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SZA
SZA in 2024
Born
Solána Imani Rowe

(1989-11-08) November 8, 1989 (age 35)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Occupations
  • Singer-songwriter
  • actress
Years active2011–present
WorksDiscography
AwardsFull list
Musical career
OriginMaplewood, New Jersey, U.S.
GenresR&B
InstrumentVocals
Labels
Websiteszactrl.com
szasos.com

Solána Imani Rowe (born November 8, 1989), known professionally as SZA (/ˈsɪzə/ SIZ-ə), is an American singer-songwriter. She first gained recognition through her self-released EPs See.SZA.Run (2012) and S (2013), which helped her become the first female artist to sign with Top Dawg Entertainment. Her third EP, Z (2014), was her first project to be released to digital retailers and reached the top-ten on the U.S. Independent Albums chart.

After signing a joint recording contract with RCA Records, SZA released her debut studio album, Ctrl (2017). It was met with critical and commercial success, earning four Grammy Award nominations and becoming the second longest-charting R&B album by a female artist on the Billboard 200.[1] The following year, SZA was nominated for the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Original Song via her collaboration with Kendrick Lamar on the U.S. and UK top-ten single "All the Stars".[2] Her featured appearance on Doja Cat's "Kiss Me More" broke the record for the longest-running all-female collaboration within the U.S. top ten,[3] and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

SZA's second album, SOS (2022), spent ten non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 and broke the record for the largest streaming week for an R&B album in the U.S. Supported by six singles, including the top-ten songs "Good Days",[4] "I Hate U",[5] "Nobody Gets Me" and "Snooze", SZA earned her first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Kill Bill" in 2023. She later earned her second chart-topping single of the year with her guest appearance on Drake's "Slime You Out". She will start her acting debut in the Issa Rae-produced film One of Them Days (2025).

SZA has received several accolades in her career, including four Grammy Awards, a Brit Award, an American Music Award, a Guild of Music Supervisors Award, and two Billboard Women in Music awards (including Woman of the Year). As a songwriter, she has co-written songs for Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, Travis Scott, Schoolboy Q, and Rihanna. In 2024, she was honored with the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[6]

Early life and education

Solána Imani Rowe was born on November 8, 1989, in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, often returning to St. Louis to visit her mother's family.[7][8][9][10] Her father was an executive producer at CNN, while her mother was an executive at AT&T. Rowe has an older half-sister, Panya Jamila.[8][11] Her mother is Christian and her father is Muslim.[11] She was raised as a Muslim and continues to follow Islam.[8]

It's like the belief in one God, all the pillars of Islam et cetera, and I think those are ideas that will never leave me, those make sense in my spirit. It's the way that I connect with God; it has always made sense to me. I think I would love to wear my hijab but I feel like I don't wanna wear my hijab and talk crazy on stage and be in videos with Travis Scott. Like I don't wanna be disrespectful because I have too much love and respect for the religion, for my father, and for myself.[12]

She attended a Muslim prep school every day after her regular schooling, where she used to wear hijab. After the September 11 attacks, Rowe was subjected to bullying in 7th grade, leading her to stop wearing one.[8][13] Rowe attended Columbia High School, where she was active in sports, including gymnastics and cheerleading.[14][12] After graduating from high school in 2008,[15] Rowe later went to three separate colleges, finally settling at Delaware State University to study marine biology.[8][11] She eventually dropped out in her last semester, taking on a variety of jobs in order to make money.[11][16][17]

Rowe formed her stage name from the Supreme Alphabet, taking influence from rapper RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. The last two letters in her name stand for Zig-Zag and Allah, while the first letter S can mean either savior or sovereign.[8]

Career

2011–2014: Career beginnings and EPs

Main articles: See.SZA.Run, S, and Z
SZA performing in 2013

SZA first met members of Top Dawg Entertainment during the CMJ New Music Report in 2011, when her boyfriend's clothing company sponsored a show in which Kendrick Lamar was performing. Her early music was given to TDE president Terrence "Punch" Henderson, who was surprised with the quality of the material.[18] The two stayed in touch, and after SZA began generating buzz with the release of her two EPs, TDE stepped in to sign her in 2013, making her the label's first female artist. SZA's early music was recorded with her friends and neighbors in which they "stole a bunch of beats off the Internet".[16] On October 29, 2012, SZA self-released her debut EP See.SZA.Run.[19]

On April 10, 2013, SZA released her second EP, S, which was met with positive reviews from music critics.[20][21] SZA promoted the extended play with the release of a music video for the song "Ice Moon", directed by Lemar & Dauley.[22] On July 14, 2013, Top Dawg signed SZA.[23] In October 2013, SZA went on a four show tour with Swedish band Little Dragon; starting on October 17 at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles and ending on October 24 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.[24] In December 2013, SZA released the song "Teen Spirit" which was followed by the release of a remix featuring American rapper 50 Cent, along with a music video directed by APlusFilmz.[25] In 2014, SZA featured on a variety of songs from her label-mates albums including two songs for Isaiah Rashad's debut EP Cilvia Demo as well as featuring on Schoolboy Q's first album Oxymoron.[26][27]

