\n\tZara Larsson Season is here \u2014 and it\u2019s been ten years in the making.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn this week\u2019s Billboard Hot 100<\/a>, the Swedish pop star lands three songs on the tally: \u201cStateside\u201d (with PinkPantheress, No. 30), \u201cLush Life\u201d (No. 36) and \u201cMidnight Sun\u201d (No. 69). That puts her just behind Olivia Dean (five) and right alongside Taylor Swift (three) as the female artist with the most concurrent hits on the Feb. 7 ranking.<\/p>\n \n\tAfter spending the better part of the last decade milling around pop\u2019s C-list (as an artist with recognizable hits but a less-recognizable brand or aesthetic), Larsson has found herself on the heels of Swift, the world\u2019s most commercially dominant artist, and Dean, who\u2019s experiencing one of the biggest breakthrough eras of the decade. And like seemingly everything else in early 2026, it all ties back to the inescapable shadow of 2016.<\/p>\n \n\tThe last time Zara earned three Hot 100 hits in a single calendar year was indeed 10 years ago, when she was still just 17. \u201cNever Forget You,\u201d a dance-pop duet with longtime collaborator MNEK, reached No. 13, while \u201cLush Life\u201d hit No. 75 (its peak at the time) and \u201cAin\u2019t My Fault\u201d closed out the year at No. 76. It was a massive year for Larsson: TIME named her one of the 30 most influential teens of the year, and she opened for Beyonc\u00e9 on the first Wembley Stadium stop of her historic Formation World Tour. Although she was making her first meaningful moves<\/a> stateside, it must be underscored how much of an international pop force Zara already was at the time.<\/p>\n \n\tIn 2008, she won Sweden\u2019s adaptation of America\u2019s Got Talent at age 10, giving way to her first top 10 hit in her home country, a cover of C\u00e9line Dion\u2019s timeless \u201cMy Heart Will Go On.\u201d Introducing, her debut EP, arrived four years later, spawning her first Swedish No. 1 hit, \u201cUncover.\u201d By 2013, she signed with Epic, setting in motion her U.S. crossover odyssey, which reached a key inflection point with the release of \u201cLush Life\u201d as the lead single from her international debut studio album, So Good, in 2015. (She exclusively released her formal debut album, 1, in Scandinavian countries the year prior.) To date, Zara is a four-time winner at the Grammis (Sweden\u2019s equivalent to the Grammys) and four-time nominee at the Brits.<\/p>\n \n\tTo put it plainly: she\u2019s been a major deal and main pop girl across Europe for years, despite her late \u201810s releases failing to make much of an impact in the U.S. Nonetheless, her true Stateside breakthrough would take a little while longer \u2014 and needed some help from a very left-field meme.<\/p>\n \n\tIn the dog days of summer 2024, \u201cSymphony\u201d \u2014 Zara\u2019s 2017 collaboration with English electronic group Clean Bandit \u2014 found a new life on TikTok. Users started pairing part of Zara\u2019s euphoric hook (\u201cI just wanna be part of your symphony!\u201d) with a dolphin and unicorn-filled Christian Riese Lassen painting called \u201cEnjoy Sunshine.\u201d This doesn\u2019t seem remotely remarkable on its own, but that\u2019s where Gen Z\u2019s penchant for dark, ironic humor comes out to play. The joke behind the \u201cSymphony\u201d meme lies in the captions, where users delivered blunt<\/a> emotional<\/a> truths<\/a> like \u201cI have depression,\u201d juxtaposing those sentiments against the song\u2019s whimsical, string-laden dance beat. One could also argue the meme\u2019s true roots are found in a real diary<\/a> that used to play \u201cSymphony\u201d when opened; the product was sold a few years ago, and the song would start blaring when users wanted to read or write their darkest secrets.<\/p>\n \n\tBy the end of August, Zara herself hopped on the trend<\/a>, writing \u201cWhat the f\u2014k is happening\u201d across those viral dolphins. Considering the viral trend brought \u201cSymphony\u201d to No. 1 on the now-defunct TikTok Billboard Top 50 and to nearly 715,000 videos on TikTok, that<\/a> post, which has garnered over 75 million views to date, was a fair reaction. Like any great pop star, Larsson seized the moment, merging the Internet with real life by incorporating dolphin imagery into her \u201cSymphony\u201d performances on her 2024 Venus Tour<\/a>. TikTok is always good for helping a song reach a new audience, but the artist behind that revived song being able to maintain the attention of that new audience \u2014 and convince them to buy into new music<\/a> \u2014 is a much more difficult task.<\/p>\n \n\tTo pull it off, Larsson reteamed with MNEK to craft her fifth studio album, Midnight Sun, which she launched in April 2025 with lead single \u201cPretty Ugly.\u201d That song found its niche audience \u2013 as most Zara singles do \u2014 but it was the set\u2019s second single (and title track) that helped her shift into a new gear. Anchored by a soaring, siren-esque riff in the hook preceded by a titillating, nearly breathless pre-chorus, \u201cMidnight Sun\u201d arrived on June 13, about three weeks before Zara began her well-timed stint as the opening act for Tate McRae\u2019s arena-headlining Miss Possessive World Tour. The song\u2019s official music video<\/a> premiered about a week later, finding Zara reenvisioning the \u201cSymphony\u201d dolphin meme as the grounding aesthetic for her Midnight Sun era.