After Zara Larsson achieved a new level of success with her fifth studio album Midnight Sun, the Swedish pop star said she doesn’t want to be considered for Best New Artist at the 2027 Grammys.
Actually, the thing with Zara Larsson’s ambition is not everything’s a competition.
As the “Ambition” singer sees it, her massive success in the past year shouldn’t qualify her for Best New Artist at the 2027 Grammys because she’s been a performer for more than a decade.
“I was speaking to my former label about this,” Larsson told Perfect Magazine in an interview published Aug. 27, “and they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to see if we can put you in Best New Artist for the Grammys.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t even want that. That would downplay the 13 years of me being an artist. I’m not a new artist.’”
Although the 28-year-old—who won Talang, the Swedish version of America’s Got Talent, when she was 10—has found success with previous songs including 2015’s “Lush Life” and 2017’s “Symphony,” her fifth studio album Midnight Sun skyrocketed her notoriety after its release in September.
But while Larsson admitted she’s certainly felt “a shift” recently, she is still looking at her career as a whole.
“That’s why I like ‘breakthrough,’” she continued. “It feels like the whole world is looking at me at the same time. Before, this song was successful over here, and another song a year later was successful over there. Now it feels like it’s all coming together quite nicely.”
As it turns out, though, Larsson’s wish has already been granted, because she actually isn’t eligible for Best New Artist because her song “Midnight Sun”—released as a single in June 2025—received a nomination for Best Dance Pop Recording at the 2026 Grammy Awards.
As the Recording Academy states in its rules for the Best New Artist category, an artist is not eligible if they have “a previous Grammy nomination as a performer, including a nomination as an established member of a nominated group.”
Her Midnight Sun album, however, is eligible for consideration for the 2027 Grammys. Nominations will be announced in November.
In the end, though, Larsson’s personal measure of success isn’t awards—it’s the fans.
“The older I get, it’s becoming clearer and clearer to me that my passion and what I really care about is people coming to my shows,” she continued to Perfect. “People have taken time out of their real lives. They paid money to experience this with their friends, and I get to be on stage and sing live. The live culture of it all is what I really, really care about.”
As Larsson put it, “What’s been so amazing about Midnight Sun is I feel like it’s gone beyond just a good album or a good song. People are being invited into my world by putting on their outfits and their flowers and the glitter and the colours. The culture around it is how I feel successful.”
Ahead of the 2027 Grammy nominations being announced in November, read on to look back at artists who have never won a Grammy.
She’s pretty without any makeup on, but Katy Perry has 13 nominations, including Album of the Year for 2010’s Teenage Dream, and no wins.
