I’ve never been a Zara Larsson fan. Sure, I’d sing along to her earworms like “Never Forget You”, “Ain’t My Fault”, or “Symphony” when they were on the radio or playing at the mall, but they weren’t taking up space in my music library, and I certainly wasn’t holding space for anything she’s released in the decade since. That changed this summer, as Zara started rolling out her fifth studio album, Midnight Sun. She caught my attention.

 

The rollout started like previous albums, a few lead singles (“Pretty Ugly” and “Midnight Sun”) did well in Europe but didn’t make much noise internationally. The story being written looked a lot like previous eras, but two marketing moves worked in concert to give this rollout the shot of adrenaline it needed: the first was the “Midnight Sun” music video and the second was the virality of Zara performing “Midnight Sun” live.

 

The album’s title track is about a Swedish summer, where the sun never goes down. It’s warm, catchy and makes you nostalgic for the unburdened summers of youth. It’s made even more impressive by Zara’s performance, which I can only describe as vocal acrobatics. But that “Sun-un-un-un-un-un…” vocal run that takes over the chorus wasn’t heard by many people when the song was released. The radio has long stopped playing Zara’s new stuff and she’s not a favourite for Spotify playlisting. 

But weeks later, the music video stepped in as the powerful marketing tool music videos once were. It brilliantly captured the essence of the album’s title track and broader album concept, wrapping it in a hyperreal, maximalist, Y2K aesthetic that stopped people when they were scrolling. It's me, I’m people! A moment of Zara flipping her body around on lush green grass and doing TikTok-worthy dances in the ocean, all while wearing a colourful airbrushed t-shirt was a welcome dopamine hit singling itself out in a timeline of political sh-t takes. This was my gateway drug. After a couple days of attempting to mimic her “The never-ending midnight sun-un-un-un-un-un…” yodel, I was hooked, the song was downloaded.

 

The music video made its rounds across social media all summer. She built on that momentum when a marketing move that Zara’s team made in late 2024 was put into motion with Zara joining Tate McRae as the opening act on the North America leg of her Miss Possessive Tour in August. Tate has the most momentum of all the 2000s baby pop girlies out there right now. She’s on a sold-out tour in the market where Zara needs the biggest push. A brilliant move by camp Zara, no notes! And it wasn’t long before clips of Zara’s dancers lifting her high above their heads, as she flawlessly executed the “Midnight Sun” vocal run LIVE, started going viral. The narrative quickly pivoted from “Zara Larsson’s never escaping the Khia Asylum”  to “It’s a pop music sin that Beyoncé’s white daughter is relegated to opening act!”

https://x.com/midnightsuntour/status/1976025793512997378/video/1
 

As labels claw back money, especially from marketing budgets for seasoned acts that aren’t chart toppers, Zara used the power of social media in combination with traditional points of promo to convert new fans. This strategy is a throughline of the rollout. Doing press in London this fall, after the album dropped, she performed live on Strictly Come Dancing, but she also stopped by Hobbycraft to lip-sync "Midnight Sun" with the store employees. 

@hobbycraft_wimbledon

Catching the Midnight Sun with the one and only @Zara Larsson at Hobbycraft Wimbledon! 🌞✨Summer isn’t over YET! #zaralarsson #midnightsun #Hobbycraft #wimbledon #lipsync

♬ Midnight Sun - Zara Larsson

Less random when you think about how Hobbycraft is an essential stop on the journey to recreating Zara’s nouveau-Y2K aesthetic for your concert fit. It’s Zara’s marriage of new and traditional media hits that artists should maybe use as a case study, because if you're only investing in TikTok, you're subject to the algorithm only pushing you in front of certain demos that their AI has made assumptions about. And when it comes to Zara's outline presence, she isn't jumping on any viral trend that will get her views. Ahead of opening for Tate in Toronto this summer, she visited Etalk and spoke pretty emphatically about how she dictates her digital marketing.  

“Whenever my label has this social media company that’s going to come in and be like, ‘Hey, this is some tips we can give to you—have you seen this trend?’ and I’m like, ‘Don’t offend me.’ I’ve seen every trend. I’m addicted to the internet.” 

 

To be clear, the virality of “Midnight Sun” didn’t lift album sales to match previous peaks, but it debuted higher in its opening week on the Billboard 200 than both her 2021 LP Poster Girl and her 2024 album Venus. It’s also worth celebrating that people are finally associating Zara Larsson, the brand and the music. With hits like 2015’s 5x platinum “Never Forget You”, she was just that blonde European girl singing one of those EDM songs. With the album Midnight Sun, she now has writing credits on every track, and it feels like she’s finally found her voice as an artist. 

While she's still not at the top of the charts, her most authentically Zara album catapulted her, for first time in a long time, back into the conversation. And she acknowledged the satisfaction of (re)gaining pop culture relevance, and having people she admires (like Sabrina Carpenter and Raye) compliment the album, when she spoke to The Zach Sang Show in October:

“‘Midnight Sun’ is kind of flopping compared to my other projects, but also, it’s so not because I feel culturally and the people that I love and the people that I follow [...] like the energy is completely different. I feel like people are like–they see me, because it’s me.” 

 

It's not just with Zach Sang where she talks openly about her experience in the industry and that only adds to her flawless album rollout. Logistically her key marketing drops are landing with precision, so between those carefully curated, planned-way-in-advance moments, she can go into an interview without scripted talking points. Audiences can connect her carefree spirit with the freedom of the new music. It's a candid voice she's perfected on TikTok and she doesn't change it for more formal settings – which includes being honest about how her journey in the music industry hasn't followed the fairytale path she dreamed of when she won the Swedish version of Got Talent in 2008. She told Etalk she’s still waiting on her big break but at this point in her career she’s made peace with waiting patiently. 

“It’s always fun to root for an underdog and I feel like people are always rooting for me and like waiting for my big moment. Because my dream is to have like Tate [McRae] a sold-out arena tour—a worldwide area tour. Until that moment happens, I’m just enjoying the love and the support.”

The Midnight Sun era is far from over, but I'd give her rollout thus far a near perfect score — especially considering the trajectory of her career going in. Great albums are released every day and heard by no one. The decisions she's made over the last six months didn't just avoid slipping further into the sunset on her career as a pop star, it moved the needle in the opposite direction. The buzz she generated by opening for Tate McRae allowed her to announce her own solo North American tour for early next year. Did I grossly overpay for re-sale tickets after the Toronto show sold out immediately? Let's not talk about it.

My standouts from the album include "Midnight Sun", "Pretty Ugly", "Girl's Girl" and "Hot & Sexy", which doesn’t just sample the iconic moment when Y2K reality TV icon, Tiffany “New York” Pollard read Gemma Collins down on Celebrity Big Brother, she actually invited Tiffany to the studio to re-record vocals and gave her a writing credit. Another reason for me to stan. 

Photo credits: Doug Peters/ PA Images/ INSTARimages

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