One night before releasing her remix album, Zara Larsson gathered fans at a 450-seat theater in Los Angeles and played them half of it.
The event, hosted by iHeartRadio and streamed live on TikTok and radio stations around the country from the iHeartRadio Theater on April 30, gave fans a preview of "Midnight Sun: Girls Trip" — a ten-track remix record built around songs from Larsson's original "Midnight Sun" album, featuring an entirely female roster of collaborators. It came the day after she won the breakthrough artist prize at the 2026 Billboard Women in Music Awards.
Larsson opened with an acoustic performance of her Hot 100 hit "Midnight Sun," then sat down for a Q&A with iHeartRadio host EJ. She explained the project's origins simply: she wasn't ready to leave the "Midnight Sun universe" behind. "I think music and culture in this day and age, it moves quickly, but I'm definitely not ready to move on from Midnight Sun, for a little while at least," she said. "And I just thought, have fun. It'll be so fun."
She credited Charli XCX and PinkPantheress as creative inspirations for the concept. "Even though a song is out, you can still have so many different worlds and sounds around the song," she said. "If a song is good enough, it can kind of be anything."
Five of the album's ten tracks were played in full at the event. The preview opened with "Crush" featuring Eli, followed by "Blue Moon" with Kehlani, an artist Larsson said she had long admired. Next came "Hot & Sexy" with Tyla — the second collaboration between the two following "She Did It Again," released earlier in April. Larsson then played "Pretty Ugly" with JT and Margo XS, a remix she admitted she preferred over the original.
The final track of the night was a meeting of Swedish icons. "Eurosummer," originally a summery standout on "Midnight Sun," got a new version with Shakira — a collaboration Larsson said came together after Shakira's team reached out unprompted. "One day I got a call, it was my A&R, and he was like, 'Shakira heard about this project and she really likes Eurosummer,'" Larsson recalled. "And I was like, 'let's go.'"
Then came "Puss Puss" with Robyn, another Swedish pop institution. "This is my Swedish icon, legend Robyn. Who else would be on this song?" Larsson said as the track began.
Between songs, Larsson fielded questions from the audience and from viewers watching on TikTok and tuning in on radio. The full album was released the following day.
