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Solana Rowe (born November 8th, 1990) a.k.a SZA, hails from St Louis, Missouri, US, with the American singer-songwriter delivering alternative neo-soul and ethereal R&B that has gained respect from her peers.

Rowe grew up listening to the jazz greats, finding a love for Billie Holiday, John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane, before later developing an interest in the music of Bjork. She also found a love for hip hop, with her name being inspired by Wu Tang Clan’s RZA. These influences can be heard in her music with her voice garnering comparisons with Ella Fitzgerald in its rasping tone.

SZA began making music in 2012, releasing her first two EPs as a free download, featuring production from the likes of brandUn DeShay, Felix Snow, Zodiac, Hassan Insane and APSuperProducer, . These two releases, “See.SZA.Run” and ’S” showcased SZA’s dreamy, atmospheric brand of soul with hip hop inspired beats.

Following the success of these releases, she drew the attention of Top Dawg Records, with whom she signed, joining Kendrick Lamar and Ab-Soul on their roster. SZA found further exposure through the video for her single, “Ice Moon,” as well as her appearance on the track, “His & Her Friend” for Schoolboy Q’s album, “Oxymoron” in 2014.

Shortly after, SZA released a ten-track digital download, “Z,” which featured a host of hip hop artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper and Isaiah Rashad. The album was a commercial success, reaching 197 in the UK charts and number 39 in the US.

Live reviews

Solana Rowe, aka. SZA is a singer/songwriter that I’ve been following since the release of her first track back in 2011. Although she’s not been creating music for too long, her original R&B fusion with neo soul is something that’s not covered extensively in the industry, and therefore puts her at a great advantage. From her beginnings studying marine biology at college, her change in career path was a risky one, but most definitely paid off for the best!

She opened the show with Babylon, one of her newer tracks, and had everyone singing along right away. Her incredible voice washed over the auditorium, and held everyone in silence, before she shouted out for us to join in. Her soulful voice of someone way beyond her years powered through everyone, and sent the energy of the room sky high.

She interacted really well with her band, and gave them the opportunity to play solos between her verse and choruses, which was a great touch. They were incredibly talented, and to hear such a high class musician perform with incredible musician rather than her usual DJ was wonderful.

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The most incredible, angelic, beautiful person to ever grace this earth. I've never been more stunned by a performance. SZA met and exceeded all of my expectations, I cannot put into words how amazing she is live. It's an experience you don't want to miss if you get the chance to see her. She was so happy and humble and was continuiously appoligizing for being sick and I honestly couldn't tell, that's how great she is. Also the experience brought me life not only because I got to see her preform but because everyone was singing every single word to every song with her. Truly incredible when you are surrounded in a room full of people singing your favorite songs at the top of their lungs. Needless to say I want a live version of ctrl after all of this so I can reminisce.

This is the second SZA show that I've been to and once again it was fantastic!!! Her energy onstage is electric and the performance was so amazing!! And as always her beautiful bubbly silly personality made the show that much more amazing. I am so in love!!!!!!!. Not to mention the fact that she held my hand at one point. I just about cried tears of joy! Definitely looking forward to going to her next concert!! Best night of my life.

This show was electrifying! Sza puts so much energy and emotion into her music; when she sings the entire crowd can feel it. She is an extremely beautiful and talented perfomer. She dances intensely when shes feeling and involves her fans. Loved it so much I got teary eyed. She is my favorite singer thus far. I definitely recommend if you want a concert you will never forget.

Truly amazing! Her performance was full of heaps of energy and soul. A beautiful mixture of singing, dancing and a quick preview of her of her acrobatic skills! One of the best musicians to see in concert. Would be darn near impossible to not sway and jump when she's on stage. I've waited so long to see her and she did not disappoint. Really hope to see SZA in London more!!!

Amazing show! Sza sounded amazing! She looked like she was having an awesome time while performing and the crowd loved her. The energy in the venue was hella dope! At one point she instructed security to find any cases of water around to pass out to the people on the floor, saying "get the cases from the tour bus." I thought that was super cool of her.

I saw her last night in San Antonio, TX, it was my daughter first concert, and she did not disappoint. She is amazing live! Well worth the money spent. From the settings to the chorography her team did a fantastic job. The concert kept us on our feet the entire time. I will defiantly go see her again when she returns.

SZA is an amazing performer.

I saw her December 2014 with the Enter the Void tour with Jhene Aiko and the Internet.

She was amazing and energetic then and now that she is headlining her show was so LIT!!

I was dancing and sang all the songs and got my entire LIFE. You will too!

SZA was absolutely amazing. I saw her a few years back, and she came back even better and energetic with contagious good vibes. I totally recommend going to see her any and every time she comes to your city. Well worthy your time and money. And it's definitely a good time.

This concert was simply awesome. Her vocals were wonderful even when she lost her voice. You can tell she is dedicated to her fans and her craft! Can't wait till she is back in Atlanta!!!

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SZA tour dates and tickets 2024-2025 near you

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SZA is not due to play near your location currently - but they are scheduled to play 2 concerts across 2 countries in 2024-2025. View all concerts.

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SZA Extends ‘SOS’ North American Arena Tour Through Fall 2023

By Jon Blistein

Jon Blistein

SZA has extended her North American tour in support of her celebrated new album, SOS . Earlier this year, the singer completed 17 shows for her first-ever arena tour between February and March. Now, she’s plotting her return with 21 additional dates scheduled for this fall.

The R&B star will pick up where she left off on Sept. 20 in Miami and close out the second leg of the tour on Oct. 29 in Phoenix. The new shows include stops in Brooklyn, Toronto, Newark, Houston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and more.

Tickets for all new shows will go on sale this Friday, April 14 at 12 p.m. local time. Full details are available on SZA’s website . 

SZA released SOS on Friday, Dec. 9, five years after the arrival of her celebrated 2017 debut, Ctrl . The 23-track album featured an array of collaborators , including Travis Scott, Don Tolliver, and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard, as well as a cameo from Phoebe Bridgers on “Ghost In the Machine.” 

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Of getting SZA to “talk her shit,” as he put it, on those songs, Versace said, “I believe that spiritually our ancestors, the people around us, they can use us spiritually for whatever we’re trying to convey. I feel like that’s something that she wanted to do. I feel, even though I was telling her to talk her shit, I feel like that was something that she wanted to do too. I feel like she never really got the chance to really do that.”

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SZA Announces Her Historic First Arena Tour The S.O.S North American Tour

Featuring Special Guest Omar Apollo

New sophomore album ‘sos’ out globally now, tickets on sale starting friday, december 16 at 12pm local on szasos.com.

