The pop phenom knows that anything that feels like a breakthrough could be a blip — but this one might truly stick

“I’m never satisfied ’cause I want number one. Doesn’t everyone?” Zara Larsson sings on “The Ambition,” a deep-cut on her fifth album, 2025’s Midnight Sun, that captures her hunger for pop success. Through a distorted vocal effect, she confesses, “I want it so much.” 

For Larsson, achieving what she’s always wanted isn’t necessarily cause for celebration. It’s what was always meant to happen. Pop stardom is a rapidly moving target, but she’s been training for a chance to dominate pop. Larsson has witnessed first-hand the many transformations the genre has undergone over the past decade. She understands what it means to be a star, what it takes to become one, and that the status doesn’t always last. At 28, the Swedish singer knows that anything that feels like a breakthrough might actually be a blip. Now, with four Hot 100 hits currently stationed on the chart and more cultural ubiquity than ever, she’s committed to making this moment last. 

When she scored her first hit with “Never Forget You” in 2016, Larsson was ready. The song had already been out for nearly a year when it broke through, so she’d had plenty of time to dream about how it could change her life before it actually started to. More Hot 100 entries followed with “Lush Life” and “Ain’t My Fault,” both from her album So Good, from 2017. But then the momentum stalled until 2019’s “Ruin My Life.” Larsson’s vocal performance on the single was commanding, and the song’s replay value was endless. Although it never climbed much higher than the bottom quarter of the chart, the aspirational voice in her head told her more hits would follow, even if it took a while.

It’s rarely enough to have talent and popular songs — Larsson, for essentially her entire career, has had a surplus of both. At any point in her career, she could have bought into the illusion of numbers and been content with what she’d already achieved. The songs were familiar, but didn’t feel as connected to the artist behind them. Her current ascent to stardom is the result of her relentless patience: Larsson’s entire ethos as an artist is rooted in longevity and the desire to leave an identifiable mark on pop history. Not only does she have the hits, she also has the cultural currency that makes them distinctly her own.

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She bolstered this on Midnight Sun, with the addition of her now-unmistakable, maximalist Y2K branding. “Stateside,” the PinkPantheress single she revamped on Fancy Some More, added even more reinforcements. The song reached Number One on the Billboard Global 200 and peaked at Number Six on the Hot 100 following the release of its charming music video, where they swap aesthetics, and a viral skating routine from Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu. On her own remix album, Midnight Sun: Girl’s Trip, which adds featured guests to each track, Larsson shifts the goal post forward once again. The chase never ends.

“Still not satisfied/It blesses and curses my life,” Larsson sings on a new version of “The Ambition,” which dropped in May and overhauls the original with a feature from Madison Beer and new production from Bambii. “A worldwide number one/Want another one.” That same distorted voice cuts through: “I want it so much.” With Midnight Sun: Girl’s Trip, she makes an intentional effort to put herself in conversation with the broader pop domain. Larsson remixes “Midnight Sun” with PinkPantheress, gives “Blue Moon” a Kehlani-assisted R&B twist, and taps newcomer Eli on “Crush” as well as pop veteran Robyn on “Puss Puss.” Her team up with Tyla on “Hot & Sexy” follows their collaboration “She Did It Again,” which recently landed on the Hot 100 and is primed to be a staple in club sets this summer.

On the Girl’s Trip version of “Girl’s Girl,” Larsson sings about her ego and morals being tested as her new position in pop draws comparison and competition. “I wanna be your girl’s girl, but what happens when a girl’s girl wants the spotlight, honey?” Larsson asks. “One and only/There’s room for everyone, but is there really?” The original song is about temptation drawing her to her friend’s boyfriend. The remix puts the entertainment industry under a microscope. Larsson enlists Argentine singer Emilia to call out the double standards that can make the pop arena feel more like a boxing ring for women in the genre. 

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It feels at home on a remix album that enlists solely women as collaborators, but Larsson isn’t just interested in sharing accolades and trading verses. The more personality she injects into the music, the stronger the connection to her audience. With the Midnight Sun era, Larsson bridges the gap between her established identity as an artist and her reputation for being outspoken online. Audiences often yearn for pop stars with big personalities, but it’s a double-edged sword. We’ve seen it take stabs at artists like Chappell Roan who are beloved for being outspoken until they veer off whatever imaginary script they’re expected to read from. “The more people hate her, the more I love her,” Larsson recently shared about Roan. 

Larsson isn’t shy about saying what she means and asking for what she wants. Her perspective on pop, politics, and everything in between has remained consistently direct and self-assured. She recently revealed the loss of a $3 million brand deal over a joke she made on TikTok about a fan getting an abortion after her show. She stands by the post being funny and women having the right to abortion access. When Larsson has posted about advocating for the liberation of Palestine and hating ICE, she’s doubled down on those stances, too, just as quickly as she defended blocking Chris Brown on Spotify and acknowledged pop would be just fine without Dr. Luke. 

For all the ebbs and flows of her career, Larsson has remained uncompromising in her integrity. Infusing this with her music has fortified her place in pop. Her commitment to staying the course has shielded her from projections that might have set her back had she internalized them. When she signed on to open for Tate McRae on an arena tour last year, for example, some argued that as the more veteran of the acts, she should have been above opening for someone newer. But believing Larsson would have ever turned down an opportunity of that magnitude represents a fundamental misunderstanding of her as an artist. Her pride has never outweighed her passion for putting on a show and setting herself up for success. 

In previous years, Larsson warmed up the stage for everyone from Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran to Kygo and Clean Bandit, who collaborated with her on the viral hit “Symphony.” These opportunities might have expanded her immediate audience, but they didn’t share the instant results that came with performing for multiple arenas full of Gen Z pop fans and, by extension, all of their TikTok followers. This is the part of modern pop stardom that Larsson is perhaps uniquely equipped for.

Her current live set — which she shaped on McRae’s tour and continued on her own headlining Midnight Sun tour — is captivating and rehearsed to a point of near-perfection. When she plays “Ain’t My Fault,” Larsson pauses for a moment as red lights wash over the stage. A beat later, she’s bouncing in time to Sexyy Red’s “Looking For The Hoes.” During “Midnight Sun,” she performs the first chorus while being hoisted in the air by her dancers. “Lush Life” is an almost 10-minute ordeal that involves bringing a fan onstage to perform the song’s viral dance break. She drops into a split just before “Hot & Sexy” and another during her cover of Britney Spears’ “Gimme More.” She spends the entire show doing vocal gymnastics.

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Snapshots of all of these moments exist by the thousands across TikTok, where viral posts rack up millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes. Almost none of them live on Larsson’s own profile. Over there, she’s offstage, though rarely off the clock. She sings along to her own records, consults her 10 million followers about whether she should get her belly button pierced, and candidly defends booking college shows to finance her actual tour. Where Larsson is concerned, a stage is a stage and a platform is an opportunity to get one step closer to the version of stardom she’s always imagined for herself.

Larsson is the kind of pop star who would have survived any earlier era of pop — back when promo cycles included performances in malls, parking lots, Walmarts, and wherever else a crowd would gather. She would have shown up covered in rhinestones and ready to work. She wants it so much — and it’s hers for the taking.