Agnes is returning with a vengeance

It’s the night of Swedish pop sensation Agnes’s first UK show in 12 years, and the anticipation is palpable. Camden’s KOKO is packed, and the crowd is literally hanging from the rafters to get a glimpse of Agnes’s long-awaited return to the stage. She does not disappoint. Not a minute late, the Swedish pop princess makes her grand entrance in her signature yellow wig and latex ensemble. Renditions of ‘24 Hours’, ‘Balenciaga-Covered Eyes’ and the club classic that cemented her place in pop history, ‘Release Me’ blow the roof clean off.

A few days later, Agnes is ready to talk. It’s been a busy few weeks, promoting her new album Beautiful Madness: a thundering electro-pop kaleidoscope chock with bangers like ‘Milk’, ‘Ego’ and ‘Uterus and Universe’, and accompanied by visuals that feel halfway between a sex party and Blade Runner 2049. However, for Agnes, the album’s creation felt more like a moment of introspection. “With [my last album] Magic Still Exists, it felt like I needed answers. And with Beautiful Madness, I just had a lot of questions. For the first time, I felt like it’s okay to not have it all figured out. It’s okay to be complex.”

But it took time. Magic Still Exists marked Agnes’s first body of work in nine years, after a well-earned hiatus taken to decide what kind of artist she really wanted to be. What began with locking the door in the bathroom of her family home and belting her lungs out culminated in Agnes’s participation in Swedish Idol in 2005, a competition she won, and which flung her into the fast lane. But Agnes remained hesitant about some of the output that followed. “Success doesn’t mean anything if you’re not connected with yourself,” she reflects.
“If you’re not honest with yourself, or connected to the essence of why you do things.”

And then, she wrote ‘Release Me’. “That was the first time I really had a clear idea and a clear vision,” the singer reveals. “The way the song spread into the world was so beautiful. It wasn’t a record company or a radio station pushing it — it was the clubs, word of mouth.” Despite its favour in the club scene, where it can still be heard today, Agnes succeeded the line of Swedish chart-toppers like ABBA and Robyn, and began her ascent to pop iconhood. Back, and with more fire than ever — plus a Mighty Hoopla set ahead of her — Agnes returns louder, freer and completely on her own terms.

Ciarán Howley: Beautiful Madness has just come out. What set it in motion?

Agnes: To talk about this album, I have to go back to Magic Still Exists. It was released during the pandemic, and the plan was to go out and play live, but that wasn’t possible. When they opened up the world again, I felt like, ‘No, I want to go back into the studio and write’. So Beautiful Madness is about where my thoughts were at the time. I had written half the album while I was pregnant, and then half after I gave birth. With Magic Still Exists, it felt like I needed answers. And with Beautiful Madness, I just had a lot of questions. For the first time, I felt like it’s okay to not have it all figured out. It’s okay to be complex.

CH: With Magic Still Exists, you came back with an entirely new look. Were the visuals and fashion an important aspect of how you wanted to stage your return to the limelight?

A: I wanted to work with strong silhouettes, and I wanted people to see the cover once and remember it. But the thing with that is you have this kind of armour. With this album, I knew I wanted to let people come a bit closer. It took a while to figure out what Beautiful Madness was visually. You have the beauty of the colours, but then you have the latex, which is a bit disgusting in a way. We wanted to feel strong and powerful, but vulnerable and weird at the same time.

CH: When did you decide, “I’m going to be a pop star”?

A: Since I was a child, I’ve always been singing. My mother would go crazy because I’d locked myself in the bathroom — the acoustics were so good in there — and I would stand there for hours, singing so loud. I’m the youngest of four siblings, so I always hurried home after school because I had an hour by myself. I would put Destiny’s Child on repeat and try to sing along. But I was very shy. I never wanted to perform on stage. It was my singing teacher who encouraged me to go up and sing for the school. I remember being so nervous. After I sang, everyone went completely quiet. Then I understood it was a good thing, because people were really touched by it. Two years later, I followed my friend to Swedish Idol, and I won when I was 16. My whole life changed.

CH: 16 is so young to be in the music industry. You barely even know—

A: You don’t know anything. But in all that madness, I always could connect with my voice: ‘Whatever happens, I have my voice, and my voice is honest.’ When I won Swedish Idol, I recorded my first album in six days. Even though there was so much weirdness going on, it really taught me how I don’t want to do things, and what true success is. Success doesn’t mean anything if you’re not connected with yourself.

CH: It’s been 18 years since ‘Release Me’, one of the biggest club anthems of all time. What does that particular track mean to you today?

A: I had this title, ‘Release Me’, and I knew exactly where I wanted to go with the energy. The way the song spread into the world was so beautiful. It wasn’t a record company or a radio station pushing it, it was the clubs, word of mouth. Even if I wrote it today, maybe the production would be different, but that doesn’t matter. The beautiful thing is the song itself, and how it was really the people who connected with it.

CH: Sweden has some massive pop exports like Robyn, ABBA, Tove Lo and Zara Larsson. What is it like working in the Swedish music industry?

A: Stockholm is very indie in a way. If you go to Los Angeles or somewhere else, it’s so political, and it’s easy to get distracted by the fluff. In Stockholm, everyone is so into the art. Nothing else really matters. With pop music, it’s the melody and language combined with that hardcore honesty. That combination is why there are so many great artists coming from Sweden. Also, half the year in Sweden is dark and cold. You spend a lot of time in your own bubble, and sometimes that bubble is the best thing for creativity — to forget everything else and create your own dream world.

CH: You have a very loyal queer fanbase. With the pushback against LGBTQ+ rights around the world, is there anything you’d like to say to those fans?

A: It’s crazy what’s going on. You think, ‘It’s 2026, haven’t we come further than this?’ I think it’s about seeing the beauty in the world, even with all these depressing things going on. That’s why Mighty Hoopla is so important. I’m so excited. I’m playing on Saturday. Lily Allen is playing, as well, and I really want to see her show. I’m just so happy to finally get out there and play live, sing together with people, and dance. When you see people connecting, understanding the love, that’s everything that matters. It’s mad that we still have to discuss these things. Hopefully one day we won’t.