Off the heels of her long-awaited new sophomore album ‘SOS’, music trendsetter and icon SZA will embark on a highly anticipated arena tour this spring with support from Grammy-nominated best new artist Omar Apollo . Produced by Live Nation, the exclusive 17-city tour kicks off on February 21 at Schottenstein Center in Columbus, OH making stops across North America in Chicago, Toronto, New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Vancouver, and more before wrapping up in Los Angeles, CA, at the Kia Forum on March 22. This tour marks the first time the Grammy-award-winning artist is playing venues of this size and debuting her latest album live to fans.  

TICKETS:  Tickets go on sale starting Friday, December 16 at 12pm local time on szasos.com  

THE S.O.S NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES: 

Tue Feb 21 – Columbus, OH – Schottenstein Center

Wed Feb 22 – Chicago, IL – United Center

Fri Feb 24 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena

Sat Feb 25 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena

Mon Feb 27 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena

Tue Feb 28 – Boston, MA – TD Garden

Thu Mar 02 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center*

Sat Mar 04 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden

Tue Mar 07 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena

Thu Mar 09 – Austin, TX – Moody Center

Fri Mar 10 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center

Mon Mar 13 – San Diego, CA – Viejas Arena

Tue Mar 14 – Oakland, CA – Oakland Arena

Thu Mar 16 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena

Sat Mar 18 – Portland, OR – Moda Center

Sun Mar 19 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena

Wed Mar 22 – Los Angeles, CA – Kia Forum

Born in St. Louis and raised in Maplewood, NJ, genre-defying, and GRAMMY Award winning recording artist SZA released her major label debut album Ctrl (TDE/RCA) in 2017. Revered for its raw and honest lyrics, it landed at No. 1 on Billboard ’s R&B Albums chart, No. 2 on the R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart and No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, according to Nielsen Music. The now RIAA-certified 3xPlatinum album received five Grammy nominations in 2018 and more than half the songs on Ctrl are currently certified multi-Platinum and Gold. Ctrl remains on the Billboard 200 chart since its release in 2017 and holds the record for the longest run for any Black female artist’s debut album. In 2022 alone it sold over 600,000 units and is the 10th best-selling female album this year in the country and 50th best-selling album in 2022 overall.

SZA has won various awards since the release of Ctrl including a 2022 GRAMMY Award for Best Pop Dou/Group Performance for “Kiss Me More” with Doja Cat, Billboard Music Awards’ Top R&B Female Artist, BET Awards’ Best New Artist, BET Soul Train Awards’ Best R&B/Soul Female Artist and Best New Artist, MTV Video Music Awards’ Best Visual Effects for the “All The Stars” with Kendrick Lamar, and NAACP Image Awards’ Outstanding New Artist. In 2019, she won NAACP Image Awards’ Outstanding Duo or Group for “All The Stars” with Kendrick Lamar and Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation for the Black Panther Soundtrack . SZA also received Billboard’s 2019 Women in Music Rule Breaker award.

To this day, SZA continues to set the standard on creativity and songwriting, while shattering records with over 7.2 billion streams worldwide across all platforms. To close out the trying year of 2020, SZA gifted fans on Christmas Day with the hopeful track “Good Days.” Grammy-nominated for Best R&B Song, the single quickly became SZA’s greatest gainer solo single release, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and marking her first time in the chart’s top ten as the main artist. December 2021, SZA scored her second lead artist top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with the official release of “I Hate U,” which debuted at #7. The song also entered at #1 on both Spotify and Apple Music US charts and broke the record for the most streamed R&B song by a female artist on Apple Music in its first week.  “Shirt,” her most recent single has garnered over 60 million streams globally since its release in October. SZA’s long-awaited new album SOS includes features by Travis Scott, Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers and Ol’ Dirty Bastard; with production by Ctrl hitmaking collaborators ThankGod4Cody and Carter Lang, alongside Jeff Bhasker, Rob Bisel, Benny Blanco, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Emile Haynie, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Jay Versace, and more.

About Omar Apollo

Omar Apollo is one of music’s most exciting shape-shifters. In just a few years time, the Indiana-raised Mexican-American singer-songwriter went from teenage strummer to one of the most hotly-tipped rising stars of his generation— most recently honored with a Grammy Nomination for Best New Artist. His debut, critically acclaimed album “Ivory” released in April 2022 featured the Billboard Hot 100 hit “Evergreen” and was supported by 2 sold out North American tours including stops at historic venues like The Greek Theatre, Kings Theatre, and Coachella.

About Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com .

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Theola Borden | [email protected]  

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Monique Sowinski | [email protected]

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SZA Concert Review: A Voyage of Stunning Visuals and Remarkable Artistic Vision

SZA unmistakably embodies the future of R&B — her “SOS Tour” serves as evidence of her innate ability to transform an album into art.

For the sixth show of her “SOS Tour” at Boston’s TD Garden on Feb. 28, SZA brought her acclaimed second studio album of the same name to life. The St. Louis native’s recent album has amassed chart-topping success since its release on Dec. 9, debuting as No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for seven consecutive weeks, in addition to three additional weeks in late February. SZA, along with winning Billboard’s Woman of Year, is one of eight artists to ever have an album at No. 1 for ten weeks and currently holds the most weeks at No. 1 for a female artist in nearly seven years.

The SOS tour brings listeners along a voyage of SZA’s relationship with self acceptance, heartbreak, and love. Following the natural ebbs and flows of the waves that adorn her album cover, SZA’s sound is dynamic and complex. She expands the boundaries of traditional R&B albums, incorporating different genres and displaying an openness to experiment and explore. This approach also transforms her album into a performance to be remembered.

Immersing the Garden in flowing, blue waves of light, SZA began the show stunning the audience, projecting a captivating self portrait amongst a vast ocean to perfectly accompany her melodic vocals to “PSA.” SZA, by plunging into the ocean around her mere moments after the concert began, cemented an air of electricity and excitement that didn’t leave the stadium until her last number.

The production design was highlighted by the nautical theme and maritime aesthetic of “SOS,” allowing each song to draw fans into the enthralling visuals. Simply put, SZA had control of her audience like no other.

For the next track, SZA emerged from the ocean singing “Seek & Destroy” on top of a rusty sailboat. Despite the set’s seemingly dark aesthetic, the Garden never felt so lively. As SZA sang, she accompanied her rhythmic melody to an eye-catching sequence of smooth dancing and swaying, highlighting both the calming nature of her album and the talent of her notably diverse crew of dancers.

Continuing her galvanizing start, SZA never remained stagnant, ensuring that each act was as lively as the last. SZA’s dedication to maintaining an exhilarating momentum was epitomized in her performance — albeit in a nontraditional fashion — of “Smoking on My Ex Pack.” Despite needing an outfit change, SZA never left the audience’s line of sight; instead, as her team changed her clothes backstage, she could still be seen on a screen hitting each lyric of the song. SZA’s stunning look in the grayscale camera filter and her unique backstage performance added a phenomenally dynamic contrast to her other songs that exceeded expectations.

