Stockholm, SE · pop · dance-pop

Zara Larsson

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Swedish pop machinery at its shiniest — 'Lush Life' to main-character bangers, delivered with total command.

Zara Larsson, born Zara Maria Larsson on December 16, 1997, in Solna, grew up in Tallkrogen, in the south of Stockholm, the daughter of a nursing assistant and an army officer. She trained for years at the Royal Swedish Ballet School before switching focus, and has named Carola Häggkvist and Whitney Houston as early influences on her singing.

She first became known nationally in 2008, winning the second season of the talent show Talang. She signed to Ten Music Group in 2012 and released the EP Introducing the following year; its single "Uncover" topped the charts in Sweden and Norway and was certified six times platinum at home. Her 2014 debut album, 1, added the Swedish top-ten hits "Carry You Home" and "Rooftop."

A deal with Epic Records in the United States led to her international debut, So Good, in 2017. Its lead single, "Lush Life," reached the top five in eighteen countries and became one of the best-selling songs of the decade in the UK. The album's other singles, "Never Forget You" with MNEK and "Ain't My Fault," both topped the Swedish chart, while her feature on Clean Bandit's "Symphony" reached number one in the UK, Sweden and Norway.

Her third album, Poster Girl, followed in 2021 behind the single "Ruin My Life," which went platinum in the US. In 2022 she left Ten Music Group and bought back her own catalogue. Venus, released in 2024 on Epic and her own label, Sommer House, produced the hits "Can't Tame Her" and "On My Love" with David Guetta, the same year she made her acting debut in the Swedish Netflix drama A Part of You.

Her fifth album, Midnight Sun, followed in 2025; its title track became her highest-charting solo entry on the US Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Pop Recording. A 2025 collaboration with PinkPantheress, "Stateside + Zara Larsson," reached number one on the Billboard Global 200. In Sweden she has scored five number-one singles and three number-one albums, and has won two American Music Awards and four Grammis.

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