She might have been a jobbing pop star for a decade or more, but it’s only in the past couple of years that all the pieces of Zara Larsson’s career have finally fallen into place.
After TikTok discovered her 2016 hit, Lush Life, Larsson was able to capitalise on her growing profile with 2025’s Midnight Sun album, and the title track served as a glorious day-glo manifesto for her new era.
Alongside songwriter/producer MNEK and songwriter Helena Gao, Larsson has been sitting down to discuss the making of the song – a pulsating blend of pop, drum ‘n’ bass and just a little bit of Jersey club.
The concept came from Larsson herself – “I just wanted to capture the feeling of what it feels like to be in the countryside at the peak of Swedish summer,” she says. MNEK then imagined her being “in the sun, in nature, hands in your hair.”
Musically, this led the producer to a ‘90s influence: “My first thinking was Ray Of Light, Madonna – that ethereal major key feeling,” he remembers. Later on, this was also a reference point for the video.
And so the song began to take shape: “I had these ideas for these chords – sometimes I'll hear the music in my head, but maybe don't know how it's going to be executed,” says MNEK. It was fellow producer Margo XS who suggested that these could be arpeggiated – “And then Helena got on the keys, and played something that's a constant across the song,” adds MNEK.
One other element of Midnight Sun that was “totally inspired by Ray Of Light” was the long, wavering ‘Sun’ that Larsson sings in the chorus, becoming one of the song’s main hooks. This wasn’t sung as you hear it, though: “We chopped that shit,” admits Larsson, referring to the editing process in Logic Pro. “And I was scared. I was, like, ‘how am I going to perform this live?’”
Fortunately, she’s been able to manage it: “Something happens when I go on stage and I hold the mic,” she says. “Then I'm just like, ‘Oh, I can really sing this.’ But in the studio, we really had to [be] like, ‘let me take a breath.’”
It’s underneath this sustained note that Midnight Sun has its ‘Jersey moment’ – there’s a lot going on in terms of production. When it came to vocals, though, Larsson was keen to keep things simple.
“I remember when we were finishing the record, one of Zara's main points was, ‘I don't want too much double tracking, I don't want too much left and right. just give me a little plate reverb – make it direct, and keep it hot,’” says MNEK. “And I was like, ‘that's great, but I'm gonna need a little harmony.’”
We get various little vocal flourishes that all help to add to the buoyant atmosphere, and Larsson also got the chance to hit a big note.
“The highest note Zara reaches in the song is an E5,” says MNEK, and he feels that this is something that helps Midnight Sun to stand out in the current music landscape.
“The way pop is right now, it's like there's such minimalism,” he argues. “No one is singing an E5 on a record no more. You know what I mean? That's the truth of it all. Everyone is a lot more chill and not as imposing or not trying to take up too much space.”
“And this song is loud,” interjects Larsson. “Like, it is taking up space.”
In fact, she feels like Midnight Sun is a perfect encapsulation of what she’s about as an artist. “It's amazing,” she says. “Like, I don't know – it just speaks to me, and if it speaks to me and to all of us, it has to speak to some other people. I felt really, really excited to play this track for people because I just felt so secure and confident in the song. I just knew what it meant to me and how I felt listening to this. And if they didn't like it, they wouldn't like me. That's how I felt. If you don't like this song, you don't like me.”
