Last weekend I was at a music conference in Denmark, scoping Scandi indie bands and asking everybody’s opinion of Zara Larsson. “You mean the queen?” replied the first Swede I ran into. Two Norwegians told me they’ve claimed her ever since her first proper single, 2013’s “Uncover,” a Nordic No. 1 that Americans would barely recognize. Before they mention a song, though, people are more likely to tell you about a Larsson-related video or quip: her “Midnight Sun” music video that married the aesthetic of a nihilistic dolphin meme and a vintage screensaver; her “Lush Life” choreo, and the many fans who’ve all nailed it onstage with a good angle; the Dionne Warwick endorsement; her scorn for the Trump administration and uncompromising pro-abortion humor. “There are no classic songs,” acknowledged one Danish music guy who said his young daughter was the bigger fan, “but Zara Larsson is a classic.”
A dozen stars must align to create a mainstream pop star, and this year it happened for Zara Larsson. I’m not surprised to hear Larsson’s name linked to music’s preeminent specialty marketing firm Chaotic Good, the hardest workers since Kris Jenner. She’s a powerful, charismatic vocalist and a talented dancer, and not long ago she was… beefing with PC Music’s Hannah Diamond. But she wanted this bad (she’s got a song about it) and it’s been a whole journey since last fall, when she originally released her fifth album, Midnight Sun.
That record matched producers MNEK and Margo XS’ bright, slightly cleaned-up takes on hyperpop dance-pop to maximalist, girly-bling glitter in neon hibiscus hues of pink, orange, teal, and lime, like BRAT at a kids’ pool party. The music did not immediately make waves, particularly not in the U.S., where I cued up a preview copy and decided to skip it: “Midnight Sun” was pretty catchy, but other tracks weren’t as strong, and 10 years after most Americans had last heard a Zara Larsson song, I couldn’t picture anyone much caring what she was up to now. The Midnight Sun of seven months ago (which I’ll give a semi-canonical 6.9) wasn’t that newsworthy at the time—and whose idea was it to release an album featuring the hook “This feels like Eurosummer” in late September?
But if you have even a passing interest in pop music, you’ve seen Larsson on your feed quite a bit recently. She may not yet have truly classic songs, but she’s got current memes, which is arguably more efficient. Biggest of all for an American audience—the Scandinavians I met didn’t really hear about this—was Alysa Liu’s Exhibition Gala skate, set to PinkPantheress’ “Stateside” remix with Zara Larsson, a just-for-fun performance following her gold medal win at this winter’s Olympics. Liu hits her big finale Biellmann spin just at the part of the outro where Pink cuts most of the instrumental behind Larsson’s voice: “Never met a Swedish girl, you say?” The adorably choreographed routine bequeathed the great remix a ready-made viral video, helping push “Stateside” to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and fulfilling Larsson’s dreams. Then Larsson’s other biggest hit, 2015’s “Lush Life,” reappeared on the chart too, presumably in some combination of streaming autoplay and people like me, who hear “Zara Larsson” and immediately think “‘Lush Life’!”
“Midnight Sun” got pretty popular too, and suddenly the moment was Larsson’s to seize. This brings us to her new remix album, Midnight Sun: Girls Trip, a full-length remake that elaborates on the original productions with refreshed songwriting and an all-women, taste-forward lineup of guest features for every track, starting with PinkPantheress’ juiced-up rework of “Midnight Sun.” In recent years, the remix album has become the final stop on the mega-pop promotion schedule. Until now, a hit studio album was a prerequisite: Original editions of Future Nostalgia, Chromatica, BRAT, Fancy That, even 1000 gecs and Raven were all noted successes. On Girls Trip, Larsson takes this concept to a beautiful new level of post-algorithmic abstraction, delivering the first hit remix album of a mainstream pop record that didn’t quite hit the first time.
On Girls Trip, Larsson acts as her own envoy to newly aware American pop fans as well as overlapping constituencies of “Stateside” listeners, Shakira lovers, Eli and the dolls, anticipators of this summer’s next hot pop album aka Tyla’s A*POP, and people who are bicurious about Kehlani. She and her remixers chameleon the original tracks to suit the guests’ styles, as well as the pop feminist theme: “Girl’s Girl,” with Argentinian singer Emilia, goes from basic love-triangle drama to a song about girl-on-girl envy and competition, sort of how Charli and Lorde worked it out on the remix. “Be this girl, puts my ego and my morals to the test/Could be besties but I wanna be the best,” Larsson snaps, with extra Auto-Tune flourish on the “Be this girl”—the first time I can remember hearing something that sounds like 4chan greentext. The original “Pretty Ugly” was an obnoxious and rather thin “Hollaback Girl” cheerleader stomp, but the remix upgrades to Spring Breakers on a TikTok attention span, and you get to hear ex-City Girls rapper JT open with, “Center of attention while you hoes male-centered (ew).”
Are you prepared to embrace an album that dreams of driving a VW vanload of American girls to beaches previously known only to Italian yacht crews? Even if Larsson’s music is not your personal fave, there’s something to see here: saturated sunlight to outshine prestige-drama gray; that fabled Swedish pop QA process; the long tail of Pop 2; the post-Brat Summer evolution of the meme-based visual hook. The rise of Girls Trip is a graph of the algorithm’s power to shape cultural reality, to take “Eurosummer” from sounding like background music at any kebab shop on the continent to the slinky little Shakira collab that you’ll recognize waiting on your shawarma. Listening to the original Midnight Sun album now feels a little like listening to the no-Zara version of “Stateside”—it doesn’t come with the sauce. Girls Trip takes a suggestion made by BRAT and it’s completely different… and Fancy Some More? to its logical conclusion: the 2020s pop remix album that’s actually the definitive version.
It deserves to be, because Girls Trip is easily the better record: more diversity of sounds, more interesting rhythmic and lyrical ideas, more social, more fun; most likely at least one artist you haven’t listened to before and none of the clunkiest lines from the original. Perhaps you have a child who won’t stop playing this shit, and I say let them—it’s got real positive energy. “The Ambition” is an earnest role-model song, with a remix adapted to guest star Madison Beer’s own Ariana&B style. Still, it’s Larsson’s insouciance and sincerity that cuts through with a timely reminder that public validation isn’t the point of life. “Saturn’s Return,” now with lovely, trippy production by France’s Malibu and Chinese-language spoken word from Larsson songwriter Helena Gao, is simply a heartfelt ode to self-growth if all your references for lysergic psychedelica are dolphins and unicorns. And when you find out that “Puss Puss” means goodbye “kisses” in Swedish, Larsson’s song about phone sex—now a duet with famous dirty talker Robyn—sounds almost wholesome.
There’s no avoiding the broader comparison to Robyn, Larsson’s fellow countrywoman, whose career in the pop machine likewise burned bright and early, then stalled until she could revive it on her own terms. Larsson’s ambition is higher, her sound more mainstream, and her public stall a little less dramatic—she never vanished—but no one expected all this. Summoning Robyn to her side to sing a couple lines in Swedish is Larsson’s final, most important act of Girls Trip diplomacy: loyally phoning home while she blows up stateside. It’s never been an elected position, but that doesn’t mean you don’t work for it. Hail the new queen of Swedish pop.
