- 2025-10-01
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MUSIC
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Zara Larsson Releases New Album “Midnight Sun”
Swedish singer-songwriter Zara Larsson released her fifth studio album “Midnight Sun” on September 26, 2025 via Sommer House and Epic Records.
It is her first album in over a year since the 2024 album “Venus”.
The album comprises 10 tracks, produced by her long time collaborator MNEK, who executively produced the whole album, Margo XS, Zhone, and Helena Gao.
It was inspired by the atmosphere of the Swedish summer, blending polished pop production with introspective songwriting.
Zara Larsson said of 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. 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, it will come back for you, and you will come back for it.”- She continued, “Throughout Midnight Sun, I get to just capture that total Scandinavian vibe, which is something that I have grown up with-it's a huge part of me, my happiest memories and my saddest ones, too. A part of my soul is a Swedish summer night. This record encompasses that, how life is so beautiful it makes you cry. It just feels like me-knowing myself, this album is just really, really me. And also, no one can do me the way I can.”
She added, “This record has made me more expressive with my thoughts. It has definitely made me a better song writer, collaborator, clearer communicator and just over all a jolly person since it was such a smooth and heellaaa fun time to make it. It's exciting to feel like this is only the beginning. This is just the very start of a great adventure into the creative unknown where the sun never stops shining! And that's a journey I have not started on my own. -
Zara Larsson explained Ome tracks for the album.
“Midnight Sun” via PAPER Magazine
“I love 'Midnight Sun'. I love the title, I love what it's saying. It sounds like a love song but really it's a song for the love of life. It's very me in my country house in Sweden, enjoying a Swedish summer night where the sun never sets, and that's literally what it is. Life all night. It's a very special thing that not a lot of people get to have as their childhood, but for me it feels nostalgic and something that's true to what I feel like is home and personal. This song describes peak life for me, bringing out all my friends, driving in my car, listening to music, jumping in the water. It's a celebration of life and I just want it to never end.”
“Blue Moon” via People
“We're in year six now. I'm also 27, so I'm way more comfortable and confident in who I am. I feel secure in a way I've never felt before. We still have a long-distance thing because I travel so much. But it's so nice to know you have your person that anchors you. I think it allowed me to explore feelings I've had previously or things that I have gone through. There's one song that I wrote specifically for him (Lamin Holmén) on the album, which is called 'Blue Moon.' But in general, I think he has just made me more expressive and confident in saying what I'm thinking or who I am as a person.”
“Pretty Ugly” via iHeart Radio
“One fun fact about my new single, 'Pretty Ugly,' is that it's the first song that we wrote for the whole album and we just knew, 'There we go, yeah'. If I had to describe 'Pretty Ugly' in three words it would be: attitude, chaotic, loud. We did the single artwork when we were shooting the video and we were all muddy and messy and it was just a a little click of the moment which I feel like represents the song so well, also it's in the same kind of world that we're in for the video, yeah, and the inspiration for the video was just messy and dirty.
Some fun unexpected moments were when we did the video we did think the rain was going to be warm. The rain was very, very cold so it wasn't fun but it was definitely unexpected. A fun one, they had this really cute, oh, this isn't fun either, I was really sick and they had a oxygen tank but it was pink and it matched the pink car that I had to breathe into 'cause Mexico City is high up. A fun one, I actually loved to do the VFX thing so in the beginning I'm being like pulled back by the the sound system but really in real life it's a thread, that was really fun, and also when I'm being thrown up in the air by my friends, the cheerleaders, and then they drop me, that was also by like a threat that they just pulled me up in, and that was very fun.”
“Girl's Girl” via Vogue
“'Girl's Girl' is like a meaner version of my old song 'Ain't My Fault.' I'm singing about things that, five years ago or even a year ago, I couldn't. I don't like to be mean, but I don't have this feeling of having to be nice, a good girl, or a good feminist, anymore. I'm 27 now, and I appreciate all parts of me. I love that so much. When I heard that Charli song “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde”, it really inspired me. Pop can be this place that is so real and so honest. We can speak truly about our real lives.”
“Crush” via B96 Chicago
“'Crush' is super fun because I would say she's like the pop the pop girl of the album, you know, like really bringing that fun, upbeat, like tempo pop back. It's a lot of energy. It's a lot of um passion. I think it's it sounds like fun and cute, but then you're basically like I guess emotionally cheating. 'Crush' just felt like a really strong song to have to really get the party going. Keep it exciting. Keeps everyone, the attention, I think it's a song that sounds amazing on radio. So that's like a perfect radio song, a perfect pop song for me. And then we'll just continue the journey. Honestly, I want every single song to have its moment. It is really hard to pick out like what to focus on for the moment. Like what's going to be the single? What will we choose? Because I love them all so much. But I feel like 'Crush' has really big potential to um go far and you know spread spread her wings and really fly. Um, so hopefully people will listen to it and discover more of my stuff and also tap into the album.”
“Hot & Sexy” via The FADER
“Me and Uzo Emenike, who executively produced the whole album, we sometimes go and watch her best moments just to have a good laugh. I don't know the whole speech because it's long, like she can talk. Sometimes I'm like, where do these words come from? But she's iconic. She came to a party that we had and she was so sweet and such an icon and a legend for reality TV, but also the internet. We wanted to sample that specific sound bite and then we were like, shit, it's gonna be so long to go through the [licensing] process. [Pollard] doesn't own the soundbites, we have to call the company that produced it [Big Brother]. Then we were like, 'Should we just ask her to come in the studio and re-say her words?' She was like, 'Hell yeah, I'll be there.' So she pulled up to the studio and she was like, 'beautiful, fly, hot, sexy.' She was so down for it.”
“The Ambition” via Alternative Press
“A lot of people that I play that song to, they're like, 'I feel that.' And especially in an industry where it's like how other people are seeing you and how much they like you. And you're chasing this thing that you will never really reach. A lot of my success that I had so early on, it's sad that I can't go back and really enjoy what I got to experience.”
“Saturn's Return” via Alternative Press
“People say ‘Saturn’s return’ is when the planet Saturn returns to where it was when you were born, which is approximately 27 years. And that’s when you enter real adulthood. And I really felt that shift. I felt like, ‘Oh, I’ve always been quite reckless, irresponsible - done weird decisions.’ And now I can look back and be like - not hard on myself - but I’d be like ‘What happened there?’ I just grew so much. I have more empathy. I feel I’m a better person now than I was when I was younger, which hopefully is the evolution of life.”
Photo by Charlotte Rutherford - source : Apple Music
