It’s safe to say that Zara Larsson is the queen of summer. With her branding focusing on bright colors, bedazzled makeup, fun summer motifs and a Y2K look, Larsson has turned herself into a real life Malibu Barbie. But it took many years to get to the level of stardom that she has today.
Zara Larsson has been in the music industry for decades, but only recently broke through to cultural relevance, despite having hit after hit in the 2010s. She first rose to prominence in 2008 after winning a Swedish talent show competition, “Talang.” She took a break from the industry before coming back in 2013 with her debut EP titled “Introducing.” The lead single, “Uncover,” went certified platinum in Sweden and Norway, solidifying her as a star from the very beginning.
In 2017, Larsson released her second project, “So Good,” which includes some of her most recognizable songs such as “Lush Life,” “Never Forget You” and “Ain’t My Fault.” The album charted number one in Sweden, as well as top-10 in seven other countries. “Lush Life,” the lead single off the album, charted top-five in 18 countries. That year she was also featured in the infamous song, “Symphony” by Clean Bandit, and a few years later, in 2021, she had another hit with “Ruin My Life,” which went certified platinum in the United States.
However, despite churning out hit after hit for over the past decade, Larsson never really managed to get her foot in the cultural zeitgeist door. While she had billions of streams and everyone was singing her songs, no one really knew who Zara Larsson was. A huge factor to no one knowing her name or what she looked like was that she had no distinctive personal style.
She looked like every other musician at the time, so even though her songs were blowing up, she had nothing to separate her as a person from the other artists making hits at the time. It’s a common problem that other artists like Ellie Goulding, Lara Fabian and Kevin Parker suffer from. It seemed like she was doomed to only be remembered through her songs.
All that changed in 2024 when the “Symphony” dolphin meme exploded on TikTok. The meme used the song “Symphony,” specifically Larsson’s part of the song, accompanied by a rainbow dolphin image and text. It went certified platinum on TikTok, and Larsson ended up seeing the meme. In most cases, an artist or celebrity would ignore or just make a brief joke about memes created around them, but Larsson did something different.
Instead of ignoring the meme or letting it fizzle out, she turned the meme into a moment and used it to rebrand her entire image. She fully leaned into the Y2K, Lisa Frank maximalism look and released her fifth studio album, “Midnight Sun,” using these new visuals. She created a distinct visual image with Y2K maximalism, bright sorbet colors, rhinestones everywhere and summer motifs including sunsets, hibiscus flowers and, of course, dolphins.
Larsson didn’t just apply these visuals to her looks and her style. Her distinct brand showed up in everything including her album roll out, her tour visuals and her social media content. That consistency and commitment to the vision turned the meme into a full cultural identity.
A decade ago she looked like every other artist on the scene. Now her look is so distinct that people can dress up as her for Halloween and it would be instantly recognizable. The talent was always there, but thanks to her rebrand creating a new, distinct visual image, people are finally noticing and remembering the name Zara Larsson.