Midnight Sun<\/a>. Larsson\u2019s hunger for pop success has sustained her through all of that time, but so has her commitment to being herself no matter what.<\/p>\n\n\tWhen she hears about the times Robyn was ridiculed for embracing the same spirit earlier in her career, Larsson can\u2019t wrap her head around anyone not wanting their pop stars to be loud and outspoken. (Larsson herself has said she lost a $3 million brand deal after speaking up in support of abortion rights.)<\/p>\n
\t\tWatch the video interview below\t<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: You know the Swedish word flamsig?<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: It\u2019s like \u201csilly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: Or \u201chaving the giggles\u201d or something. It\u2019s my favorite thing, to watch you on TikTok doing that. It\u2019s a superpower. I remember when I was a kid, me and my girlfriends would decide before school ended that we would go home and flamsa, like a date. We\u2019ll be like, \u201cLet\u2019s go home and flamsa!\u201d And then we would just make each other laugh till we cried.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: I haven\u2019t heard that word in so long. It\u2019s really such an integral part of my being. That is my number-one priority. When I approach everything, even the people I work with and how I live my life, that\u2019s so important for me, to be able to have fun. That\u2019s my philosophy \u2014 that whatever this is, in life, I always want to know that I can laugh, and nothing is that serious. Sometimes it is, but you have to come back to the joy.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: Me and Klas [\u00c5hlund], who I work with a lot, we have something called bananradio, which is \u201cbanana radio\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s this flams state that we go into in the studio. You have to elevate yourself above your normal daily life. But it\u2019s also a way to be yourself. It\u2019s underrated as a protection for a female pop star, and I feel like that\u2019s what you do. People think you\u2019re nice and silly and fun, then you use it to protect who you are.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: I\u2019ve always voiced my opinions on things ever since I was very young. You brought up just before this [interview], speaking of abortions \u2014 even when you talk about stuff like that, which is obviously a very serious conversation, when you speak about it with a sprinkle of humor, it just lands maybe softer. It makes you more human, perhaps.\u2026 I\u2019ve just recently started to have my own collaborators. You\u2019ve had that for a really long time. Klas, he\u2019s your number-one guy, right?<\/p>\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: He\u2019s like the second band member in Robyn.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: It\u2019s so important to have that friendship and collaborator, companion, and partner. I just kind of got that with Midnight Sun. It changed everything for me. We found Margo XS and Helena Gao through my manager. It was really magical. And then I decided, \u201cLet\u2019s just go in as a group\u201d \u2014 with MNEK being the executive producer, because he knew me the most.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: Do you feel like it changes your creative process when you\u2019re in a room with only queer and female writers?<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: Yes. That was also a very active choice. With women, or with queer people, or with people that have the same references, the same life experiences, you don\u2019t have to explain yourself that much. You\u2019re just understood. That can obviously happen with anyone, but I think it\u2019s a shortcut to get the straight men out of there.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: Totally. I mean, I always worked with straight men, and that was a learning curve. What\u2019s cool about me and Klas is that we found our way through it. I\u2019m also, like, 20 years younger than him \u2014 sorry Klas. [Note: They are about seven years apart.] With the age difference, I was a little sister and I had to really prove myself.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: How did you meet?<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: This crazy thing happened around 2005, where [people] were hired by evening papers to instigate fights with famous people. We were attacked by these kids with cameras in this little side street to the bar. They were trying to get us to fight them. Klas went to jail that night. That\u2019s how we met.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: You\u2019re like, \u201cThat\u2019s my collaborator.\u201d Wait, that\u2019s fucking crazy. You just stood to the side?<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I screamed, \u201cWhat the fuck!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: How were the pictures? Did they come out?<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I wish I knew. I think it was in the papers.\u2026 You\u2019re so yourself and vocal about your opinions. How do you do that? I think it\u2019s so brave and so sophisticated how you move through the world, like with your political views. I wonder sometimes what it costs you.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: Growing up with the internet, I used to have a blog. I had it really young, from 13 or 14. I started reading more about the news, and I just got a bigger picture of the world and the injustices that happen. I fought so much with people in my comments on my blog. I was just like, \u201cI know that I don\u2019t agree with what this is saying. How can I express why I don\u2019t agree?\u201d A lot of Tumblr, a lot of Wikipedia, a lot of following a bunch of cool feminists online, and also being curious and empathetic at the end of the day. I do think it comes from a will to know\u2014<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: \u2014what it feels like for someone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Women or queer people, you don\u2019t have to explain yourself. It\u2019s a shortcut to get the straight men out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zara Larsson<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: Even if we completely disagree, we are in a passionate debate and we are connecting somehow. If you\u2019ve listened to my music, you might not know about what I think about things besides music, and if you follow me on other platforms, you might not know what my music sounds like. But I would really like to have them come together more.