<\/p>\n \n\tFeaturing saturated summer hues, stunning glamour shots that feel like they were captured in the same universe as Windows\u2019 grassy default wallpapers and an homage to \u201800s fashion (airbrushed, cropped tees and low-rise booty shorts), the \u201cMidnight Sun\u201d music video evoked the serotonin-boosting feeling of the original dolphin meme without feeling like a retread. Zara even connected the meme to her home country, which is one of the few places on Planet Earth where the sun remains visible at the local midnight hour during the summertime, resulting in a literal midnight sun. Notably, she also rode the meme into a collaboration with artist Lisa Frank, known for featuring rainbows and dolphins in her work, for a limited edition Midnight Sun CD package.<\/p>\n \n\tZara included \u201cMidnight Sun\u201d on her Miss Possessive setlist, which also included previous hits like \u201cLush Life\u201d and, of course, \u201cSymphony.\u201d On that tour, headliner Tate McRae established herself as one of the most consistent live performers of Top 40\u2019s new class, but Zara proved no slacker herself: Whether she was nailing the \u201cPretty Ugly\u201d choreography or bantering with an audience who may not be familiar with her, Zara was electric onstage. And very few moments from the overall show held a candle to her nailing the \u201cMidnight Sun\u201d pre-chorus as her dancers hoisted her into the air. Zara delivered one killer set after another through the end of September, setting the stage for one of the first viral lyrics from her rework of PinkPantheress\u2019 \u201cStateside,\u201d which arrived the following month on the British singer-producer\u2019s Fancy Some More? remix album. \u201cWho knew, opening up would make me a headline?\/ Boots, that\u2019s my ego boost,\u201d Zara croons. \u201cSchedule ain\u2019t been loose for a minute\/ Yeah, I\u2019m that girl, I\u2019ve been it!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAnd well, where\u2019s the lie? Tate certainly made her mark and collected her coin on tour, but Zara did indeed make more than a few headlines thanks to her knockout performances. Furthermore: 1) Zara has definitely been \u201cthat girl\u201d and 2) her own headlining Midnight Sun Tour commenced just a month after her Miss Possessive stint concluded\u2026 so her schedule truly \u201cain\u2019t been loose for a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tJust seven stops into the Midnight Sun Tour (Nov. 7), Zara earned her first career Grammy nomination; \u201cMidnight Sun\u201d picked up a nod for best dance pop recording, a category previously won by Kylie Minogue (\u201cPadam Padam\u201d) and Charli XCX (\u201cVon Dutch\u201d). A crowning achievement that came almost exactly a decade after she dropped \u201cLush Life,\u201d that recognition from the Recording Academy also proved the final catalyst for her 2026 Hot 100 return.<\/p>\n \n\tJust ten days later, at an Amsterdam tour stop (Nov. 12), Zara invited a fan named Julia to perform the \u201cLush Life\u201d dance break with her onstage. That fun moment, which pulled from Zara\u2019s 2025 tour choreography, set into motion a viral dance trend that helped the seemingly eternal hit return to the Hot 100 by the new year (Jan. 17). Soon enough, fellow pop stars like Alex Warren were joining her<\/a> onstage for the inescapable dance. The same week \u201cLush\u201d returned, \u201cStateside\u201d entered the chart at No. 100, eventually vaulting into the top 30 within a month, thanks in large part to its eye-catching music video pouring even more gasoline on the song\u2019s<\/a> viral flame.<\/p>\n \n\tDirected by Charlotte Rutherford, the \u201cStateside\u201d remix music video<\/a> finds Zara and PinkPantheress trying on each other\u2019s disparate, yet related aesthetics, bridging the former\u2019s Y2K glam with the latter\u2019s affinity for mid-late \u201800s plaid-dominant fashion. The clip garnered praise across the Internet, including Academy Award winner Halle Berry, who wrote on X<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re making Pop fun again. Go ladies.\u201d PinkPantheress, of course, had a banner year of her own in 2024, hitting No. 4 on Dance Albums with Fancy That, earning a viral hit in \u201cIllegal\u201d and picking up two Grammy nods of her own. By linking with someone on their own culturally relevant run \u2014 who also plays with clearly Euro-coded \u201800s vibes \u2014 Zara leveraged the Top 40 network to her advantage, just as she did with Tate and her tour.<\/p>\n \n\tZara revived an old smash and scored a current hit with a collaboration \u2014 but Hot 100 success still evaded Midnight Sun. But not for much longer: the same week she was announced as a performer at the 2026 Grammy Premiere Ceremony, \u201cMidnight Sun\u201d entered the Hot 100 at No. 82 after months of gradual streaming growth<\/a>. Now, with social media fawning<\/a> over her stripped-down rendition of the track, \u201cMidnight\u201d is expected to continue rising as Zara kicks off the American leg of her Midnight Sun Tour. Though she lost the Grammy on Sunday (Feb. 1), the entire Midnight Sun album will be eligible at the 2027 ceremony, which could very well be the proper stamp on the era that lifted Zara to a more exclusive club of Stateside top 40 phenoms. Roughly a decade after her initial Hot 100 breakthrough, Zara Larsson is back in the conversation in a much bigger way \u2014 just like Charli XCX, Hozier and Tinashe in 2024.<\/p>\n \n\tIf Zara\u2019s 2026 Hot 100 comeback confirms one thing, it\u2019s that when artists combine the current rush of 2016 nostalgia with bulletproof pop bangers and Internet-minded marketing savvy, they can evolve into a truly unstoppable force \u2014 perhaps one even greater than what could have been imagined 10 years ago.<\/p>\n