When Zara Larsson sang about “a never-ending midnight sun,” she was not kidding.
Her original album “Midnight Sun” put her in the pop girl conversation for good. Fresh off of the hit, Larsson released another album, “Midnight Sun: Girls Trip” on May 1. This remix reimagines every track from the original album with an all female lineup: Shakira, Tyla, PinkPantheress, Robyn, Kehlani and more.
The girls’ trip has officially started with 13 women and 10 songs.
When Larsson released “Midnight Sun” in Sept. 2025, it was not meant to be a comeback. But the internet had other plans. The title track went viral. “Lush Life” resurged a decade after its release thanks to a TikTok dance trend, and “Stateside” with PinkPantheress climbed into the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10. Then came a sold-out North American tour, followed by a Grammy nomination and a Billboard Women In Music Breakthrough Award. Larsson always had the songs. “Midnight Sun” finally gave her the moment.
“Girls Trip” is her way of keeping the momentum going. Larsson saw what worked: the audience, the collaborations and the aesthetic finally clicked. Inspired by what Charli XCX did with “Brat” and PinkPantheress did with her own remix projects, Larsson took the same approach: take a good album and show how many different worlds it can live in.
“Even though a song is out, you can still have so many different worlds and sounds around the song,” Larsson said at the album’s iHeartRadio listening party, per Billboard. “If a song is good enough, it can kind of be anything.”
The difference here is the concept. Every feature on “Midnight Sun: Girls Trip” is a woman — and that shapes everything about how the album feels.
The new album opens with ““Midnight Sun” featuring PinkPantheress. The original is romantic and ethereal with Larsson’s vocals shining through. This version keeps her signature riffs but swaps the atmosphere for grunge, club beats, intricate drums and bass-leaning production that is unmistakably PinkPantheress. These are two different worlds but somehow it works.
The centerpiece is “Eurosummer” with Shakira, which came together after Shakira reached out herself.
“She’s heard about this project. She would love to be on it,” Larsson told the Today Show. “Isn’t that insane. That’s when I’m like, yeah, I’m doing well.”
The song delivers on the name — playful, camp and ready for summer. It is the kind of song that makes you feel like you are already on a flight to Ibiza.
“Hot & Sexy” with Tyla leans into Rio funk and club influences. There are heavy, loud and floor-shaking dance beats. The song is an unapologetic anthem for girlhood. It is about wearing what you want, doing what you want and feeling beautiful with your friends. “Me and my girls are / Beautiful, fly, hot and sexy” is not just a lyric, it is everything the album stands for. Tyla fits into the song like it was written for her, which in a way it was.
“Blue Moon” with Kehlani is a full mood shift. The tempo slows, the production leans into R&B and the whole song takes on a more romantic, sensual energy. Both voices sound ethereal together — intimate in a way the original never quite was. It feels like a late-night serenade.
“Pretty Ugly” with JT and Margo XS opens with JT rapping straight into the chorus. The beats are fast, catchy and match the pace of the song perfectly. It is one of the most high-energy moments of the album. “Saturn’s Return” featuring Helena Gao and Malibu slows things down. A six minute track built on low synths and layered vocals. It is atmospheric and unhurried in a way that earns its runtime.
“The Ambition” with Madison Beer and BAMBII keeps the original’s beats but Beer’s adlibs and riffs slow it down, adding a pop ballad layer to the intensity. BAMBII’s production stays true to Larsson’s sound while Beer’s voice deepens the emotion, making the hunger in the lyrics hit harder.
Robyn closes things out on “Puss Puss.” For Larsson, landing Robyn was personal.
“This is actually probably the biggest thing that I’ve ever done in my very long career,” she told Apple Music. “It’s the soundtrack to my teenage years, and to who I am as an artist and as a person. She also is a Swedish legend.”
The collaborated product is a playful, wholesome note to end a very full girls’ trip.
What makes “Girls Trip” work is not just who Larsson invited — it is how much space she gave them. Every artist sounds like herself. That was intentional.
“All the people on this album are people that I look up to, that I feel inspired by, that I want to be in the studio with, that I want to go and have a dinner with,” Larsson said. “I feel like it’s just real and authentic.”
That philosophy runs through the entire album. Each collaborator brings her own cultural world to the table, and the result is a girls’ trip that is genuinely global. Techno, club, Afrobeats, Latin pop, R&B, Swedish dance — and the Larsson aesthetic holding it all together.
From every reel of someone recreating her makeup looks, outfits and dance trends, it was clear that Larsson had found her moment. She made sure the rollout matched it. The tracklist reveal came in the form of a Y2K Malibu Barbie-inspired animated teaser — in which she calls Paris Hilton — where each collaborator was unveiled like a destination. The brand was there. The aesthetic was clear. She found her viral moment and instead of riding it out, she seized it and made music that counted.
The midnight sun, it turns out, really does not set.
Meghna Srikumar is an Arts & Entertainment Intern for the spring 2026 quarter. She can be reached at msrikuma@uci.edu.
Edited by Avani Kumar and Elizabeth Gregg.
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