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: That\u2019s such a cool way to look at it, that there\u2019s actually connection in disagreement.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: I spoke to [songwriter] Alexander Kronlund about that. He was telling me that people were really harsh on you when you were young. I didn\u2019t know that, because it was pre-internet.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: It was only evening news. In Sweden, we both love [pop star] Carola, but there were not so many young female artists after her. I was singing in English, I was cocky, and that was not appreciated. I actually did shows where people threw eggs on me, and tomatoes. The hate was in the front row screaming at me. It was real-life trolling.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: I\u2019ve never had that. I\u2019ve had the tomatoes once, but that\u2019s it. What did you even say for them to feel like that? Were you really that cocky, or was it just, \u201cHey, I\u2019m a young girl, and I want to have success, and I think I\u2019m good\u201d?<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I knew how to reply to the hate. I knew how to talk back. And that\u2019s of course perceived as cocky. The evening news was like, \u201cDoes she deserve to be here?\u201d And I was like, \u201cI\u2019m just making music about teenage feelings.\u201d I was also surprised that it was the teenage girls that were hating.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: Do you feel like that shifted? Because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s like that now. You\u2019re so loved.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I\u2019ve been so lucky. When I made this album, I didn\u2019t even know it was gonna be about doing IVF and having a baby and dating at the same time \u2014 all these things. It was never a statement. But I think for some people here, in Sweden, it\u2019s perceived a little bit as independent-woman girlbossing, basically. For me it was more like I\u2019m just pulling down my own pants. Like, shit, look at my life. I had a baby on my own. I couldn\u2019t do it any other way. It felt very vulnerable to me.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: It is.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: That was what was so amazing about having a career outside of Sweden. There\u2019s something about expanding your world as an artist that is really liberating. You find so many other aspects of what you\u2019re doing. I think about that with you sometimes, especially in America \u2014 you\u2019re presenting femininity and you\u2019re so beautiful, and then you talk about abortion.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: It\u2019s just authentic. In my world, to speak about abortions, immigrants, human rights, that doesn\u2019t feel like a big thing. But then you say it and you see the backlash, and you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, whoops!\u201d If I wasn\u2019t a singer, I think I would still be out there just letting people know how I feel.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I think it also scared me after the clapback. I felt controlled by the idea that I had to do the right thing. That\u2019s what\u2019s so amazing about you: It feels like you\u2019re free from that pressure and you can still voice your opinion, and it doesn\u2019t affect your integrity.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: I have young girls at my shows, and they\u2019re maybe eight or nine. They\u2019re way younger than \u201cLush Life,\u201d but they have just discovered that song. It\u2019s crazy that I\u2019ve reached an age now where I get to see the next generation of kids [discover my music]. How do you feel about that?<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cI did shows where people threw eggs. The hate was in the front row screaming at me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robyn<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I just feel like, \u201cWelcome.\u201d I had this comment the other day, which must have been from a young person, on my Instagram: \u201c\u2018Dancing on My Own,\u2019 the first pop song that started pop culture.\u201d I was like, \u201cNo, that\u2019s not true. But I\u2019m happy you feel that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: I\u2019ve spoken to my friends about Madonna. She\u2019s up there in her sixties. How old is she?<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: I don\u2019t care! Exactly. There\u2019s a woman a lot of people consider to be too old to be a pop star \u2014 and only women go through this, by the way. All the men, they just tour till they drop dead. She\u2019s in this corset, and she\u2019s doing these dances. She\u2019s saying, \u201cFuck you guys. I can still be sexy.\u201d Because she\u2019s Madonna. Whatever happens in the world, she is Madonna. The fact that she is still her is really powerful and fun.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: It is, and when she talks about it, you realize how smart she is and how much she thought about it. It\u2019s not something that she\u2019s doing to just piss people off.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: A pioneer \u2014 and quite punk to go out there and not care.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: Do you feel pressure to think about what your career is going to be in 20 years, or do you feel like the moment is now?<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: I do think the moment is now. When I started out, I just wanted to sing, I wanted to perform. But now I am in charge of what I make and what I write and who I work with. It took me a long time to get into that, maybe because I started so young and felt really powerless. I cared a lot about the general public. What do they want? What do they want to hear? What should I look like? I don\u2019t care as much anymore \u2014 and that\u2019s ironically when other people start caring more, because you\u2019re more true to who you are. I don\u2019t think there is an expiration date on a pop star. This is just who I am. Do you ever feel like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m done now\u201d?