Zara Larsson has opened up about the relentless ambition that drives her music career, calling it both “a blessing and a curse” as she admits she’s never satisfied with her own success.
The Swedish pop star, now 27, spoke to the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast about the pressure she puts on herself to reach the top, even if it means scrapping years of work.
“When you’re super-ambitious, I think that’s the blessing and the curse,” she said. “You can have so many amazing things happening to you, but nothing’s ever gonna be good enough for your soul… I’m a very happy person in general, I love my life, but there is still that voice in my head that will always kind of be nagging on, like, ‘You can do more. You can do better.’ It’s kind of annoying to live life that way, but I just want to be, like, the number one. Even just for a moment.”
Larsson also reflected on the four-year gap between her second album So Good (2017) and 2021’s Poster Girl, saying the delay was due to self-doubt and the pressure to follow up with something even more successful.
“I think it’s probably one of my biggest mistakes to have had such a huge gap between my albums. I definitely had that because I felt so pressured of having to have this huge commercial follow-up. I must have had five albums in those four years that I was just like, ‘No, no, no, not good enough. Let’s start over.’”
Now promoting her latest album Midnight Sun, Larsson says she’s learned to block out distractions and keep her creative process insulated from outside influence.
“Honestly, I don’t really give a f*** what other people are doing. [When I’m recording] I usually go into podcast mode, like I listen to a lot of podcasts and a lot of ASMR and just kind of tune out from what everyone else is releasing and doing. The trends of music go up and down.”
The album’s title track has been years in the making, with Larsson repeatedly rewriting it until she found the right version. It’s a song rooted in her Scandinavian identity.
“I’ve probably written five songs called Midnight Sun. I’m like, ‘I like that title. I really want it.’ Because it just reminds me of home. And also I think the more I travel and the older I get, I wanna be reminded of home and my roots and a Swedish summer night.”
