Zara Larsson Finds Treasures Among the Trash in the Video for “Blue Moon”

Perhaps, in its way, Zara Larsson’s latest video for what marks her fourth single from Midnight Sun, “Blue Moon,” is a part of the conditioning anyone absorbing pop culture has been subject to of late. And that is the idea that we must all learn to “make the most” out of the decay. Of the sort that governments and corporations have decided “can’t be stopped.” That is, if the wheels of capitalism are to keep grinding on. So, as if to “prepare” the masses for what’s coming, They now offer an array of dystopian fare in film and TV. Preconditioning minds to expect the worst and that there’s really “nothing that can be done” about it (Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger being a fresh example of that “surrender Dorothy” philosophy).

For Larsson, embracing the post-apocalyptic landscape that the general population has been told in no uncertain terms to expect comes in the form of cavorting around a trash-laden apartment complex’s exterior (or maybe it’s really one of those shitty motels so often spotlighted in movies set in Los Angeles). One that she seems to be the last remaining resident of. And she returns to that not so “homey” environment carrying two plastic bags filled with flowers, an immediate indication that, despite everything, Larsson is still trying to bring beauty to a world that has turned irrevocably ugly. To convey that with panache, Larsson once again enlists the help of Charlotte Rutherford, who she’s also worked with on recent videos like “Stateside” with PinkPantheress, “Midnight Sun” and “Pretty Ugly.” To be sure, Larsson seemed to be keeping Rutherford in mind for the visual world of “Blue Moon” as well, with its Lisa Frank-like aesthetic (complete with hyper-saturated colors and generally promoting the divine feminine) being of the variety that Rutherford has become known for over the years.

Using Rutherford’s specific talents and signature style for this further proves that Larsson has had big dreams for “Blue Moon” for a long time, advocating for its success as a single and knowing full well she wanted to make a video for it. As she herself wrote the day of its release, “This video is important to me. It is something I dreamed of doing ever since Midnight Sun the album came out a little over a year ago. ‘Blue Moon’ is one of my favorite songs, ‘Midnight Sun’s sister, and she deserves love and care poured into her. Sometimes you have to MAKE people connect to the things you care about, because truth being told: ‘Blue Moon’ isn’t necessarily popping off on streaming, in sales or on TikTok (yet!). It’s not a hit on the radio (yet!!!) and I haven’t really had anyone beg me for a video for this song, hah! It’s just me…my faith in this song and I. This is a manifestation project. Something we did with love and respect for the album… I BELIEVE in this song so much that I believe that me loving it will make the world love it just as much.”

And if one is wondering why “Blue Moon” is so near and dear to her, look no further than the person she wrote it about: her longtime boyfriend, Lamin Holmén. As she told Capital FM, “We wrote it in Jamaica. We saw the most gorgeous moon that I think I’ve ever seen in my life. It was huge, and it was so bright it lit up like the sky in a way that made it have this rainbow around it. It was apparently a beaver moon. I didn’t want to write a song called that [clearly not] but I was like, ‘I have to write a song about the moon.’ And my boyfriend was like, ‘Write a song about me.’ This is the love song specifically written for him on this album.” Indeed, one can hear the love she has for Holmén in such gushing lyrics as, “Tender touch, pull my straps down/We ain’t gotta go fast now/It’s an endless honeymoon phase/And the fire never goes out/I’m in heat when I feel you/You got me blushing, I’m in full bloom.”

As for the “blue moon” part of the song, it comes in the form of a compliment Holmén may or may not have given her in real life: “You say they don’t make ‘em like me no more/Maybe once in a blue moon.” And maybe, within the context of this video, Holmén is right. After all, who else would kick off their heels in the dirt (something she also does in the “Pretty Ugly” video) surrounding this bleak structure and start serving the kind of choreo that apparently makes celestial and otherworldly things start to happen? Things like glittering butterflies circling the chain-link fence or sparkly flourishes emanating from Larsson’s feet as she kicks them around in the air like Ariel newly discovering what it’s like to have legs instead of a tail (and yes, of course Larsson will present herself as something of a “white trash mermaid” by the end of the video).

The magical and fantastical elements continue to escalate as the video goes on, with the shimmering kaleidoscope of butterflies pouring forth from the delivery tray of a vending machine that bears the image of mossy rocks with a waterfall pouring down from them. This being just one of many ways that Larsson and Rutherford work together to drive home the point that there is always a “treasure” to be found among the trash. That trash being very literal in “Blue Moon,” with random pieces of it strewn most everywhere.

But this doesn’t seem to make any difference to Larsson. In fact, her inexplicable exuberance in the face of this milieu becomes so uncontainable, she practically explodes into the air, now having a pair of butterfly wings herself—albeit much more stylized ones that emit something akin to golden fairy dust as she flaps them. Blowing kisses rapidly into the air, Larsson then descends back to the ground, suddenly in a miniature size like she’s Tinkerbell. And just so happens to land next to an alligator with heart eyes (presumably what the alligators looked like when Lana Del Rey took Jeremy Dufrene’s swamp tour). Thus, adding to the chimerical nature of the video.

When Rutherford cuts to the next scene, Larsson is all at once back in her “life-size” body doing “ho dances” on a bench at a bus stop in the rain. It’s in this particular scene that the lush blue overtones of the cinematography really stand out as Larsson takes note of the ad at the bus stop that bears her own image promoting “Refreshing Eye Drops.” In fact, the image of Larsson in this poster is such a callback to the “Midnight Sun” video and the lighter blues of the ocean and sky in it that Rutherford makes time to “go into” the poster and show what the eyedrop-advertising Larsson is getting up to in there. Which is, quelle surprise, more whimsical dancing in the spirit of “Midnight Sun,” which overtly announces itself in this moment as the “sister” to “Blue Moon” that Larsson has touted it as.

When eyedrop/“Midnight Sun” Larsson lets her hands fall to the clear blue water as she lands there, Rutherford then offers the perfect transition cut to take us back into the “Blue Moon” universe with this Larsson’s hands instead landing on the rain-soaked pavement. And as she crawls along it, she sees a giant, glowing orb that looks like the moon itself right there in front of her. A moment that somewhat recalls George Bailey (James Stewart) telling Mary Hatch (Donna Reed), “You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.”

And who knows? Maybe with the climate apocalypse, the moon will fall right out of the sky all on its own. Crashing down like the overturned billboard Larsson is lying on in another scene while rocking a peace sign tank top. The billboard in question reads, “Hibiscus Travel, Somewhere Warmer Is Calling.” The billboard comes across as a relic of the past in this rainy, perennially dark-seeming tableau where Larsson appears to be the last woman standing after whatever horrible fate befell the rest of humanity.

As the video draws to a close, Rutherford starts to intercut all the previous “iterations” of Larsson in her different costume selections before they converge on the scene where she’s now a mermaid lounging in a truck bed that’s been filled with water (a blue tarp and some plastic to contain it giving the “ocean” effect any mermaid craves). A mermaid who looks on in wonderment at a passing “sparkle flourish” of the same kind that she’s been seeing throughout the video, and that initially radiated from her feet as she kicked her legs around in the opening scene. In other words, Larsson has found a way to see beauty and awe in even the most miserable of settings. As we’ll all be expected to if we want to function in the post-Empire, post-capitalism, post-climate apocalypse world. Since, obviously, we must just accept that’s how it’s “got to be.”