Zara Larsson has had a large year, and a quote from her about the Grammy Awards has been circulating faster than the rulebook that makes it moot. The Swedish pop singer told Perfect Magazine that her former label wanted to see whether she could be submitted for Best New Artist at the 2027 ceremony, and that she did not want it. She cannot have it either way.
Her fifth album, Midnight Sun, arrived in September 2025, which puts it inside the eligibility window for the 2027 Grammys, where she could be a leading name across the pop categories. Larsson's objection to the new-artist framing was straightforward. "I don't even want that," she said, telling the magazine it would downplay her 13 years as an artist.
The Recording Academy's rules reach the same conclusion by a different route. Best New Artist asks that a breakthrough fall inside the eligibility period, which for the 2027 awards runs from August 31, 2025 to August 28, 2026. Larsson's timeline fits: her two biggest singles of the year, "Midnight Sun" and "Stateside" with PinkPantheress, both entered the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2026.
The disqualifier is earlier than the charts. "Midnight Sun" was already nominated for Best Dance Pop Recording at the 2026 Grammy Awards, in a field that also held records by Selena Gomez, PinkPantheress, Tate McRae and Lady Gaga, who won with "Abracadabra". Academy rules bar an artist previously nominated as a performer, solo or in a group, from being submitted for Best New Artist, with narrow exceptions for featured or compilation credits.
The Academy did loosen one part of the category in June. Artists may now be submitted for Best New Artist up to four times rather than three, alongside a set of other category changes. Every other restriction stayed where it was, including the one that catches Larsson.
Her exclusion revives an argument that returns every awards season: either rename the category or add one that recognises a mid-career breakout. Larsson herself prefers a different word. "That's why I like 'breakthrough'," she said, describing the feeling that the whole world is looking at the same time rather than one song landing here and another there a year later.
She also declined to measure the year in trophies at all. Asked how she judges success, she pointed at rooms rather than gramophones, saying the ultimate version would be a stadium world tour, and that what has moved her about Midnight Sun is the outfits, flowers, glitter and colour the audience turns up in. In July she signed a new deal with RCA Records after more than a decade at Epic.
The Academy has spent the year adjusting categories in public. It moved to rethink its Best Asian Pop category after criticism, a decision that led BTS to say they would not submit music for the ceremony. Rule changes at that level tend to land on artists who did not ask for them.
Nominations for the 2027 ceremony are announced in November, and the shape of the pop field is followed on award watch. Larsson will likely be on the list. It will simply be a different list than the one being argued about.
The facts
- Zara Larsson cannot be submitted for Best New Artist at the 2027 Grammy Awards
- Midnight Sun was nominated for Best Dance Pop Recording at the 2026 ceremony
- The 2027 eligibility period runs August 31, 2025 to August 28, 2026
- In June the Academy raised the Best New Artist submission limit from three to four
- Larsson signed with RCA Records in July after more than a decade at Epic
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