On March 26, 2014, she released the single "Child's Play" featuring Chance the Rapper and produced by Dae One & XXYYXX.[28] A studio EP, Z, was released on April 8, 2014; the lead single, "Babylon" was accompanied with a music video directed by APlusFilmz.[29] To promote Z, SZA performed at several performance showcases at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas.[29] SZA made her chart debut in the UK, where Z charted at number thirty-two on the R&B Charts, during the week ending April 19, 2014.[30] Z debuted on the U.S. Billboard 200 at number thirty nine, selling 6,980 copies in its opening week; the album also peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hip hop/R&B chart.[31]

SZA subsequently began recording her fourth EP, A.[32] In July 2014, SZA featured on Kitty Cash's single "Moodring".[33] Later that month, SZA released a collaboration with Jill Scott called "Divinity".[34] On July 11, 2014, SZA released a video for her song "Julia" from Z.[35] In December SZA and The Internet supported Aiko's "Enter The Void" tour.[36] On November 18, 2014, SZA released a song called "Sobriety".[37]

2015–2018: Ctrl and breakthrough

Main article: Ctrl
SZA performing in Toronto on the Ctrl The Tour in August 2017

Whilst working on A, (now repackaged as her debut album[38] and later retitled Ctrl), SZA began writing songs for other women including Beyoncé and Rihanna. Along with Rihanna and Tyran Donaldson, SZA co-wrote "Consideration" for Rihanna's album Anti (2016); besides writing, SZA also appeared on the track and later performed "Consideration" with Rihanna live at the 2016 Brit Awards on February 24, 2016.[39][40]

After signing a contract with RCA Records on April 28, 2017,[41][42] SZA released Ctrl, her debut studio album, on June 9. Originally scheduled for 2015, the release was marred by several delays rooted in disagreements between SZA and Top Dawg executives. She had been stressing over curating the right tracks and erasing any perceived imperfections from the album that one day, in 2016, she posted on Twitter to say she would quit music and let Punch release Ctrl. Sometime in mid-2017, an unknown person took the hard drive that contained the music.[43]

Ctrl was released to universal acclaim from music critics, scoring an 86 out of 100 rating on Metacritic.[44] It also debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200,[45] with 125,000 album-equivalent units, of which 80,000 were pure album sales. The album was supported by several singles; the first, "Drew Barrymore", was released in January 2017.[46] The second, "Love Galore", peaked in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was later certified platinum.[47] Ctrl was ranked as the best album of 2017 by Time.[48]

From August 2017 to February 2018, SZA promoted the album on a North American and Oceanic concert tour consisting of more than fifty shows.[49] SZA opened for the European portion of Bryson Tiller's "Set It Off Tour" in support of his album True to Self from October 17, 2017, to November 30, 2017, separate from SZA's tour.[50]

In August 2017, SZA collaborated with American pop rock band Maroon 5 on their single "What Lovers Do" from their sixth studio album Red Pill Blues. The single reached number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. This marked SZA's first top-ten hit as a featured artist on the Hot 100. The following month SZA released "Quicksand", which appeared on the soundtrack for HBO's Insecure,[51] and, alongside Khalid and Post Malone, was featured on the remix version of Lorde's single "Homemade Dynamite", from her second studio album Melodrama.[52] Also in 2017, SZA worked on a joint album with Mark Ronson and Tame Impala.[53]

On November 28, 2017, SZA received five Grammy nominations including one for Best New Artist. She received the most nominations of any women artist for the 2018 Awards and was the fourth most nominated artist in total.[54] Despite this, she did not end up winning any of the awards she was nominated for.[55]

In January 2018, SZA featured with Kendrick Lamar on the track "All the Stars", which was released as the lead single to the soundtrack album of the film Black Panther.[56][57] The single peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, and this made SZA's second top-ten hit on the chart, after Maroon 5, "What Lovers Do" which peaked at number 9 on the chart. SZA collaborated with Cardi B on the track "I Do" for the album Invasion of Privacy.[58]

2019–present: Collaborations, SOS, acting debut and Lana

Main articles: SOS and Lana

In May 2019, SZA featured on DJ Khaled's eleventh studio album, Father of Asahd, on the track "Just Us". A music video was later released for the song.[59] On February 26, 2020, SZA and Justin Timberlake released "The Other Side", a song part of the Trolls World Tour soundtrack, alongside its music video.[60] In March 2020, SZA signed with WME for representation in all areas.[61][62] SZA performed, together with artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi and Halsey, a benefit concert for the state of New Jersey, in support of the state's work fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. It took place on April 22, 2020, through at-home performances and the revenue will go to the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund.[63][64] On May 25, 2020, SZA showed interest on Twitter in releasing "a music dump" of previously unreleased material, potentially containing 20 songs.[65]

