If there is one Swedish pop star who refuses to let a week pass quietly, it is Zara Larsson. The last fortnight of her Midnight Sun Tour has delivered a surprise onstage collaboration, a teaser for what she calls her best music video ever, and a politically charged decision to pull out of a Formula 1 after-race concert. Here is everything that went down.
The Sexyy Red moment at the Greek Theatre
On Tuesday September 29, Larsson played the first of two nights at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, and mid-set she walked out with an unexpected guest: American rapper Sexyy Red. The pair performed Red’s 2023 track “Lookin’ for the Hoes (Ain’t My Fault)” together, complete with synchronized choreography that sent the crowd into a frenzy.
It was not a random pairing, either. Fans of the Midnight Sun era will know that Larsson has been working elements of Red’s track into her own 2013 hit “Ain’t My Fault” all tour long, turning the two songs into a mash-up that has become one of the most talked-about moments of the live show. Bringing Sexyy Red out for the real thing in LA was the payoff, and the internet noticed.
“Blue Moon” gets a fairy-tale video
Twenty-four hours later, at the second Greek Theatre show on September 30, Larsson had another surprise lined up. Right after performing “Blue Moon,” she premiered the teaser for the song’s official music video on the big screens and told the crowd it is her best video “by far.”
The teaser is pure storybook fantasy: an ornate blue title card framed by mermaids, a fairy, butterflies and stars, followed by glimpses of a glowing underwater sequence and a moody after-dark fairground. It is a dreamier, more whimsical visual world than anything Larsson has done before.
The video is directed by Charlotte Rutherford and produced by Someday Studio, and that matters because Rutherford has become the defining visual collaborator of the Midnight Sun era. She also directed the striking videos for “Pretty Ugly” and “Midnight Sun,” a run that has given this album cycle its bold, colorful identity. If the teaser is anything to go by, “Blue Moon” is about to take that visual imagination somewhere even more magical.
Pulling out of Abu Dhabi
The bigger headline, though, came a couple of weeks earlier. Larsson announced she was withdrawing from the F1 after-race concert lineup in Abu Dhabi, where she had been scheduled to perform alongside acts including The Chainsmokers and Imagine Dragons.
The move was widely reported as being connected to the war in Sudan, which the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The UAE has been accused of involvement in the conflict through alleged support for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, accusations the UAE government denies. Ticketmaster was still listing Larsson for the December show at the time of writing.
Larsson herself addressed the decision directly, saying she had spent time thinking it through and decided that not doing the show “aligns with me the most right now, for many different personal reasons beyond politics.” She also hinted a fuller statement could follow.
Nobody who has followed her career will be shocked that she took a stand. Larsson has a long history of weathering backlash for her political views, and she once told the Guardian that a brand revoked a multimillion-dollar sponsorship offer after she made a joke about abortion on TikTok. “I lost $3 million, which is the biggest brand deal I’d been offered in my life,” she said at the time. She took it in stride.
The tour keeps rolling
All of this is happening in the middle of one of the busiest touring schedules of her career. The summer took in Lollapalooza Chicago, Osheaga, Way Out West, Sziget, Flow Festival, Superbloom, Electric Picnic, All Points East, the iHeartRadio Music Festival and All Things Go, plus Portola in San Francisco on September 26 and 27.
The Midnight Sun album, her fifth, has been the engine of it all. It landed at number one on the Swedish Albums Chart and number two on the US Billboard Top Dance Albums Chart, powered by singles “Pretty Ugly,” “Midnight Sun” and “Crush.”
Next up: the tour heads through Asia, Australia and New Zealand before wrapping in Bangkok on November 1. The Australian leg alone is ten dates, kicking off with two sold-out nights at Brisbane’s Riverstage on October 13 and 14, then hitting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth before two closing shows in Auckland.
Love her or find her exhausting, Zara Larsson is doing something few pop stars manage in 2026: she is making every single week of a tour feel like an event. Whatever comes next in this era, do not expect it to be quiet.