From her setlist, two songs stand out amongst the rest: “Kill Bill” and “Good Days.” “Kill Bill,” being one of the most popular songs SZA has released to date, was phenomenal on stage. While singing the lyrics “I might kill my ex,” SZA approached the stage using the chained mace weapon from the film “Kill Bill Volume:1” to attack the figures behind her. SZA, most literally, packed the biggest punch of the night to form the excellent display of pain and defensiveness that brought her violent lyrics to life. With the screen behind her slowly filling with blood, her excellently crafted choreography meshed together with the setting to create an eye-catching and descriptive story of the meaning behind “Kill Bill.”

SZA’s artistic expressions did not wane for her closing song. “Good Days” painted a compelling portrait of the beauty of SZA’s lyrics through the most impressive visuals of the night. An ever-changing, intergalactic sunset created the stunning background to SZA sitting on the diving board from her performance of the first song. The full-circle ending gave a fulfilling close to the non-stop night.

From reminiscent additions to the setlist, such as “Kiss Me More” and “All the Stars,” to serenading the audience while floating around the stadium on a boat, SZA’s adept performance was an unforgettable voyage through her album and a meaningful glimpse into the emotions tied to each song.

When speaking about the meaningfulness of her tour, SZA talked about being grateful for her successes and the involvement that embracing love has in her life and in the lives of others.

“The love that we have for ourselves and that we pour out to each other is what makes all the difference.”

—Staff writer Monique I. Vobecky can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @moniquevobecky .

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On Her Biggest Tour Yet, SZA Makes Small Feelings Huge

The R&B star’s first New York arena show supporting her blockbuster album “SOS” was a deft mix of styles and sounds, with guests Cardi B and Phoebe Bridgers.

By Jon Caramanica

SZA’ s performance at Madison Square Garden Saturday night was vigorous, confident, theatrical and intimate — the sort of show that manages the rare trick of feeling both vibrantly communicative and also protectively insular.

But one particular five-song stretch encapsulated the range that has made SZA — whose second studio album, “SOS,” has spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard album chart — one of the most au courant performers of this era, a beacon for the vulnerable, the stubborn, the besieged and the broken.

A few songs into her set, she told the crowd that she was performing a song that hadn’t previously been part of the set list, and started into “Ghost in the Machine,” a plinking whisper about needing escape. A few moments later, out shuffled Phoebe Bridgers, the beloved indie-rock singer-songwriter who guests on the track, wearing a promo T-shirt for “Smell the Magic,” the 1990 album by the all-woman grunge band L7. They sang their parts, grinning at the improbability of it all, then deeply bowed to each other.

After that, SZA shifted into “Blind,” a quick-tongued acoustic soul number rich with lovely guitar curlicues, singing about all the walls she puts up, literally and figuratively: “You still talking ’bout babies/And I’m still taking a Plan B.” And after that, “Shirt,” a spacious thumper with echoes of 1990s R&B and a low center of gravity. Her voice, so breathy on the prior song, was tart here, as she worked through sinuous choreography with a quartet of backup dancers while sighing about taking “comfort in my sins.”

Then, another guest: the charisma machine Cardi B, who joined for “I Do,” which features a winningly cocky hook by SZA. (Cardi stuck around to perform her verse from GloRilla’s “Tomorrow 2” for good measure, much to SZA’s apparent glee.) And following that came “Smoking on My Ex Pack,” a grounded, earthen hip-hop song in the vein of, say, Earl Sweatshirt, in which SZA navigates romantic push and pull: “Them hoe accusations weak/Them bitch accusations true.”

It was, in sum, a 15-minute tour de force, spanning genres and modes, attitudes and feelings. It also felt utterly modern — indebted to the past but not beholden to it, unconcerned with old stylistic limitations, casually adroit.

On “SOS,” one of last year’s most impressive albums, SZA writes about situationships with microscope acuity, self-lacerating and scowling in equal measure. In the five years that she took between albums, she became more particular, more pointed and more adventurous. That was clear on the pop-punk number “F2F,” which channeled Paramore, and “Nobody Gets Me,” which, depending on the lens, either leans heavily on Mazzy Star, or on melodramatic alt-country. She performed that one with particular fervor, recalling female power rockers of the 1990s like Alanis Morissette.

This concert — the first of two sold-out nights in New York — was full of such peaks. The rapturous crowd met her up-tempo songs featuring dance routines with equal enthusiasm as her lonely ballads. On those, her voice was luscious, pure and full of nuance. (In this context, her more straightforward hits, like the Doja Cat collaboration “Kiss Me More,” or the songs with flickers of feisty verses from Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott or Ol’ Dirty Bastard, didn’t much stand out.)

Uniting it all were water themes — she opened the show sitting on the edge of a diving board, as she does on the cover of “SOS,” here wearing a navy jersey bearing the name Yemaya, the Yoruba goddess of the sea. (She returned to that perch at the concert’s end, this time wearing white.) At the back of the stage, a huge screen displayed waters that increasingly turned choppy, then undersea life. Some of her onstage setups included a huge fishing vessel and an oversized anchor, though they were more props than narrative devices.

The show’s first section perhaps overindexed on choreographed numbers, but by midway through, SZA was soaring — first figuratively, and then literally, in a lifeboat rigged up to float above the crowd. Singing “Special,” a sweetly anguished song about self-doubt and jealousy, from up in the sky gave it a delicious inversion.

While many artists touring concerts of this scale build to a sort of triumphant ending, SZA’s concluding run before the encore felt more like a retreat inward — the quiet storm smolder of “Snooze,” followed by the head-nodding manifesto of jealousy “Kill Bill,” one of the most unsettling smashes of recent memory. She followed that with “I Hate U,” a scalding indictment that’s virtually lo-fi on record, but here took on epic scale. And then finally, “The Weekend,” a stunningly calm song about an anxious situation, a timeshare kind of love: “My man is my man is your man/Heard it’s her man, too.” But she didn’t sound even a bit unsettled. Everyone was singing along, protecting these private troubles with public comfort.

SZA performs at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Her SOS Tour continues through March 23; szasos.com/tour .

Jon Caramanica is a pop music critic for The Times and the host of the Popcast . He also writes the men's Critical Shopper column for Styles. He previously worked for Vibe magazine, and has written for the Village Voice, Spin, XXL and more. More about Jon Caramanica

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5 Ways SZA's SOS Tour Proves She's The Vulnerable Voice of Her Time

SZA masterfully created a cinematic stage with her inimitable sensation 'SOS.' The show served not only as spectacular production, but a testament to her ability to be a vessel of comfort to countless fans.

When SZA and Doja Cat won a GRAMMY for their joint effort on the ebullient "Kiss Me More" in 2022, Doja underscored exactly what makes SZA brilliant. "You are the epitome of talent. You're a lyricist," she said. "You're everything ."

Eight months later, SZA debuted her second album, SOS , solidifying her status as a force in the industry. SOS spent 10 weeks at No.1 on the Billboard 200 — the most a female artist has spent dominating the chart in nearly seven years.