In August 2020, SZA tweeted and deleted, "At this point y'all gotta ask punch", referring to Terrence "Punch" Henderson, who is president of Top Dawg Entertainment. In another tweet, SZA indicated that "all [Punch] says to her" about releasing new music is "soon".[66] This revealed that her relationship with her label owner Punch (Top Dawg Entertainment) has been hostile since the delays of her second album which was last announced back in an interview in 2019.[67] SZA came back with her first release as a lead artist since 2017 on September 4, 2020, with "Hit Different", featuring Ty Dolla Sign, and production from The Neptunes.[67][68] On December 25, 2020, SZA released "Good Days" on streaming platforms as a single after it originally debuted as a snippet in the outro of the "Hit Different" music video.[69] English singer Jacob Collier provided background vocals for the single.[70] The song hit its peak of number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100,[71] making it SZA's first top-ten single as a solo artist, despite SZA herself revealing that it was not initially planned to be a single.[72] Both tracks were expected to appear on her then upcoming second studio album, with only "Good Days" eventually making the final cut.[73]

On April 9, 2021, SZA was featured on the Doja Cat single "Kiss Me More". It became a number-one hit in New Zealand and reached the Top 40 in over a dozen countries, further having earned top-ten placements in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and Lithuania. The song also has a music video which premiered the same day as the single and was directed by Warren Fu.

In late 2021, SZA's cover of "The Anonymous Ones" was released. It is a song written for the soundtrack of the 2021 film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen. Her version of the song also plays during the closing credits of the film itself.[74]

A long-awaited collaboration from SZA with Summer Walker, "No Love" was finally released on November 5, 2021, after previously being teased back in late June via Walker's Instagram.[75] After its success on the R&B charts, it later became an official single when the extended version was released in March the following year, along with a music video.

On December 3, 2021, SZA released the song "I Hate U", after it went viral on TikTok; it was originally released exclusively on SoundCloud in August 2021.[76] SZA confirmed after the 64th Annual Grammy Awards that she had finished her second album and is planning on releasing it "soon".[77]

On June 9, 2022, SZA released a deluxe version of her debut studio album Ctrl to commemorate its 5-year anniversary. It featured 7 previously unreleased songs, such as "2AM", "Jodie", "Percolator", and an alternative version of "Love Galore" without Travis Scott.

On October 28, 2022, a new single titled "Shirt" was released alongside a music video starring actor LaKeith Stanfield.[78] The song was originally teased by SZA in late-2020 and after it gained popularity on TikTok because of a viral challenge, a snippet appeared as an outro at the end of the official music video of "Good Days".[79] SZA teased another snippet of a song at the end of the "Shirt" music video, which she revealed to be called "Blind".[80][81]

On her 33rd birthday on November 8, 2022, SZA released a teaser titled "PSA" on her Instagram. The video ends with a morse code for "S.O.S.", sparking speculations about an upcoming project.[82][83] On November 16, 2022, Billboard officially confirmed that her second studio album is titled SOS and was set for a December release date.[84] On November 30, 2022, SZA posted the cover of her upcoming album SOS to her Instagram account.[85] After performing "Shirt" and "Blind" on NBC's Saturday Night Live, SZA announced that the album would be released on December 9, 2022.[86] The album spent its first seven weeks atop the Billboard 200 Albums Chart in the United States, becoming the longest-running number-one woman album of the decade and the first R&B album to spend its first seven weeks atop the chart since Whitney Houston's Whitney (1987).[87]

To promote the album, SZA embarked on an arena tour in 2023—the SOS Tour.[88][89] The tour consists of 54 shows across North American and Europe.[90] Omar Apollo, d4vd and RAYE served as the opening acts.[91][92]

On November 22, 2024, labelmate Kendrick Lamar released his sixth studio album GNX. SZA was prominently featured on its third track, "luther", providing vocals on two verses as well as its chorus. She also appeared on the album's closing track, "gloria", performing the chorus and outro.[93]

On November 25, 2024, SZA announced she would release a new album before the end of the year on Kai Cenat's Mafiathon 2 Twitch stream that also featured Lizzo. She also did a interview with British Vogue where she said that she had 'projects in development'.[94]

She will start her acting debut in the Issa Rae-produced film One of Them Days (2025), alongside Keke Palmer.

Influences

Music

SZA has cited musical artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Lauryn Hill and Ashanti as influences.

