Zara Larsson’s playlists have boundaries.
In the age of endless streaming, where algorithms decide your mood before you do, Zara Larsson is proving that sometimes the most powerful button on Spotify isn’t play, it’s block.
The Swedish pop star recently shared in an interview with Cosmopolitan that she uses Spotify’s block feature to make sure certain musicians simply never show up in her world.
Prompted by an interview card that said “Name one artist we would never find on a playlist of yours,” Larsson said “There’s so many artists I have blocked on Spotify, and all of them are, like, abusers.”
“You certainly wouldn’t find a Chris Brown song,” she revealed.
The streaming culture of today feels passive, songs autoplay, playlists update themselves, and an algorithm merrily hums along in the background.
However, Larsson’s stance is a reminder that listening is still a choice, and a moral one at times.
Every stream counts for something, visibility, revenue, and cultural relevance are all boosted by even a single stream.
Larsson wants to make sure that hers count for good.
“I don’t like him,” she said. “I do like his music, to be honest. I think he’s a really talented person. He can really dance and sing. But he’s not a nice person.”
Chris Brown has long been followed by allegations and legal troubles.
In March 2009, the singer pleaded guilty to a felony charge after physically assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna.
Years later, in September 2014, he pleaded guilty again to misdemeanour assault stemming from an altercation that took place in Washington, D.C., in October 2013.
In 2017, Brown’s former partner Karrueche Tran was granted a five-year restraining order against him following what was described as a tumultuous on-and-off relationship that had ended in 2014.
This isn’t the first time Larsson has made her feelings about Brown’s music clear.
ack in 2016, during an interview segment styled as a Tinder-inspired song game, she swiped left on his track “Hotel,” the collaboration with Kid Ink.
Brown hasn’t directly responded to Larsson’s statements, though he did share a cryptic Instagram story shortly after the interview.
Writing, “Walk in YO PEACE LET THEM SEE THEMSELVES LET THEM HATE LOVE THEM ANYWAY ❤️.”
In a world where music seems almost endless and instant, perhaps the most human thing you can do is decide what you don’t want to hear.
