When you look at all the songs that MNEK is credited on and the list of artists he's worked with, it takes a number of hefty scrolls to get all the way to the bottom.
The gay singer-songwriter and producer worked with dozens of artists, ranging from major pop stars like Dua Lipa, Troye Sivan, and Selena Gomez, to girl groups like the wildly successful British acts Little Mix and FLO (whose debut album he worked on, which helped him nab another Grammy nomination), as well as K-pop groups Twice, aespa, and BTS.
So when he answered the phone for an interview with Out as he was being driven to a studio session, I wasn't surprised when he said he was helping Zara Larsson with the deluxe version of her album, Midnight Sun.
MNEK, whose real name is Uzoechi Emenike, has worked with Larsson for years, and the pair had a massive hit in 2015 called "Never Forget You." Ever since then, the two have continued working together and become close friends.
In 2025, a decade later, they struck gold again with the release of "Midnight Sun," showcasing Larsson's stunning vocal chops alongside MNEK and Helena Gao's songwriting and Margo XS's production prowess. Her album received widespread critical acclaim, and the title track was nominated for Best Dance Pop Recording at this year's Grammy Awards. She performed the hit at the non-televised Grammys Premiere Ceremony, as well as the night before at the Academy Proud event at Grammy House.
Ahead, see Out's Grammys week conversation with MNEK — and whether or not he has plans to work with KATSEYE and Adéla, after he was spotted hanging out with them at a recent party.
Out: Tell me about the songwriting process for "Midnight Sun." Was it mainly Zara that wrote the song, and then you came in, or did you play together?
MNEK: So the [song] was written in my home studio in London, and it was myself, Zara Margot, and Helena. And Zara had come into the studio, and she just said, "I've wanted to write a song called 'Midnight Sun' for years and I just haven't cracked it." She tried a few times with other producers, but I think that the song itself just never got to where she wanted to hear it. So all four of us kind of just got together and contributed to the songwriting, lyrics, and melody. The song is inspired by her time in Sweden, and she says it herself: "It's like a love letter life." When you're able to put your phone down and embrace the small things nature offers.
We would just go back and forth on certain things, and I would pull out my own references from music that I listened to growing up, and the reference for me was "Ray of Light" by Madonna. We were in the middle of writing the chorus, and when it came down to the last note of the chorus, it was just going to be, "A never-ending midnight sun." But then, I said, "Why don't we try, 'A never-ending midnight suuuuuuUUuuUuuuuUuuUUUUun'?" I just wanted to have that feeling of being never-ending and repetitive, so that became the hook. I think we all knew when we were done, we're like, this feels very special. This doesn't feel like anything she's done before.
Every songwriter is different in the way they create music with others. Some people have songs ready, and others work with the artists to build songs together. What's your preference, and what do you do more often?
I love just being able to make, you know what I mean? A lot of the album with Zara was made with her in the room, as she spoke about how she feels and what she wanted to talk about. But then there were also moments where I'd written something, and I'd been like, "Hey, what? How does this make you feel?" And she's like, "Yeah, I love that. I want to tweak this, and I want to say this instead." It can be either, but it's about the end result.
How do you measure success as a songwriter? Is it the commercial success of the song, like chart placement or streams, or is it making a song that you feel resonates with a lot of people?
I've been very blessed to be able to experience success in so many facets. I've experienced it in the form of numbers — seeing that millions and billions of people that I will probably never meet in my entire life have heard me sing and or heard something come out of my brain, or something that's produced, like that's really cool. Then there's the success of, Oh, OK, this may not be getting the same streams as this other song, but more people than ever have come up to me and told me they love the song or they love what I'm doing with an artist.
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Is there an artist that you feel you've seen grow, and now people are catching on?
I think the main one has been the FLO album, which was a project I executive produced and that I had been working with them since 2019 when they were 16 or 17, right up to this album, Access All Areas, which is amazing that's been nominated for [a] Grammy, and it's really a testament to the work that we've put in as far as me spending hours in the studio with them, vocal producing them, helping them finish music that they've worked with so many people on. And then they come to me and say, "How do we make this feel like FLO?" That was my job across that first album, and helping them, like, collect these records and make them all have a very distinctive sound and a very clear through-line. It was really satisfying to see people just really digging it and being really complimentary about it, then also just for them to feel like, OK, we've got a debut album that we can really stand by.
With the work you did on Zara's song and on FLO's album, you secured two more Grammy nominations this year, so congrats on that! How did you celebrate?
Thank you! It's really cool, I feel really blessed. FLO and Zara were my main projects over the past couple of years, and I put a lot of myself into them. So it's very cool to be acknowledged by the Academy, a lot of which is made up of my peers and just people that you know have seen the stuff that I've been a part of and found it to be solid quality. That's a nice feeling. It was really nice because I got the message two days before my birthday, so it was a great feeling to bring in 31.
Last question, I do have to ask, please. I saw that you were hanging out with Adéla and Lara [Raj] from KATSEYE. Are you working together on music?
I was working on this! [MNEK pull up his shirt to reveal a nipple piercing.] Zara had a party last night and invited a bunch of the girlies, PinkPanthress was here, so were Adéla and Lara. Zara got a piercer over here, and she got her belly button pierced and egged me on to get something pierced, so I did. But Lara is very talented, and I would love to make music with her and Adéla if the opportunity presents itself.
