After spending nearly 20 years in the spotlight, Zara Larsson is ready for a new phase of her career on her own terms.

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In a new Allure cover story, the Swedish singer discusses leaving behind her child star image, taking on a bigger role in her creative decisions and finding a renewed connection with her fans.

Larsson first became well-known in Sweden at just 10 years old, when she won Talang, the Swedish edition of Got Talent, in 2008. Four years later, she signed a record deal and began building the international pop career that would eventually bring Billboard Hot 100 hits like “Lush Life” and “Never Forget You.”

Now that she’s 28, Larsson says that though her life doesn’t feel too different from those early days, the way she approaches her career has definitely changed.

“My life, internally, doesn’t feel that different,” she told Allure. “But then, of course, there are a lot of new eyes on me now, especially in the U.S.”

Much of the renewed attention has come during her Midnight Sun era, which notably gave the star her second-highest-charting album to date on the Billboard 200. The album has given Larsson somewhat of her own distinct creative identity, establishing a more defined version of her artistry and pop persona. The singer says she wants her music to exist as part of something larger — a world that encompasses the songs, visuals, performances and aesthetic surrounding them.

“I want to build a world, an identity, a universe, a sound, a feeling,” she said.

This philosophy and sophisticated vision helped Larsson in places other than the recording studio. She says that she has become increasingly involved in the creative decisions behind her music and performances, from writing more of her own material to weighing in on stage lighting and the visual direction of her shows. This weekend, Larsson brings her show to two different All Things Go Festival stages, playing All Things Go NYC on Friday (Sept. 25) and All Things Go DC on Saturday (Sept. 26).

After spending much of her career being viewed through the lens of her early success, Larsson says she wants to be recognized as an artist in her own right.

“I don’t want to go into a studio or sit at a meeting and feel like I’m 16,” she said. “And I don’t think anyone who worked with me did that on purpose. They wanted to really help me, but I think it made me feel like I couldn’t trust in what I was wanting to do — or even actually entertain the thought of what I wanted to do because I thought, ‘Well, what do I know?'”

Her growing creative confidence is timed with another wave of attention around some of Larsson’s songs. For example, “Lush Life,” her 2015 hit, went viral again in late 2025, more than a decade after its original release. A dance trend was ultimately the culprit, though it did help introduce the song to a new generation of listeners, pushing it to a new high of No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100. She also earned her first Hot 100 top 10 this year via the PinkPantheress collab “Stateside.” Her current music has also become part of a larger online conversation, including the dolphin imagery associated with her “Symphony” fandom.

Seeing fans participate in the visual world she created makes Larsson feel rewarded. “It makes me so f—ing happy to look out into the crowd,” she said, “or even in my tagged photos on Instagram, and I see that people do the makeup — they wear the glitter, they have a little dolphin.”

But behind the confidence is an artist still figuring out how to reconcile the career she has with the one she imagines for herself.

Larsson recalled performing at a small venue in Portland, Oregon, during the U.S. leg of her tour earlier this year. She described the stage as “a f—ing pizza slice” and admitted that playing theaters sometimes makes her question how she presented her career online.

“It’s not that it’s embarrassing, but I felt like, ‘Ugh, it would be so much nicer if I was playing arenas right now,'” she said. “Do I want to post pictures of the theaters I’m in?”

Her ambition, she says, is to eventually bring the scale of her vision to arena stages.

“I think it’s just a disconnect when you have that vision for yourself, but in reality you’re not there,” Larsson said. “But it’s gonna be fun for people to follow me along on that journey.”