Brace yourselves, because Mr. KanHey is here to disrupt the status quo.
Zara Larsson—Swedish pop sorceress, chart-devourer, and glitter-drenched feminist grenade—has detonated another sonic boom with the dazzlingly grimy visual for “Pretty Ugly.” The track, a shimmery paradox of infectious groove and aesthetic defiance, is the first peek into her upcoming fifth studio album, set to launch this year with the precision of a dance floor missile wrapped in crushed velvet and revolutionary zeal.
Now let’s talk about this video. Oh, honey—it’s not just a music clip, it’s a manifesto.
We find Zara strutting into a post-glam apocalypse, face beat to celestial perfection, hair teased like a glam-rock queen at Studio 54, only to dive headfirst into a world soaked in grease, grime, and feminine fury. One moment, she’s a glittering siren in thigh-high boots that could probably slice glass; the next, she’s tossing herself into puddles, kicking up dust like she’s exorcising 500 years of patriarchal haute couture.
It’s called “Pretty Ugly,” but the energy? Unapologetically divine chaos. It shimmers, it snarls. It’s Lana Del Rey meets Mad Max at a Y2K rave.
Zara’s premise is an elegantly tattered middle finger to beauty standards, pop perfection, and the idea that polished women can’t wield gritty truths. She’s not just getting dirty, she’s deconstructing glam with a sledgehammer dipped in gloss. “I’ma knock myself out / might mess my fit up,” she coos, a lyrical revolution dressed in rhinestones, reminding us that beauty isn’t in the eye of the beholder—it’s in the power of destruction and rebirth. She’s Venus rising from a mosh pit, and your fave could never.
There’s iconography everywhere. Sparkling eyeshadow streaks down cheeks like war paint invoking the ghost of every overproduced pop princess forced to smile through grit teeth. Gowns trail through grimy warehouses, tiaras fall into the mud like civilization itself is being dismantled — and Zara’s the one holding the diamond-encrusted axe.
But listen closely, because the monster beat of “Pretty Ugly” isn’t just made for your speakers. It’s made for your spine. It compels you to move, to question, to shatter everything you’ve ever pretended to be in pursuit of presentation. It’s Eurodisco if it went to therapy and took MDMA at a feminist book club.
Zara isn’t just teasing an album; she’s threatening an aesthetic uprising. The fifth chapter in her sonic journey promises not polish, but paradox. Expect layers. Expect disruption. Expect your pop heart to be both soothed and gutted.
And don’t mistake Zara’s polished exterior for pop fluffery. This is war paint, darling. Shampooed rebellion.
So when the album drops later this year, remember: This isn’t music to background your brunch. This is liberation set to a four-on-the-floor beat. This is the dragon breathing fire through the flower crown.
Dare to be different or fade into oblivion. Zara’s not just pretty. She’s beautifully dangerous.
And she’s only just begun.
– Mr. KanHey
