The song appears on her upcoming Midnight Sun album
Global pop powerhouse Zara Larsson releases “Crush,” a bittersweet single destined to soundtrack endless crying-in-the-club moments before summer’s end. The new single hails from the Swedish star’s highly anticipated new album, Midnight Sun, which is set for release on September 26th via Sommer House/Epic Records.
Written by Larsson with Helena Gao and producers Margo XS, MNEK, and Zhone, “Crush” serves up a masterclass in dancing through the pain while our heroine details the exquisite torture of catching feelings for someone while you’ve already got a good thing at home. The track evolves from soft tones and a shuffling beat into something driving and determined as Zara pushes back temptation and commits to a decision: “Then it hits me like reality, I can’t lose him to a fantasy / It ain’t heartbreak, but it still hurts enough / Oh baby I’m crushed, it will never be us / That’s why they call it a crush, it will never be love.”
“Crush” follows the album’s transcendent title track, “Midnight Sun,” which has penetrated the culture with virality all summer thanks to the song’s Charlotte Rutherford-directed, Y2K-inspired music video and Zara’s vocal prowess on the track. With cosigns and memes from everybody from Renee Rapp, Kylie Jenner, PinkPanthress, Ariana Grande, and Halle Berry, creations on TikTok around the song have tripled in recent weeks. Recently, Zara released a two-track bundle comprising a remix by Chicago DJ Alex Chapman and a live version that came with a performance video shot in the gorgeous northern Swedish village of Björkliden during an actual midnight summer sun.
Zara kicked off this era with the confident and rowdy “Pretty Ugly” and its gloriously messy music video, also directed by Charlotte Rutherford and choreographed by Zoi Tatopoulos. Fittingly, the music video was just nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for “Best Choreography.” The song and video are both unapologetically unfiltered, just like Midnight Sun, the album. The 10-track set ripples with confidence as its storytelling bursts with truth and vulnerability, plumbing the depth and growth of Zara’s artistry and journey over nearly 20 years in the public eye. It is unafraid to show all sides of the 27-year-old: lovestruck, wistful, ambitious, cocky, flippant, and uncertain, often in the same breath.
The pop star recently kicked off a North American arena tour alongside Tate McRae, which is set to hit Chicago, IL tonight (Fri, Aug 15th) at the United Center. Zara has been teasing the new album by performing some of the unreleased music on the road. On October 28th, she will kick off a European headlining tour, before hitting the road in February 2026 alongside OneRepublic in Australia and New Zealand.
