Rabat – Zara Larsson has confirmed that she turned down her label’s attempt at submitting her in Grammys Best New Artist nomination.
In an interview with Perfect magazine, Zara stated, “I was speaking to my former label about this, and they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to see if we can put you in Best New Artist for the Grammys.’ And I’m like, I don’t even want that,”
“That would downplay the 13 years of me being an artist. I’m not a new artist,” she said.
The 28-years-old artist believes her album “Midnight Sun“ has boosted her career to another level, for which she prefers to see herself as a “breakthrough” artist.
“It feels like the whole world is looking at me at the same time. Before, this song was successful over here, and another song a year later was successful over there. Now it feels like it’s all coming together quite nicely,” Larsson said.
Zara has had several hits throughout her career, but things began to change when she took her career into her own hands, starting to make her own music.
Zara received her first-ever Grammy nomination in November 2025 for her hit single Midnight Sun, which was nominated for Best Dance Pop Recording. Lady Gaga ultimately took home the award for Abracadabra.
Since prior Grammy nominees cannot subsequently compete for Best New Artist. That makes Zara Larsson eligible for the nominations anyway.
This case has opened continuous debate about what makes a new artist exactly new, after Grammy‘s nominations of artists who spent decades making music, rather than those whose recording career just began.