A SZA song often feels as if someone peeked in your diary during those times where you're unabashedly crazy — like the fully ovulating character itching for attention on SOS 's "F2F" — and instead of calling someone you shouldn't, you hurl it out on the pages. Her music unexpectedly strikes your heart with how acerbic the lyrics are, until you feel it burst with a memory your brain has tried forgetting. SZA flourishes in the uncomfortable, and it's why she's taken the world by storm.

As a result, SZA has spent a majority of 2023 playing arenas around North America and Europe on the SOS Tour, kicking off a second U.S. leg in September. Throughout the 90-minute show, SZA deluged fans with a glorious performance that frames her journey with a mesmerizing visual feast — and proves she's one of the most vulnerable voices of her generation.

Below, explore five ways SZA's tour underscores how she flawlessly cemented herself as the industry's most poignant storytellers.

She Brings Personal Journeys To The Silver Screen

What makes SZA's SOS Tour such a feat is the intricate storytelling weaved through every inch of it; the set list chronicles her simultaneous uninhibited fury and palpable loneliness in the voyage to forgiveness.

Every part of SZA's concert felt intentional. True to form, she tightly and creatively translated her discography into an ambitious five distinct parts — representing the versions of SZA that live on in her all at once, all of which were completely relatable. 

First was the version of SZA where she blithely accepted surface-level interpretations of life and love. She began the show balanced precariously on a diving board and overlooking a projected version of the ocean, before her pre-recorded shadow leapt into the unknown. As she blended flawless choreography with joyous jumps during "Ghost In the Machine" — and a middle finger flip — the stage is completely empty, underscoring the rawness of her naivete. 

The set then transformed smoothly into the "CTRL Fishing Boat," with SZA the Siren helming the ship to protect herself against the world during coming-of-age tracks from her 2017 debut, CTRL , like "Garden (Say It Like Dat)." Climbing onto a floating stage and traversing across the arena, SZA showered the crowd with flower petals as she sang painfully insecure songs like "Special" — offering herself as a source of solace, even when recalling moments when others made her hate herself.

SZA stood up in the suspended lifeboat and put her mic away for a few moments to hear the enormity of the crowd dutifully chanting the chorus: "I wish I was special." It proved itself to be a cathartic moment for both artist and audience — unfurling the hurt behind an ex who made them feel like a "loser," but then finding unity in those all-consuming moments of self-flagellation. 

Once she returned to the stage, it appeared submerged underwater, complete with a gargantuan anchor. It was a fitting metaphor for the vitriolic narrative of "Kill Bill": What if you do drown? What if you don't make it out of the storm and can't see beyond the fact your former fling has moved on? What happens now? When she belts "I did it all for love!" she throws her hands in the air, surrendering herself to the anguish and then flipping it to agency. 

Then, in a fitting performance of SOS ' vivacious lead single, "Good Days," SZA is on top of the diving board once more, but this time, the skies are clear. Staring at the reflection of herself in the water meant having to confront even the ugliest parts of her own story, even in front of an audience — and she did it with unparalleled equanimity.

Through it all, SZA herself becomes both the hero and villain of the story — someone we root for when she realizes why she jumped in the first place, someone to scream at when she can't help but revert back to her old ways.

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She Isn't Afraid To Strip Down Emotionally (And Literally)

The show also highlighted that SZA has drowned out the noise of negative comments of the past — like accusations of procedures and panned live performances — with her most powerful form of protest yet: barrelling through them head on. She acknowledges all of it in an incendiary performance of the album's titular intro, clad in all black, and brazenly throws it back to the haters. Negative comments were no longer allowed to register in SZA's universe — especially when she was too busy giving one of the most masterful performances of her career. "That ass so fat, it looks natural. It's not!" she searingly screamed, and grasped her derrière to drive the point home. 

In another bold move, she allowed a camera backstage to record and project to the entirety of Barclays Center her stripping down to her undergarments in order to change costumes. Before diving into admissions of a hellish situationship that helped her come to terms with sex as a source of power on "The Weekend," she poured a water bottle on herself as the initial beats of the song played, rendering her white dress nearly see-through — taking the intimacy of the show and her own command of her sexuality to the next level. 

There's a direct throughline when SZA sings her most blistering work — her delivery is drastically different than what is offered on the studio-recorded versions of the song. While she doesn't offer much commentary throughout the run of the concert, her lyrical professions of desire, loneliness and fear often speak for themselves. 

During the beloved "Normal Girl" — a track that served as an attempt to answer exactly why she can't somehow, someway stop feeling out of place in all avenues of her life — she modulates her vocals to deliver a simultaneously sad and sanguine version, smiling towards the end and taking a few moments to collect herself when the emotions ran high. 

She Serves In Sickness And In Health

A few days ahead of her New York shows, SZA canceled her Toronto show because she had gotten sick and could not sing. And as she admitted towards the end of her Brooklyn show on Oct. 6, she was still "not feeling good." Yet, any evidence of illness was undetectable.

SZA managed to take her audience through her self-destruction and subsequent evolution, giving every performance her absolute best, no matter what. From sharp vocal performances to agile choreography, it was clear she was determined to put on a show. 

Even so, she made it a point to indulge in fan-favorite moves. Fans banged along their heads with her to the thunderously punk-kissed beat of "F2F" as she ran up and down the boat on stage and delivered a flawless "I f— him because I miss you!" with shameless finality. Drop-splitting to the ground during "Low," she activated her fierce vocals, never missing a beat as she writhed around on stage.

She Makes Her Show A Moment To Let Go

SZA's music isn't always an easy listen — and that is entirely by design. As a result, there's a space for everyone on the tour; songs like "Good Days" for those who have been therapized and healed, and "Kill Bill" for those who may or may not be plotting against their ex. 

Because of SZA's ability to make every second feel like revelatory magic, the show quickly felt more like a diaristic get-together rather than a stop on a tour. "Is everybody o-f—king-k?" she said, regularly doing quick check-ins before starting a track. 

Naturally, there were rarely people seated in the entire arena. And just about every fan was belting out lyrics (or Szalations, as fans would refer to it) and matching her energy beat-for-beat. Crooning her revelatory songs about simultaneously growing older, yet never wiser, she got on her knees and adeptly belted in one of her best vocal performances of the night with "Drew Barrymore," taking her earpiece out to hear fans dedicatedly repeat every single line along with her. 

She Celebrates Her Fans

Despite the fact that she still felt under the weather, SZA bounded the stage for a few minutes after the end credits for her show rolled — but in her signature IDGAF manner, clad in a fuzzy robe and slippers. 

SZA was determined to continue her tradition of choosing the most dedicated fans to bring backstage and meet her. She was eager to honor people like the fan who proudly waved a sign all night, declaring they've already been to four of her SOS Tour stops. Cautious of getting anyone sick, she promised the fans she picked at her Brooklyn show that they would receive merchandise and free tickets to her next show instead. 

