By Stephan Cook, Contributing Writer

Summer isn’t over just yet! After a year and some change, Zara Larsson has released her fifth studio album, Midnight Sun. 

Born and raised in Sweden, the singer, songwriter and dancer began her career in 2008 when she appeared on the Swedish version of  Got Talent, Talang. Since then, she has continued to rise to stardom, eventually touring with pop star Tate McRae on the U.S. leg of her Miss Possessive Tour. 

On September 26, 2025, Larsson released the 10-track LP on all streaming platforms with production from MNEK, Margo XS, Zhone, and many others, along with songwriting from Helena Gao, through Sommer House, under exclusive license to Epic Records. 

With dance-pop, self-empowerment, and high energy composing the sound of the album, Midnight Sun explores themes of love, heartbreak, living in the moment, and personal struggles. It also maintains the signature pop sound, with minor influences of R&B throughout. On the social media platform, TikTok, her 2017 hit with Clean Bandit, “Symphony,” resubmerged during the summer of 2024, with a humorous trend where users posted photos of Lisa Frank style animals (mainly dolphins) to expose sarcastic, embarrassing things about themselves. After noticing this, Larsson tagged along in the fun and leaned into this Y2K, light, colorful world to fuel the concept of this album. 

The album had three intro singles that were released before the album’s full release: “Pretty Ugly,” the title track, “Midnight Sun” and “Crush.”

“Pretty Ugly” (track 3) was the start of Zara’s album rollout, as she captured “Hollaback Girl’s” signature of shout and response. The song opens with Larsson shouting: “Have you ever seen a pretty girl get ugly like this?/ Messy like this?/ Losing her…?”  The song explores the societal pressure of a woman’s appearance and the duality of how they can be pretty, but also messy. She sings about not caring to conform to society’s version of being lady-like and how sometimes girls just want to have fun and cause “some trouble tonight.”

Since this song was released prior to the album’s release, listeners didn’t know that this song would be the back-end of a transition from the song, “Blue Moon” (track 2) on Midnight Sun. “Blue Moon” is a dreamy, light track that seems to be the sister to the title track, “Midnight Sun” (track 1). “Midnight Sun” is a song about an eternal summer where the sun never goes down, which is something that actually occurs in her native country of Sweden. “Blue Moon” feels the same way, but as if the sun had gone down. The moon is out and stars are shining down on you, yet you’re still outside with your lover. Everything’s calmer, yet still blissful in its own way. “Midnight Sun” captures the feeling of being high on life and the bountifulness of it all that surrounds them. “Blue Moon” discusses the beauty in the small, detailed things; encapsulating the delight that one may feel for their loved one. 

In the transition from “Blue Moon” to “Pretty Ugly,” Larsson gives us a piece of conversation, which seems to be between her and her producer, MNEK, that says, “No! No, let’s get messy. Like really messy.” Knowing this, it allows the listener to understand the purpose of “Pretty Ugly” and how it can be a standalone feminist anthem, but also the duality of some women that are considered pretty girls; how a woman can want to be loved and bask in it, but also want to defy society’s standards. 

The third single prior to the album’s release, “Crush” (track 5), is a song of reflection and conflict with one’s self. In this song, she battles with having a crush.  A current trend on the internet is to be “delusional” over a person and their role in your life, especially in a romantic circumstance. In this song, she battles with wanting to be with that person, but having to come back to herself, and realizing that they will never be a thing; “That’s why they call it a crush.” 

Listening to the song, or really any song on the album, without paying attention to the lyrics, you may just consider this to be another formula (hyper-)pop song, but really listening to it, you notice the depth that can be attributed to Larsson’s pen. 

Take “The Ambition” (track 8), for example. In this track, Larsson describes wanting to live the “Hollywood Dream” and see her name on billboards; having the “LA state of mind.” The problem with that is she also compares herself to others, and strives to make her dreams a reality, yet also wants to be in love at the same time. As stated in the song, “That’s the thing with the ambition / everything’s a competition,” she grapples with the competition within herself to have her dreams come true, and be in love; along with the competition within the industry. These lyrics show a vulnerable side to an artist that is usually highly unserious, at least on social media, and causes you to possibly change your perspective on what they might go through behind the scenes. 

As the album comes to an end, it closes with the track “Puss Puss” (track 10), which is a Swedish way of saying “kiss kiss,” a form of saying goodbye. It starts off sounding like a ringtone from the early 2000s. The song feels like a conversation that one goes through when they don’t want to hang up the phone just yet; whereas in this case, she doesn’t want the album to end just yet. It reminds you of the kind of conversation someone in a long distance relationship would have with their significant other. The missing of each other and wanting to feel each other, yet not being able to because of the distance. It’s a great way to draw the listener into the world of Midnight Sun before zapping them out by the ending of the album. At the end of the song, Larsson has a moment where she is on the phone and explains how they lost track of time and ended up talking all night. It’s a great transition for the replay value of the album. The “eternal sun” aspect is that you can lose track of time when the sun never goes down. 

The pop, hyper-pop, early 2000s-esque feel of the album really worked for Larsson. Many believe that she used this album to find her way back to the sound and place that she once held in the public with hits like “Lush Life” and “Never Forget You.” Whilst on tour with Tate McRae, many also discovered the vocal abilities that she has when singing live and threw their full support behind her. 

If you missed her opening for McRae, don’t fret! Larsson will be going on tour again in October 2025, but this time as the headline act for the Europe leg of the tour. She will begin her touring break in November of 2025, but will be coming back to the U.S. on February 28, 2026 as the headlining act, once again, to see her fans in America.