforcements. The song reached Number One on the Billboard Global 200 and peaked at Number Six on the Hot 100 following the release of its charming music video, where they swap aesthetics<\/a>, and a viral skating routine from Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu. On her own remix album, Midnight Sun: Girl\u2019s Trip, which adds featured guests to each track, Larsson shifts the goal post forward once again. The chase never ends.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cStill not satisfied\/It blesses and curses my life,\u201d Larsson sings on a new version of \u201cThe Ambition,\u201d which dropped in May and overhauls the original with a feature from Madison Beer and new production from Bambii. \u201cA worldwide number one\/Want another one.\u201d That same distorted voice cuts through: \u201cI want it so much.\u201d With Midnight Sun: Girl\u2019s Trip, she makes an intentional effort to put herself in conversation with the broader pop domain. Larsson remixes \u201cMidnight Sun\u201d with PinkPantheress, gives \u201cBlue Moon\u201d a Kehlani-assisted R&B twist, and taps newcomer Eli on \u201cCrush\u201d as well as pop veteran Robyn on \u201cPuss Puss.\u201d Her team up with Tyla on \u201cHot & Sexy\u201d follows their collaboration \u201cShe Did It Again,\u201d which recently landed on the Hot 100 and is primed to be a staple in club sets this summer.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMaria-Juliana Rojas for Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the Girl\u2019s Trip version of \u201cGirl\u2019s Girl,\u201d Larsson sings about her ego and morals being tested as her new position in pop draws comparison and competition. \u201cI wanna be your girl\u2019s girl, but what happens when a girl\u2019s girl wants the spotlight, honey?\u201d Larsson asks. \u201cOne and only\/There\u2019s room for everyone, but is there really?\u201d The original song is about temptation drawing her to her friend\u2019s boyfriend. The remix puts the entertainment industry under a microscope. Larsson enlists Argentine singer Emilia to call out the double standards that can make the pop arena feel more like a boxing ring for women in the genre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tIt feels at home on a remix album that enlists solely women as collaborators, but Larsson isn\u2019t just interested in sharing accolades and trading verses. The more personality she injects into the music, the stronger the connection to her audience. With the Midnight Sun era, Larsson bridges the gap between her established identity as an artist and her reputation for being outspoken online. Audiences often yearn for pop stars with big personalities, but it\u2019s a double-edged sword<\/a>. We\u2019ve seen it take stabs at artists like Chappell Roan who are beloved for being outspoken until they veer off whatever imaginary script they\u2019re expected to read from. \u201cThe more people hate her, the more I love her,\u201d Larsson recently shared <\/a>about Roan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLarsson isn\u2019t shy about saying what she means and asking for what she wants. Her perspective on pop, politics, and everything in between has remained consistently direct and self-assured. She recently revealed the loss of a $3 million brand deal over a joke she made on TikTok about a fan getting an abortion after her show. She stands by the post being funny and women having the right to abortion access. When Larsson has posted about advocating for the liberation of Palestine and hating ICE<\/a>, she\u2019s doubled down on those stances, too, just as quickly as she defended blocking Chris Brown on Spotify and acknowledged pop would be just fine without<\/a> Dr. Luke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor all the ebbs and flows of her career, Larsson has remained uncompromising in her integrity. Infusing this with her music has fortified her place in pop. Her commitment to staying the course has shielded her from projections that might have set her back had she internalized them. When she signed on to open for Tate McRae on an arena tour last year, for example, some argued that as the more veteran of the acts, she should have been above opening for someone newer. But believing Larsson would have ever turned down an opportunity of that magnitude represents a fundamental misunderstanding of her as an artist. Her pride has never outweighed her passion for putting on a show and setting herself up for success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn previous years, Larsson warmed up the stage for everyone from Beyonc\u00e9 and Ed Sheeran to Kygo and Clean Bandit, who collaborated with her on the viral hit \u201cSymphony.\u201d These opportunities might have expanded her immediate audience, but they didn\u2019t share the instant results that came with performing for multiple arenas full of Gen Z pop fans and, by extension, all of their TikTok followers. This is the part of modern pop stardom that Larsson is perhaps uniquely equipped for.<\/p>\n

\n\tHer current live set \u2014 which she shaped on McRae\u2019s tour and continued on her own headlining Midnight Sun tour \u2014 is captivating and rehearsed to a point of near-perfection. When she plays \u201cAin\u2019t My Fault,\u201d Larsson pauses for a moment as red lights wash over the stage. A beat later, she\u2019s bouncing in time to Sexyy Red\u2019s \u201cLooking For The Hoes.\u201d During \u201cMidnight Sun,\u201d she performs the first chorus while being hoisted in the air by her dancers. \u201cLush Life\u201d is an almost 10-minute ordeal that involves bringing a fan onstage to perform the song\u2019s viral dance break. She drops into a split just before \u201cHot & Sexy\u201d and another during her cover of Britney Spears\u2019 \u201cGimme More.\u201d She spends the entire show doing vocal gymnastics.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tSnapshots of all of these moments exist by the thousands across TikTok, where viral posts rack up millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes. Almost none of them live on Larsson\u2019s own profile. Over there, she\u2019s offstage, though rarely off the clock. She sings along to her own records, consults her 10 million followers about whether she should get her belly button pierced, and candidly defends booking college shows to finance her actual tour. Where Larsson is concerned, a stage is a stage and a platform is an opportunity to get one step closer to the version of stardom she\u2019s always imagined for herself.<\/p>\n

\n\tLarsson is the kind of pop star who would have survived any earlier era of pop \u2014 back when promo cycles included performances in malls, parking lots, Walmarts, and wherever else a crowd would gather. She would have shown up covered in rhinestones and ready to work. She wants it so much \u2014 and it\u2019s hers for the taking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m never satisfied \u2019cause I want number one. Doesn\u2019t everyone?\u201d Zara Larsson sings on \u201cThe Ambition,\u201d a deep-cut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,32197],"class_list":["post-444713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-zara-larsson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}