It becomes more and more apparent as SZA's fame grows boundless that she fiercely understands her music's core purpose in the industry — to be a vessel of comfort for her fans. Despite the romantic underpinnings of track "Nobody Gets Me," as she performed it atop the floating lifecraft, she emphasized the line "Nobody gets me but you, " while pointing down to the crowd.

The magic of SZA's music is that she manages to capture the emotions most are afraid to fully feel. Her biting words and brutal honesty make contending with vulnerability feel a little less like drowning and more so like floating. 

SOS and the accompanying tour wasn't a cry for help; it was a signal to all those ready to reminisce on and rewrite the reality of growing up. If there's one thing SZA proves with her SOS Tour, it's that she understands how to cultivate a space for vulnerability to bloom — and for everyone to feel a little less lonely. 

5 Takeaways From Drake's 'For All The Dogs': Grudges, GOATs & Groans

Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

GRAMMY Rewind: Watch Doja Cat & SZA Tearfully Accept Their First GRAMMYs For "Kiss Me More"

Relive the moment the pair's hit "Kiss Me More" took home Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, which marked the first GRAMMY win of their careers.

As Doja Cat put it herself, the 2022 GRAMMYs were a "big deal" for her and SZA .

Doja Cat walked in with eight nominations, while SZA entered the ceremony with five. Three of those respective nods were for their 2021 smash "Kiss Me More," which ultimately helped the superstars win their first GRAMMYs.

In this episode of GRAMMY Rewind , revisit the night SZA and Doja Cat accepted the golden gramophone for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance — a milestone moment that Doja Cat almost missed.

"Listen. I have never taken such a fast piss in my whole life," Doja Cat quipped after beelining to the stage. "Thank you to everybody — my family, my team. I wouldn't be here without you, and I wouldn't be here without my fans."

Before passing the mic to SZA, Doja also gave a message of appreciation to the "Kill Bill" singer: "You are everything to me. You are incredible. You are the epitome of talent. You're a lyricist. You're everything."

SZA began listing her praises for her mother, God, her supporters, and, of course, Doja Cat. "I love you! Thank you, Doja. I'm glad you made it back in time!" she teased.

"I like to downplay a lot of s— but this is a big deal," Doja tearfully concluded. "Thank you, everybody."

Press play on the video above to hear Doja Cat and SZA's complete acceptance speech for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards, and check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of GRAMMY Rewind.

How 'SOS' Transformed SZA Into A Superstar & Solidified Her As The Vulnerability Queen

Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

10 Acceptance Speeches That Made Us Laugh, Cry, & Smile At The 2024 GRAMMYs

From Taylor Swift's record-shattering Album Of The Year win, to Killer Mike and boygenius category sweeps, these are the emotional GRAMMY winning moments that made up Music's Biggest Night.

Glitz, glamor, and great performances from legendary musicians are only part of what make the GRAMMYs Music’s Biggest Night. It’s also an occasion to honor the music industry’s best and brightest, highlight their greatest achievements from the past year, and watch them soak up the glory. 

Some of the night’s biggest moments came when artists accepted their GRAMMY trophies, from Taylor Swift announcing her next album to teary-eyed moments from SZA and Best New Artist Victoria Monét . Here are a few of our favorite acceptance speeches from the 2024 GRAMMYs. 

Killer Mike Sweeps With Three GRAMMYs In A Row

Atlanta rapper Killer Mike had already given a moving speech upon winning Best Rap Performance for “Scientists & Engineers,” saying “I want to thank everyone who dares to believe that art can change the world.” But his third and final win, Best Rap Album for Michael , sent him into another dimension: “It’s a sweep! Atlanta, it’s a sweep!” 

Tyla Was Shocked To Win Best African Performance

Although her hit song “Water” has dominated the charts, even Tyla was caught off guard by her Best African Music Performance win – the first ever awarded in this category – exclaiming “What the heck?!” The South African star continued "This is crazy, I never thought I’d say I won a GRAMMY at 22 years old."

Boygenius Sweep The Rock Categories

Boygenius already had something to celebrate when Phoebe Bridgers won a GRAMMY for her collab with SZA. They went on to win three categories during the Premiere Ceremony – Best Rock Song, Best Rock Performance, and Best Rock Album – enabling each member of the trio to give a separate speech. “We were all delusional enough as kids to think this might happen someday,” Lucy Dacus said. 

Miley Cyrus Was A Class Act

Accepting the prize for Best Pop Solo Performance for “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus took to the stage to strike a pose with presenter Mariah Carey – “This M.C. is gonna stand by this M.C.” — before launching into a story about a boy who tries desperately to catch a butterfly, before nabbing one when they least expect it. “This song ‘Flowers’ is my butterfly,” she concluded. 

SZA Runs From Backstage To Accept Award

Changing backstage after her GRAMMYs performance , SZA was caught off guard when “Snooze” won Best R&B Song. She embraced friend and presenter Lizzo before giving an emotional, funny speech. “I can’t believe this is happening, and it feels very fake,” she said. “I love you, I’m not an attractive cryer, have a good evening.” 

Taylor Swift Announces New Album

When the pop mega-star took to the stage to accept her lucky 13th overall GRAMMY for Best Pop Vocal Album ( Midnights ), she decided to use the moment to give her fans the ultimate gift, announcing her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department , will release on April 19. “I want to say thank you by telling you a secret that I've been keeping from you for the past two years,” she said. 

Billie Eilish Didn’t Know What To Say

After delivering a lovely performance of her Barbie movie ballad “What Was I Made For?,” Billie Eilish wasn’t exactly at a loss for words when the track won Song of the Year . The words that came out of her mouth were a bit less than rehearsed, however: “Whoa, whoops, yikes, whoa my goodness! Damn, that’s stupid guys!” she said. “I don’t even know what to say, I’m shocked out of my balls.” 

Victoria Monét Delivers Tearful, Eloquent Speech

Through tears of joy, Best New Artist winner Victoria Monét gave a speech worthy of an artist who spent years writing for others before striking out on her own. “This award was a 15-year pursuit,” she said, going on to compare herself to a plant growing in the soil of the music industry. “My roots have been growing underneath ground, unseen, for so long, and I feel like today I’m sprouting, finally above ground.” 

Miley Cyrus Makes An Even Wilder Record of the Year Speech

Cyrus returned to the stage twice after her first GRAMMY win, first to perform her award-winning song , and then once more to accept a second golden gramophone for Record of the Year. “This award is amazing, but I really hope it doesn’t change anything, because my life was beautiful yesterday,” she said. Then she ended the speech by saying “I don’t think I’ve forgotten anyone, but I might’ve forgotten underwear!”

