Up until recently, the Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson was an also-ran, almost a punchline. Larsson scored a few breakout American hits in 2015, when she was 17. After that, she went a decade without making much impact over here, other than one 2018 single that scraped the bottom of the Hot 100. She kept making music, and she had her fans, but her impact was minimal. Right now, though, Larsson is riding a huge resurgence, and she is taking full advantage.
It started with a dolphin meme. In 2024, TikTok users started posting dark emotional thoughts along with Lisa Frank-type dolphin images and audio of Larsson and Clean Bandit's 2017 collab "Symphony." Larsson didn't know what was happening, but she celebrated anyway. Last year, Larsson released a very good album called Midnight Sun, recorded with her longtime collaborator MNEK, and she joined Tate McRae's tour as the opener. Her video for the title track, one of my favorite songs of last year, went all-in on the dolphin meme imagery. By the end of the tour, I was seeing stories about how more people were coming to those shows for Larsson than for the headliner McRae.
Last last year, Zara Larsson teamed up with PinkPantheress, another pop star who rides the unpredictable waves of meme success, on her remix album Fancy Some More? Zarsson and PinkPantheress joined forces on a new version of "Stateside," and the remix took off, especially after gold medal winner Alysa Liu skated to the song at the Olympic Exhibition Gala. The "Stateside" remix reached #6 in the US, giving Larsson her biggest-ever hit over here, and it drove a general Zara Larsson revival. This week, for instance, Larsson has four songs on the Hot 100: "Stateside," "Midnight Sun," her resurgent 2015 hit "Lush Life," and her new Tyla collab "She Did It Again."
Today, Larsson, much like PinkPantheress or Charli XCX, has released a full Midnight Sun remix album, with guests on every song. Midnight Sun: Girls Trip includes new versions of Larsson's songs with friends like Tyla, Shakira, and Kehlani. Perhaps you would be interested to learn that Robyn, Big Sweden, is the guest on Larsson's "Puss Puss" remix. But I think the big news here is the "Midnight Sun" remix with PinkPantheress. The new version of the track adds in jungle drums and bass-burps, and it's a little cluttered for my tastes. I hope it doesn't become the song's definitive version. Still, pretty good! And I'm curious to see if anything happens with it. Listen below.
And if you feel like streaming an entire Zara Larsson remix album, you can do that below.
Midnight Sun: Girls Trip is out now on Epic.
