Music interview '“ Zara Larsson: '˜I feel that sometimes especially women aren't allowed to say it, but I want to be like Madonna successful, like Beyonce successful'

The trip had offered the 20-year-old Swedish singer the chance to hook up with several of the writers and producers she’d worked with on her debut album, So Good, which came out earlier this year. “It was one of those familiar sessions which I love because usually I’m a bit shy,” she says, explaining she prefers spending four or five days working out a song, rather than being shunted from one meeting to the next.

“We don’t have to make a great song on the first day, stress away, that was really tough when it’s like ‘We have 12 hours, let’s do this’. If it doesn’t feel good they were like ‘Ah man, that sucks, because I know we could have made a great song’.”

Now fast approaching it is Larsson’s first UK and European headline tour, which includes a date in Leeds. She says she’s looking forward to it “so much”. “I just want people to come and sing as loud as they can. I can’t believe this is my first UK tour really, or European headlining tour. It feels like it’s really about time.”

Larsson may only be familiar to UK audiences from a string of hits in the past two years but she made her first televised appearance in her homeland at the age of ten, when she went on to win Sweden’s version of Got Talent. She admits the stage has always felt a natural environment for her. “I’ve always loved the attention, I’ve always been the class clown. I’ve always been wanting to be the centre of attention, like ‘Look at me, look at me’ ever since I was really little. Then combined with the fact that I love to sing it’s a perfect combination.

“I can’t see myself doing anything else than entertaining people somehow. Even if I lost my voice I would still love to dance or do my podcast still. Maybe I would act, I don’t know, but just something creative like that.”

She reckons her breakthrough hits Lush Life and Never Forget You will always have a special place in her affections. “To date Never Forget You and Lush Life are my two biggest songs. I released them before my album and I know they obviously helped my album a lot. I think that’s the point of releasing singles.

“I do feel a bit of pressure for my next album because I want people to love it as much as they loved the first one. But maybe I’ll be 50 years old and I’ll still sing Lush Life and Never Forget You, maybe it’s going to be one of those [situations].”

This year Larsson scaled the top of the UK singles charts as a featured artist on the Clean Bandit song Symphony. She says it was “one of those easy-peasy” collaborations. “They heard Lush Life and they really liked it and they thought ‘Why don’t we do a song with her?’ Their team contacted my team and sent the song and I really loved it. Even though it’s a collab I wanted it on my album too.

“I didn’t hesitate. I just basically ran to the studio, recorded the song, it felt really good doing it, then we recorded a video which was so beautiful and then it was out and with help from all those UK people it reached Number One. I was so happy because I’d never been Number One before in England. First [time] but not last.”

In a recent interview Larsson said she thought we were living in “revolutionary times” where people “want to make a difference”. She admits she feels like one of those people.