Taylor Swift’s Record-Shattering Album of the Year

Lightning struck twice for Taylor Swift, as the evening ended with her taking home a record-breaking fourth GRAMMY for Album of the Year ( Midnights ), more than any other artist in GRAMMY history. Flanked by producer Jack Antonoff and friend and collaborator Lana Del Rey , she gave a speech that highlighted her passion for music-making, saying  “For me the award is the work. All I wanna do is keep being able to do this. I love it so much, it makes me so happy." As happy as Swift was, her fans probably left even happier. 

9 Ways Women Dominated The 2024 GRAMMYs

Photo by Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

From Taylor Swift and Tyla's historic wins, to Miley Cyrus' first GRAMMYs and Joni Mitchell's first performance, the 66th GRAMMY Awards put ladies first.

Women shined particularly bright at Music's Biggest Night this year. As Trevor Noah put it in his monologue: "There’s a band that has already won today called boygenius , it’s three women. That’s how good a year it is for women."

Beyond boygenius' first GRAMMY wins, the conversation about female artists' legacy at the 2024 GRAMMYs had been building since the nominations were announced, when it was revealed that seven of the eight nominees for Album Of The Year were women. The majority of the performers for the 66th GRAMMY Awards were also women, including the legendary Joni Mitchell , Billie Eilish , SZA , and Dua Lipa . And several female artists were on the precipice of making history (chief among them, Taylor Swift , who later became the first ever four-time winner of Album Of The Year.

The results of the ceremony were no less centered on the ladies. At the Premiere Ceremony, Julien Baker , Phoebe Bridgers , and Lucy Dacus won three of the six Rock Categories for their work as boygenius . Lainey Wilson nabbed Best Country Album, Joni Mitchell won Best Folk Album, and Victoria Monét won Best R&B Album and Best New Artist. Gaby Moreno , Karol G and Tyla nabbed trophies as well.

As the night went on, that tally continued. In fact, other than Producer Of The Year and Songwriter Of Year, a woman won every category in the General Field, including Billie Eilish 's "What Was I Made For?" winning Song of the Year and Taylor Swift's Midnights pulling off the big fourth Album Of The Year win.

From every corner of the room, Music’s Biggest Night was filled with powerful women taking the spotlight. Here are eight moments where women ruled the 2024 GRAMMYs — with no sign of this reign ending.

Taylor Swift Hits Lucky Number 13 (And 14, Too)

While it’s true that Taylor Swift’s name has been at the center of what feels like 98 percent of music in the past year, and that continued at the 2024 GRAMMYs. Much speculation ahead of the 66th GRAMMY Awards came down to whether she would make history by winning her fourth Album Of The Year award.

Adding to the excitement, the iconic Celine Dion surprised the world and took the stage to announce the winner for the night’s final award, and it happened: "Taylor Swift."

Rather than bask in her own glory, Swift seemed shocked, fumbling to get a high-five and hug connected with close friend and uber-producer Jack Antonoff . And her acceptance speech made it clear that while she appreciated and was honored by the award, she wasn’t about to rest on any laurels, no matter how massive they may be.

"I would love to tell you that this is the best moment of my life, but I feel this happy when I finish a song, or when I crack the code to a bridge I love, or when I'm shot-listing a music video, or when I'm rehearsing with my dancers or my band, or getting ready to go to Tokyo to play a show," she said. "For me the award is the work. All I wanna do is keep being able to do this. I love it so much, it makes me so happy."

True to that word, the evening also featured Swift announcing a new album — after Midnights won Best Pop Vocal Album (her lucky number 13th GRAMMY) earlier in the night, Swift made the surprise announcement that she’d be releasing her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department , on April 19.

There was something inspiring, too, about the way Swift got to the stage — practically yanking Lana Del Rey from her seat at the same table, demanding she join her onstage. "I think so many female artists would not be where they are and would not have the inspiration they have if it weren’t for the work that she’s done," Swift told the assembly. "She’s a legacy artist, a legend in her prime right now."

Always a booster of other women in the industry, of course she had to share the spotlight even with her history-making fourth Album Of The Year award in hand.

Tracy Chapman Returns To The GRAMMY Stage

Sure, it was Luke Combs nominated for Best Country Solo Performance, but he made it crystal clear that he was there because of Tracy Chapman .

"That was my favorite song before I even knew what a favorite song was," he said in a video package prior to his performance, evocatively describing trips in his dad’s pickup truck, Chapman’s self-titled debut on the cassette player. Combs loved the song so much, he explained, that he wanted to put a cover of it on his 2023 album, Gettin' Old .

He went on to laud its universal appeal, the way Chapman’s chorus gets full-throated sing-alongs no matter the listener’s background — a powerful message, considering that Combs’ recording winning the Country Music Awards' Song Of The Year award made Chapman the first Black woman to receive that honor. "To be associated with her in any way is super humbling for me," Combs said.

The show transitioned from that heartfelt praise directly to Chapman’s hand on her guitar neck, picking out that iconic acoustic riff. Thirty-five years after its initial release, there was Chapman again on the GRAMMYs stage, this time dueting with a country star clearly in awe of sharing her space, mouthing along with the lines he wasn’t singing. It was an unforgettable performance, astonishing in its ability to pull us all out of our bodies and into the spirit of music.

The Endless Allure Of SZA

"Nobody got more nominations this year than SZA," Trevor Noah announced during his opening monologue — and that was after the experimental R&B artist born Solana Rowe had already won two GRAMMYs at the Premiere Ceremony earlier in the evening.

SZA had many more special moments left in the night. She performed a section of the GRAMMY-nominated "Snooze" in a black trenchcoat and hat, and the blade-wielding rebuke triggered the transition to another smash hit from 2022’s SOS : "Kill Bill". The cinematic performance featured a squad of leather-clad woman assassins slicing and dicing a series of men in suits, as SZA effortlessly walked the stage to deliver the world’s sweetest anthem centered on homicide. (For the record, the sight of Phoebe Bridgers’ outright glee at the sight of a sword-wielding dancer standing on her table at the song’s outset has to go down as one of the night’s best moments.)

Later, she would take home the GRAMMY for Best R&B Song for "Snooze" — her tally of three awards tying for the second largest of any artist at the 66th GRAMMY Awards. SZA was handed the golden gramophone by Lizzo , the two women clearly sharing a special moment.

"Lizzo and I have been friends since 2013 when we were both on a tiny Red Bull tour, opening up in small rooms for like 100 people. And to be on the stage with her is so amazing, I’m so grateful," SZA said after sprinting onstage, having just changed out of her performance attire. The tearful, brief acceptance speech that followed showed the incredibly honest and passionate person — and performer — that she is.

Boygenius Win Their First GRAMMY Awards

For a trio of badasses like boygenius , one or two GRAMMYs just wouldn’t do. They needed an award apiece: Best Rock Performance, Best Alternative Music Album, and Best Rock Song (all handed to them by queer icon Rufus Wainwright , no less). Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus sprinted down the aisle in their matching white suits at the Premiere Ceremony, giddy, shocked, together.

