15 April 2026 - PinkPantheress + Zara Larsson - Stateside (and a whole lot of other versions of the song, too!)

I usually work forward on these posts.  

Today, I'm working mostly backwards, and we're starting with the Winter Olympics - specifically the skating exhibition done by two-time gold medalist Alysa Liu.

This sparked interest in a song that was already rising - and that is the version of "Stateside" from PinkPantheress's reimagine set Fancy Some More, the followup to her fantastic Fancy That. On Fancy Some More, many of these songs from the original mixtape were reimagined as duets - and all of them more than once (most of them more than twice). 

Partly due to Ms. Liu, and partly because it's an absolute banger, the duet version of this song with Zara Larsson (one of four by my count) has floated to the top. It is currently a top 10 hit in the United States and worldwide. It's almost as if two up and coming pop stars in their own rights are elevating each other. 

Also, remember that both of these artists are European.  Being stateside to them means something different than it would, say, to an American. It's very much more tourism. 

But it DID start off as a PinkPantheress song originally....  it's a lot less pop and a lot more harshly electronic, but it works and works well. 

Compare that to this demo version, which is slightly more Charli XCX-inspired. The Autotune is way way turned off in this version.... and she ended up dialing it back for the released versions.

By the way, Zara Larsson wasn't the only one our friendly neighborhood PinkPantheress decided to team up with on this song.  This version, for example, features Kylie Minogue.  It's got a very different feel, for sure.... but it's still poppy. 

Her collaboration on the song with Swedish hip-hop artist Bladee is a bit more... industrial.  Same song, but also, a different song.

I'm including the version she did with Groove Armada, but this very overtuned and electronic version is probably my least favorite of all of them. 

But now bringing it back to Zara Larsson - who happens to also be touring at the same time as PinkPantheress.... it's become a live staple for her just as much, though, and she finds a way to do it while still being respectful to the songwriter and original solo performer. 

But, really, little ever beats the original, as we see from this PinkPantheress live performance in Tokyo earlier this year (and yes, we saw her Coachella set and it was spectacular)... but you can see that Zara Larsson's shared success with her has changed the performance of this song forever.

Compare it to an earlier performance of the song, which is remixed differently and more like the original.

Also, stick around for the whole performance because it's incredible.