Call it Charli’s law: When she finds herself at a precarious position on the food chain, the savvy pop singer builds her own biosphere. What even constitutes “radio pop” these days is so atomized, and those precious few top spots are by and large reserved for either country artists or Ariana Grande and her disciples. So what was Zara Larsson to do when a dolphin meme and an opening slot for Tate McRae made her gay-Twitter-famous and then famous-famous? Plan a Girls Trip. Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat (and really Pop 2 before it) laid the blueprint, and Fancy Some More? codified the form. But Larsson’s may be the first remix album in recent memory to arrive with greater anticipation than its progenitor.
Larsson had her biggest break yet with her guest turn on PinkPantheress’ “Stateside” rework, and she’s repaid the favor in kind. “Midnight Sun (Girls Trip)” has it almost too easy. Take one of the marquee pop singles of 2025, a so-wrong-it’s-right, mixolydian monstrosity of new age-isms, Beyoncé runs, and jersey club. Juice it up with UKG. Set and forget. Except then Pink drops “Gold Dust” by DJ Fresh—a modern drum’n’bass classic—on the chorus, and it’s as if Katy B herself has emerged from hibernation to herald the official arrival of Eurosummer.
Is it a bridge too far to call this a new mode of music stardom? Larsson and Pink have penned a postcard to their respective home countries while flexing the global soft power afforded, at least in part, by their international alliance. Yes, “Gold Dust” is already an all-time jam. And yes, PinkPantheress is the one who’s decked out a significant swath of the mainstream pop landscape in Primark plaid. But it’s Larsson’s rapidly expanding star that brings it all together. Give the girl her hibiscus flowers.