Befitting the trio’s history — both together and separately — as brilliant writers and lyricists, each had their own memorable line. 

"Music saved my life. Everyone can be in a band, this band is my family," Baker said, beaming after they won the Best Rock Performance award. "We were all delusional enough as kids to think that this might happen to us one day," Dacus said with a laugh. But just two days after the public announcement that the band was going on hiatus to focus on their own solo projects, it was this quick aside from Bridgers during their acceptance for Best Rock Song that brought the warmth: "I owe these boys everything. I love you guys so much." 

Tyla Makes Africa Proud

Trevor Noah may have been the host, but he wasn't the only one bringing South African flavor to the 2024 GRAMMYs.

"What the heck!?" Tyla said earlier in the evening at the Premiere Ceremony, grinning as her Johannesburg accent dripping with gleeful shock. At just 22 years old and a month out from even releasing her debut studio album, the viral pop star was nominated in the stacked inaugural Category of Best African Music Performance , including Asake & Olamide , Burna Boy , Davido and Musa Keys , and Ayra Starr . But it was Tyla’s "Water" — an amapiano-driven pop instant classic — that took home the award.

The song had already made history, as the first South African single to reach the Billboard Hot 100 since jazz legend Hugh Masekela achieved that feat in 1968, not to mention that the song reaching number seven made Tyla the highest-charting African female solo musician in Billboard history. 

"If you don’t know me, my name is Tyla, I’m from South Africa, and last year God decided to change my whole life," she said, the glow of the GRAMMY gold radiating on her face.

Annie Lennox Knows We Are Never Forgotten

The In Memoriam segment inevitably provides some of the most touching moments of any GRAMMY Awards. But every once in a while, a truly special performance will stand out amidst the heartache. Such was the case with Annie Lenox ’s tear-stained performance of "Nothing Compares 2 U" from the late Sinéad O’Connor . The Eurythmics vocalist sat piano-side, a tear-like streak of glitter applied below her left eye, delivering the Irish legend’s best-loved song with every ounce of gravitas the moment demanded — and then some.

"Nothing compares/ Nothing compares to you," she sang with her eyes gazing skyward, before clenching them tight, her lips quivering. And as the song rounded to a finish, Lenox raised a fist, and spoke a simple, direct sentence that the outspoken activist O'Connor surely would have appreciated: "Artists for ceasefire, peace in the world."

Joni Mitchell Proves It's Never Too Late For Firsts

When word got out that Joni Mitchell would be making her first performance at the GRAMMYs, the global anticipation for the ceremony seemed to hit a boiling point. Since recovering from a brain aneurysm in 2015, Mitchell has been stepping into the spotlight more in recent years, but the thought of her onstage at the 66th GRAMMY Awards still felt miraculous.

But then there was Brandi Carlile , extolling Mitchell’s many virtues before introducing one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time. "Joni just turned 80 my friends, but we all know she’s timeless," Carlile smiled, noting as well that "the matriarch of imagination" had already won a GRAMMY that same evening for Best Folk Album. 

And then the lights came up on Joni, seated in a gold-framed armchair, clutching a cane with a silver cat’s head on its hilt, singing the first lines of the all-time classic "Both Sides Now." Backed by a band of GRAMMY-winning heroes in their own right (Carlile, along with SistaStrings, Blake Mills, Lucius, Allison Russell , and Jacob Collier ), it seems impossible that any eye in the room could have remained dry, let alone focused anywhere except right on Mitchell, with her beating heart and sky-scraping lyricism. Even Carlile, seated at her left, couldn’t stop looking up from her guitar to smile in awe.

"Well something's lost, but something's gained/ In living every day," she sang with a soft hint of a smile, before the well of strings, clarinet, guitars, and piano brought the final chorus in. 

Miley Finally Gets Her Flowers 

With what appeared to be four outfit changes between the red carpet and the stage and a sky-high, Dolly Parton -inspired brown bouffant, pop superstar Miley Cyrus delivered her fair share of memorable moments throughout the evening. Cyrus arrived at the 66th GRAMMY Awards without any GRAMMYs to her name, despite two previous nominations, a slew of hit albums, and 11 Top 10 singles dating back 17 years — which made her two wins even more noteworthy.

The GRAMMY drought ended thanks to smash single “Flowers,"which won Best Pop Solo Performance and Record Of The Year, solidifying Cyrus’ place both in GRAMMY history and as one of the year’s most celebrated pop stars. 

The former teen star took the stage at the 66th GRAMMY Awards as well, delivering “Flowers” to a star-studded — a daunting task for anyone, even a seasoned star. But it should have come as no surprise that Cyrus would be comfortable in that spotlight, as evidenced by her joking question for the entire room (and, it seemed, viewers at home, too): "Why are you acting like you don't know this song?" 

Despite her glowing near-speechlessness at finally earning a GRAMMY, the comfortable quips didn’t stop there. "I don't think I forgot anyone, but I might've forgotten underwear... bye!" she exclaimed before zipping offstage with her brand new GRAMMY hardware.

Celine & Mariah: Presenters Make History, Too

Even when just presenting awards, powerful women were at the forefront at the 66th GRAMMY Awards. The evening’s first presenter was Mariah Carey , onstage just three days after receiving the Impact Award from the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective. The five-time GRAMMY-winner received the honor for her art’s influence and her inspirational legacy of service — and considering the ovation in the room, that impact was felt by her peers as well as the fans watching along at home.

Carey was presenting for Best Pop Solo Performance, and used her inimitable falsetto to deliver the ecstatic announcement: "And yes, this year all five nominees are women!" The sight of Carey handing Miley Cyrus her first GRAMMY (in honor of disco-tinged bop "Flowers") was, as Miley aptly put it, "too iconic."

While that opening set the stage for women dominating the show, the other bookend to the evening’s awards proved perhaps even more tear-jerking. At the end of 2023, the update came that Celine Dion’s battle with the rare neurological disorder "stiff person syndrome" had left the legendary vocalist without full control of her muscles, sometimes causing trouble walking or even using her vocal cords. As such, the sight of her walking down the golden tunnel and up to the microphone to announce the nominees for Album Of The Year felt like a special honor in and of itself.

"When I say that I’m happy to be here, I really mean it from my heart," she said. "Those who have been blessed enough to be here at the GRAMMY Awards must never take for granted the tremendous love and joy that music brings to our lives and to people all around the world."

Dion offering those lines — that positivity and beauty in the face of unprecedented difficulty — before presenting the award that would make history for Taylor Swift felt so fitting, emblematic of the powerful women who made the evening what it was.

Check Out The Full Winners & Nominees List For The 2024 GRAMMYs

Photo: Valerie Macon / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

2024 GRAMMYs: Miley Cyrus Wins The GRAMMY For Record Of The Year for "Flowers"

2024 GRAMMYs: Miley Cyrus Wins The GRAMMY for Record Of The Year for "Flowers"

Miley Cyrus has won Record of the Year at the 2024 GRAMMYs for her hit “Flowers.”

