Zara Larsson says she doesn't want to be submitted for Best New Artist at the Grammys

Zara Larsson's name will not appear on the Best New Artist ballot at the 2027 Grammy Awards, and not only because she asked to be left off it. In an interview with Perfect Magazine published Aug. 27, the Swedish singer said her former label, Epic Records, had floated the idea of submitting her for the category following the breakout success of her fifth album, Midnight Sun. Larsson pushed back. "I don't even want that," she said. "That would downplay the 13 years of me being an artist. I'm not a new artist."

But the Recording Academy's eligibility rules had already closed that door. According to Rolling Stone, Larsson's single "Midnight Sun" received a nomination for Best Dance Pop Recording at the 2026 Grammy Awards, where Lady Gaga won for "Abracadabra." Under the Academy's rules, artists cannot be submitted for Best New Artist if they have a previous Grammy nomination as a performer, whether as a solo act or part of a group.

Larsson's breakthrough timeline otherwise fit the 2027 eligibility window, which runs from Aug. 31, 2025 to Aug. 28, 2026. Her biggest singles of the year, "Midnight Sun" and "Stateside" with PinkPantheress, both hit the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2026. But the earlier nomination made the Best New Artist question academic.

In June, the Recording Academy amended the category's rules to allow artists to be submitted a maximum of four times, one more than the previous ceiling, though all other restrictions still apply. Larsson has described the first Grammy nomination as a validating moment. She found out about "Midnight Sun" and called her mother, then cried, according to Rolling Stone.

In the new interview, she framed her recent success as a breakthrough rather than a debut. "That's why I like 'breakthrough'," she said. "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." Her Midnight Sun album remains eligible for the 2027 Grammys, with nominations to be announced in November.

For Larsson, however, the measure of success is not a trophy. "The older I get, it's becoming clearer and clearer to me that my passion and what I really care about is people coming to my shows," she told Perfect. "People have taken time out of their real lives. They paid money to experience this with their friends, and I get to be on stage and sing live. The live culture of it all is what I really, really care about."