ZARA LARSSON FINDS HER LIGHT

After changing the way she records on 'Midnight Sun,' the Swedish pop singer is nominated for her first Grammy

- BY MIKAEL WOOD POP MUSIC CRITIC

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

"IT'S LIKE I'm still living in a childhood fantasy," says Zara Larsson of being in L.A. "There's something motivating about coming to the land of trying for success."

A chauffeured black SUV pulls up to the curb outside Destroyer in Culver City and out jumps Zara Larsson like somebody riding a float in the Rose Parade.

The 28-year-old Swedish singer has been a steady presence in pop music for about a decade, with a string of catchy singles — “Lush Life,” “Never Forget You,” “Ruin My Life” — that have racked up hundreds of millions of streams without ever quite establishing a place for her among music's glitterati.

Yet that’s finally what happened this year with the title track from Larsson’s fifth studio album, “Midnight Sun.” A euphoric electro-pop jam about “skinny-dipping with your heart out,” it was called one of the songs of the summer by Pitchfork, which described it as “ ‘Ray of Light’ via Jersey club by way of Lisa Frank” and said it was “seemingly designed in a lab to short-circuit gay guys’ critical thinking.” Now “Midnight Sun” is nominated for a Grammy Award — Larsson’s first — in the dance pop recording category alongside tracks by Lady Gaga and Tate McRae.

Wearing a sparkly mini dress and a brightly colored shrug, Larsson — who's also made headlines lately with her vocal support of the Palestinian people — spoke about her career upswing over breakfast on a warm December morning ahead of an appearance at iHeartRadio’s annual Jingle Ball concert.

“It’s so much nicer to be here right now than back home,” she says, her blond hair shining in the sun. “In Sweden, it’s snowy and cold, and it gets dark so early. You'll be like, ‘Guys, it’s really late — we should go to sleep. Then you realize it’s 3:30.

You said in a recent interview that the American propaganda machine worked on you. I wondered which parts specifically.