Zara Larsson
Once the British songwriter and producer said yes, Zara put together the rest of her team—up-and-coming producer Margo XS and songwriter Helena Gao—and the core four got to work. On day one, they made “Midnight Sun” and lead single “Pretty Ugly”; looking around at each other, Zara says, they realized there was magic in the room. They felt an energy that connected them, emboldening her to be open, vulnerable, raw, and real in her lyrics, her vocal delivery, and the ambition which she felt safe to express in the songs they were creating. “It’s almost like we all completed each other,” Zara says. “We shared tastes and styles and references and stories—it’s like I never had to explain myself when we were having conversations about what these songs could be. This close-knit group...I love to work like that, with people who understand me and vice versa.”
Midnight Sun ripples with that same confidence and trust. Its storytelling bursts with truth and vulnerability, plumbing the depth and growth of Zara’s artistry and journey over nearly 20 years in the public eye. It’s an album unafraid to show all sides of the 27-year-old: lovestruck, wistful, ambitious, cocky, flippant, and uncertain, often in the same breath.
Midnight Sun follows Zara’s first three albums (2017’s So Good, 2021’s Poster Girl, and last year’s VENUS), building upon her legacy while taking things back to her roots. “Making this album brought me back to the very beginning, my first EPs when I started making music, because it was all about having fun and just creating and speaking honestly,” she says. “I really felt no pressure. I think that made things not only feel more fun for me, but the songs feel more authentic, too. The people who will love this album will love a very true part of me, something that I am very proud of and excited about.”
With “Midnight Sun” being the first completed song, Zara knew right away it also encompassed the holistic story she wanted to tell on the album. “In thinking about this album, I thought, ‘What do I want to say? What do I want this to be?’ I really am proud of my Swedish pop heritage, so I wanted to write about a Swedish summer where the sun never goes down,” she says. “I wanted the whole album to feel like it's a summer night and it never ends. And it doesn't matter if it's December: the summer night will be there for you. It's waiting for you and it will come back for you, and you will come back for it.
To follow “Midnight Sun” in the same session with lead single “Pretty Ugly,” she admits with a laugh, “is maybe the craziest day of songwriting I’ve ever done. I remember sitting there and just saying, ‘Let’s write a song about going insane.’ And it just felt like it was already sitting there in front of us, this block of ice that just needed sculpting. And I really just wanted to scream—so I did. We went back in the next day after hearing Margo’s production to make the verses live up to how fire the song sounded, but what you hear today is what we sent off to be mixed that day because we knew then it was a smash.”
On “Saturn’s Return,” the last song finished for Midnight Sun, Zara goes deep on the changes in her life that turning 27 illuminated. “I used to be so certain about every single thing growing up,” she says. “And I used to love that about myself, having the answer to everything. But the older I get, the less I know, the less certain I am. It feels so good. And it's fine to sway a bit in the wind because I know who I am in my core deep down. But I have allowed myself to open up and view the world from other people's perspectives, to be more understanding, to be more compassionate, to be more empathetic. Like I say in the last verse, I had so much pressure and a lot of big goals when I was really young—I was way more stressed then than I am now. I was disappointed when I didn’t get the things I thought I’d achieve. But then that's followed by acceptance and a new burst of inspiration and rediscovery. For me, this song is about stepping into a new era in my life.”
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