<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I don\u2019t really think about what I\u2019m gonna do. I think about what\u2019s fun. When I make an album, I think about \u201cWhat is it gonna sound like onstage?\u201d That\u2019s the moment that exists for me, even in the studio. And it\u2019s because I\u2019m obsessed with it. When you\u2019re obsessed, your life becomes more interesting.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: Can you come up with one of those moments that you\u2019re like, \u201cI wish I had captured this [on camera]\u201d?<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: Writing \u201cDancing on My Own,\u201d one of those songs that just came out of nowhere. You don\u2019t know it when you\u2019re writing it, but then afterwards you kind of wish you had seen it coming.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: Did you go to the studio knowing what you wanted to talk about?<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I had this idea about writing a song called \u201cDancing on My Own.\u201d I\u2019m like, there\u2019s \u201cDancing by Myself,\u201d there\u2019s \u201cDancing in the Dark,\u201d \u201cDancing With Tears in My Eyes.\u201d There\u2019s no \u201cDancing on My Own.\u201d The song is really just about me wanting to connect with my dad. I think that\u2019s what all my abstract love songs are about, but when I wrote this one, it was also about different love stories that were in and out of my life.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: It is hard to be in the now, and then think about how it\u2019s gonna be received. I\u2019m currently sort of recording a documentary, but we don\u2019t really have a plan for it. We started filming at the very start of my U.S. tour, which was just a small theater tour, and the first show we couldn\u2019t fit the dancers or the band, so we\u2019re like, \u201cSorry, guys, you can\u2019t perform tonight.\u201d The journey from that to Madison Square Garden, I think that\u2019s a fun thing to capture.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I think [my first memory of your music] was with \u201cLush Life.\u201d That was the big moment.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: I mean, you\u2019ve just kind of always been there. You\u2019ve had hits on every album. The mother of pop music. It also makes me really excited to sit here with you, because really the only time I think about being Swedish is when I\u2019m not in Sweden, or when I do something really Swedish, like a collab with you. \u201cTalk to Me\u201d or even \u201cPuss Puss,\u201d it feels like Sweden. I know other people in other countries or places, they\u2019re very amused by the Swedish pop phenomenon.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: It\u2019s become a thing, and you don\u2019t think about it because it\u2019s so inherent in the culture.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: But you are such a figure in the Swedish pop world, which is huge.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: It was a special moment at that time, also with Max Martin starting and everything that came with it. It was really hard to navigate it, actually, because no one else was doing it. So it felt very lonely. There was a total culture shock for me coming to America at that time, not having anyone else to look at from where I came from. Because the cultures are different, it was definitely lost in translation. With the new generation that you talked about, like the eight- and nine-year-olds, how are they different from you?<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: I think they spend a lot more time on their screens. I remember when I used to have my blog, it would be computer time. I would be on the internet, and then when I was finished, you would stand up and you would go and live your life. Nowadays, when kids hang out, I think they hang out and they watch TikToks, or they hang out and the third friend is the phone. I know I am completely addicted to my phone.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: I feel like what was cool about growing up before social media, I had a life. I didn\u2019t have to think about if what I did with my friends was going to end up on someone else\u2019s Instagram. It makes kids more careful and more afraid of letting go.<\/p>\n
\n\tLarsson: They don\u2019t want to let loose because they\u2019re scared someone might be in the corner filming them and posting it on the internet. That\u2019s why I really enjoyed your crowd. They felt really in the moment, and maybe my crowd is a little bit younger, and for them, it\u2019s a currency \u2014 filming
a video, posting it, getting a lot of likes, showing \u201cI was there\u201d more than being there. I\u2019m a victim of that too. I want to post, and I want to get the likes.<\/p>\n
\n\tRobyn: There\u2019s a reason you can\u2019t have your phone in Berghain.<\/p>\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n
Production Credits<\/p>\n
ROBYN Styling by NAOMI ITKES. Hair by NIKOLA GROZDIC. Makeup by STEVIE HUYNH.
ZARA Styling by CATARINA OSPINA. Hair by JESSICA KRAGE. Makeup by IGNACIO ALONSO.
Photographic assistance: NICHOLAS AKIRA CORCIULO and JULIA MALMQUIST. Video Interview DoP MARKUS AMNEGARD; Camera Operators DAVID JANSSON, SIMON BENDROTH, ABRAHAM WILLEY. Production Assistance: ELIAS SJ\u00d6BORG. Photographed at SOHO HOUSE SWEDEN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"W ithout being fluent in Swedish, it\u2019s a little tough to pick out any details from the conversation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,51695,157,63948,308376,111,139,69,3876,40575],"class_list":["post-628449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-longreads","tag-music","tag-musicians-on-musicians","tag-musicians-on-musicians-2026","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-robyn","tag-zara-larsson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}