Zara Larsson on ‘Dream’ of Headlining Coachella, Why ‘Blue Moon’ Deserves More ‘Love’ & Her ‘Respect’ for Macklemore Speaking Out

For Zara Larsson, the Midnight Sun era still has some daylight left.

Although the Swedish pop star already has plenty of new music on the horizon, she’s not ready to move on from her latest album just yet, especially when there’s still a song she feels deserves its moment.

“I really want to push ‘Blue Moon’ because I feel like it’s ‘Midnight Sun’s’ sister,” Larsson told Billboard backstage Wednesday night at her Apple Music x Chase Sapphire Experience concert and Q&A. “And it deserves a video and it deserves love.”

That doesn’t mean Larsson isn’t thinking about what comes after the Midnight Sun wave comes to a halt. If anything, the massive year she’s having has only made her more eager to keep going. The album reached a peak of No. 36 on the Billboard 200, and the project’s title track peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. As she’s taken the album around the world, she’s watched fans turn her live shows into their own kind of spectacle — from viral drone footage of a festival crowd to a fan joining her onstage at Lollapalooza and an audience being lifted into the air at a show in Belgium. Those moments are impossible to manufacture, Larsson says, and that’s exactly what makes them so special.

“It’s something that can’t be planned. And it’s something that the fans bring,” she says. “It’s really something that I can’t do from stage by myself.”

The people on the other side of the barricade are an essential part of the performance for Larsson. She wants every single show to feel like its own experience, regardless of the country or festival.

“I really want people, wherever they are, in whatever festival or country, to have that experience and to be together to create special memories,” she says. “I really do feel like every show is different and every audience brings something different.”

And there are still plenty of stages Larsson aims to reach. When asked whether fans could someday see her headline Coachella, she had a very quick answer: “That’s my dream.”

Larsson has attended the festival for years, and she says it’s one of the places where she feels extremely inspired by the artists and musicians around her. But she knows she’s not ready to take the top spot just yet.

“I’m not quite there yet, but I definitely want to perform,” she says. “And then for headlining, I want it to be so mega and big and amazing that everyone’s like, ‘Well, now she has to headline.’”

In the meantime, Larsson has become extremely hands-on with the career that could potentially get her there. After years in the music industry, she says she’s only recently started feeling like she’s truly taking control of her artistry, whether it’s her music or the business decisions surrounding it.

“It’s weird how long I’ve been in the industry but yet just now feel like I am taking control over my artistry and what I do and how involved I am,” she says. “There’s so much for me to still get to know and work on, and I will do so.”

To her, this meant being open about the things she believes in, something that Larsson says she hopes to maintain as her career continues to skyrocket.

During the interview, Larsson was asked about the support Macklemore has received from fans after taking public stances that could potentially alienate some listeners. For Larsson, seeing people rally around an artist who is willing to speak honestly is more powerful than anything.

“I respect that so much,” she says. “It is so powerful to see how everyone can come together and make a difference.”

Larsson has found herself on the receiving end of that same kind of support. After showing support for Macklemore, she was included near the top of an online list of artists that fans considered trustworthy, which is something that Larsson says she appreciated, but doesn’t necessarily view as a title she’s trying to earn.

“I just try to be a good person,” she says. “I genuinely believe that most people out here — I don’t think that there are many evil people in the world. I do think everyone is good in their souls.”

As the stakes get higher, Larsson’s goal is to keep making decisions that feel honest.

“I want to feel like everything that I do is clear and it comes from a place of love,” she says.

That philosophy seems to extend to how she approaches her music as while. Though Larsson admits she does have “so much new music” she wants to work on and release, she’s more interested in giving Midnight Sun her time to shine rather than rushing toward whatever comes next.

“People are still discovering so much about you every day,” she says. “So there’s so much space to be held still for the whole Midnight Sun album.”

That includes “Blue Moon,” which Larsson plans to keep pushing through TikTok and, eventually, the visuals she has in mind for the song.

“I really want to make sure that people aren’t forgetting her,” she says. “or maybe they haven’t even discovered ‘Blue Moon.’”