Zara Larsson wants to be number one, and she’s not shy about it.
The 27-year-old Swedish pop star recently got candid on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast about how her ambition drives everything she does, for better or worse.
“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.”
She describes herself as happy, but there’s always that little voice in her head pushing her to do more. “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’s perfectionism has had real consequences on her music career. After releasing So Good in 2017, she didn’t follow up with Poster Girl until 2021. That four-year gap is something she now regrets.
“I think it’s probably one of my biggest mistakes to have had such a huge gap between my albums,” she admitted. “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.’”
The pressure to deliver a major commercial hit left her second-guessing herself constantly. She scrapped entire projects just because they didn’t feel like the big follow-up she thought she needed.
Despite being in the pop world, Zara says she doesn’t really care what other artists are doing. “Honestly, I don’t really give a f*** what other people are doing,” she said. “When I’m recording, I usually go into podcast mode. I listen to a lot of podcasts and ASMR and just kind of tune out from what everyone else is releasing and doing.”
Now she’s focused on her new album, Midnight Sun, and especially its title track, a song that’s been in the works for years. “I’ve probably written five songs called Midnight Sun,” she said. “I like that title. I really want it. Because it just reminds me of home.”
For Larsson, that sense of home has become more important over time. “The more I travel and the older I get, I wanna be reminded of home and my roots and a Swedish summer night.”
So while Zara Larsson wants to be number one, it’s clear she’s not just chasing charts, she’s chasing something more personal, more lasting. Even if her ambition never quite lets her rest, it’s also what keeps her evolving as an artist.
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