Growing up, SZA was exposed by her family to artists from different genres, which were formative influences for her music.[95] Her mother enjoyed R&B and church music,[96] her father was a fan of jazz and funk musicians like Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and John Coltrane,[13][97] and her sister listened to melodic rap and hip hop artists like Tupac Shakur.[1][95] SZA listens to Ella Fitzgerald for vocal influence[98] and has said that Lauryn Hill is one of her personal influences.[99] SZA has expressed admiration for singer Ashanti, citing her as a major inspiration and someone she has loved since childhood.[100]

SZA also cites Meelah, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, LFO, Macy Gray, Common, Björk, Jamiroquai, and "a lot of Wu, Nas, Mos Def, Hov" as inspirations.[8] Speaking on her influences, SZA said: "[My] personal influences came from dancing with American Ballet Theatre and doing pieces to Björk [music]. That's the only time I had really any outside influence to music. So, the people that I fell in love with on a musical level were always much older. Jamiroquai is just, like, the shit for me."[101] In an interview for Live Nation Entertainment, SZA described the meeting she had with Beyoncé for the writing of the song "Feeling Myself", affirming "Beyoncé might be the most perfect, beautiful being I've ever met in my whole life. She's the most inspirational woman on earth, next to my mother". SZA also spoke about Rihanna, admiring her strong and confident attitude, of someone who does only the music she wants to do, and that if there's anybody that she could imagine singing her words, it would be Rihanna.[102]

SZA's songs are built over "layers of sliced, delayed, and reversed vocals" and contains "twists and mutates",[103][19] and her vocal style has been described as taking on the "lilt" of a jazz singer.[104] SZA is known as TDE's first woman signee and first singer, which also drew attention during the early stages of her career.[105] According to Marissa G. Muller of Rolling Stone magazine, SZA's vocals alternate between a "vapory husk and a sky-high falsetto".[106] Jordan Sargent of Pitchfork magazine labeled SZA's vocals as being "chillwave" and "ethereal".[107] SZA began writing songs due to being "passionate" about writing, and enjoyed poetry; when writing lyrics, SZA "freestyles" them in order to express whatever comes to her "mind", noting that it does not always make sense to herself.[16] Thematically, SZA's work contains "unravelling lyrics", that touch upon themes of sexuality, nostalgia, and abandonment.[103]

Critics have frequently described SZA as an R&B singer-songwriter,[108][109] a narrative for which she has expressed disdain[110] consistently since the beginning of her career.[111][112] The label felt disrespectful and lazy to her.[113] For her second studio album, SOS, she wanted to prove her versatility beyond R&B, disillusioned with how Black artists have been historically segregated from White artists through pigeonholing Black artists strictly within R&B music.[114][115] Other critics have written she combines R&B with rap[116][117] or pop music in her works,[118] and their attempts to pin her down to genres outside R&B has had SZA confused. She grew up listening to an eclectic combination of pop, rock, jazz, folk, and rap artists[115][119] and, as such, prefers to be labeled as someone who makes music and nothing more. She said: "when you try to label it, you remove the option for it to be limitless. It diminishes the music."[119] "Genre agnosticism" was how Michael Madden of Consequence described SZA's musical style.[120]

Fashion

During an interview, SZA said she is less inspired by strictly music, and more inspired by creating art in general; she has looked up to people who were not "typical artists" including her "favorite gymnast, ice-skater, saxophonist, painter, or movie director", continuing to say she was particularly inspired by film director Spike Lee.[101] During an interview with W, SZA spoke on her style influences, saying a large amount of her style inspiration comes from movies, including Wes Anderson films, praising his use of "pantone color palette" and that she "would love to dress like a character from Moonrise Kingdom. Or perhaps Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic."[121] Along with her music, SZA's image has been compared to neo-soul artists Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu.[105] SZA's hair became a point of interest during the early stages of her career and she discussed it in interviews with Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.[99] During her performances, SZA tends to wear "free-flowing" clothes that are easy to move around in and wears pajamas or baggy clothing onstage.[122]

Discography

Main article: SZA discography

Filmography

Tours

Headlining

Co-headlining

Supporting

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by SZA

In her career, SZA has received four Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe nomination, and an Academy Award nomination. She has earned one American Music Award, six Billboard Music Award, four MTV Video Music Awards, six BET Awards, including Best New Artist in 2018 and Album of the Year in 2023. She received the "Rulebreaker Award" and "Women of the Year" at the Billboard Women in Music event in 2018 and 2022 respectively. SZA has also won the Soul Train Music Award for Best New Artist in 2017.

In September 2022, SZA was applauded as one of the rising stars on the TIME 100 Next List.[123] At the 2022 Grammy Awards, SZA won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Doja Cat for their hit collaboration "Kiss Me More".[124] In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked SZA at number 180 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.[125]

See also

References

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