Accepting the award with her production team, Cyrus was irreverent and self-effacing, especially after having already won her first ever Golden Gramophone for Best Pop Solo Performance earlier in the evening.

“This award is amazing, but I really hope it doesn’t change anything, because my life was beautiful yesterday,” Cyrus said.

The pop singer beat out Lana Del Rey , Taylor Swift , Jon Batiste , Dua Lipa , SZA , Olivia Rodrigo , and Billie Eilish for the award, which was presented by Mark Ronson and his mother-in-law, the actress Meryl Streep. “Flowers” was a massive commercial hit, debuting at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 and spending eight consecutive weeks in the top spot.

As she finished her speech, during which she thanked her collaborators, their partners, and her fans, Cyrus said “I don’t think I’ve forgotten anyone, but I might’ve forgotten underwear.”

Keep checking this space for more updates from Music’s Biggest Night!

2024 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Full Winners & Nominees List

• 1 5 Ways SZA's SOS Tour Proves She's The Vulnerable Voice of Her Time
• 2 GRAMMY Rewind: Watch Doja Cat & SZA Tearfully Accept Their First GRAMMYs For "Kiss Me More"
• 3 10 Acceptance Speeches That Made Us Laugh, Cry, & Smile At The 2024 GRAMMYs
• 4 9 Ways Women Dominated The 2024 GRAMMYs
• 5 2024 GRAMMYs: Miley Cyrus Wins The GRAMMY For Record Of The Year for "Flowers"

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SZA S.O.S. North American Tour

SZA: S.O.S. North American Tour

• Date Sep 24 , 2023
• Event Starts 8:00 PM
• Doors Open 6:30 PM
• Availability On Sale Now

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Born in St. Louis and raised in Maplewood, NJ, genre-defying, and GRAMMY Award winning recording artist SZA released her major label debut album Ctrl (TDE/RCA) in 2017. Revered for its raw and honest lyrics, it landed at No. 1 on Billboard ’s R&B Albums chart, No. 2 on the R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart and No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, according to Nielsen Music. The now RIAA-certified 3xPlatinum album received five Grammy nominations in 2018 and more than half the songs on Ctrl are currently certified multi-Platinum and Gold. Ctrl remains on the Billboard 200 chart since its release in 2017 and holds the record for the longest run for any Black female artist’s debut album. In 2022 alone it sold over 600,000 units and is the 10th best-selling female album this year in the country and 50th best-selling album in 2022 overall.

To close out the trying year of 2020, SZA gifted fans on Christmas Day with the hopeful track “Good Days.” Grammy-nominated for Best R&B Song, the single quickly became SZA’s greatest gaining solo single release, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and marking her first time in the chart’s top ten as the main artist. December 2021, SZA scored her second lead artist top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with the official release of “I Hate U,” which debuted at #7. The song also entered at #1 on both Spotify and Apple Music US charts and broke the record for the most streamed R&B song by a female artist on Apple Music in its first week.  Fan favorite “Shirt” has garnered over 60 million streams globally since its release in October.

On December 9, 2022, SZA released her long-awaited sophomore album SOS.   Instantly and universally met with acclaim , SOS debuted and claimed ten non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200, the longest run for an album by a woman in seven years. Standout track “Kill Bill” is RIAA-certified 3x Platinum and earned the #1 spot on the Billboard Global 200 chart and several Apple Music and Spotify charts globally. Currently RIAA-certified 2x Platinum, SOS includes features by Travis Scott, Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers and Ol’ Dirty Bastard; with production by Ctrl hitmaking collaborators ThankGod4Cody and Carter Lang, alongside Jeff Bhasker, Rob Bisel, Benny Blanco, Kenny “Babyface'' Edmonds, Emile Haynie, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Jay Versace, and more.

To this day, SZA continues to set the standard on creativity and songwriting, while shattering records with over 10 billion streams worldwide across all platforms. SZA has won various awards since the release of Ctrl including a 2022 GRAMMY Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Kiss Me More” with Doja Cat, Billboard Music Awards’ Top R&B Female Artist, BET Awards’ Best New Artist, BET Soul Train Awards’ Best R&B/Soul Female Artist and Best New Artist, MTV Video Music Awards’ Best Visual Effects for the “All The Stars'' with Kendrick Lamar, and NAACP Image Awards’ Outstanding New Artist. In 2019, she won NAACP Image Awards’ Outstanding Duo or Group for “All The Stars” with Kendrick Lamar and Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation for the Black Panther Soundtrack . SZA also received Billboard’s 2019 Women in Music Rule Breaker award. More recently, SZA was crowned the 2023 Woman of the Year at the Billboard’s Women in Music Awards and won iHeart Radio Music Awards for R&B Artist of the Year and R&B Song of the Year for “I Hate U.”

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Billboard Woman of the Year SZA on Making Chart History and Preparing to ‘Pop Ass and Cry and Give Theater’ On Tour

Her 'SOS' surpassed astronomical expectations to make chart history. As she gears up to release a deluxe edition and headline arenas, she's finally internalizing "that I'm good enough."

By Heran Mamo

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In the five years that followed SZA ’s culture-shifting 2017 debut album, Ctrl , the pressure to deliver another ambitious, eclectic project reached a boiling point. Yet somehow, she managed to cut through the noise, surpassing the astronomically high expectations set by Ctrl with her much anticipated follow-up.

SZA’s ‘SOS’ Has Most Weeks at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Among Albums by Women in Seven Years

And yet, despite all that success, she still feels like she has to prove herself.

“Right now, I just have extreme gratitude because I swear to God, I never thought I’d be No. 1 for even a week, let alone seven,” the 33-year-old artist born Solána Imani Rowe tells Billboard in early February as she cruises along the Pacific Coast Highway — a brief moment of reprieve before she really hits the road this spring for her first-ever arena tour.

While the industry and public alike overwhelmingly share Henderson’s sentiment, Billboard ’s 2023 Woman of the Year remains prone to self-doubt. Thoughts like “Do I deserve this?” and “I wish I did better” frequently creep into her mind, and she’s working on quieting them. She has already released new music since SOS dropped, by way of her February appearance on the remix of Lizzo’s 2022 song “Special.”

“Manifestation is real,” Lizzo tells Billboard . “I declare 2023 the year of SZA. But SZA has been Woman of the Year for me for at least a decade. I’m always such a fan of her music, a fan of her artistry, but I really love her as a friend. Solána Imani Rowe, you will always be ‘the one.’ ”

And, once she releases the deluxe edition of SOS — which will feature 10 additional tracks and is coming soon — SZA says she’ll be done trying to convince herself that she deserves her flowers.

“I guess I need to stop trying to figure out what it means,” SZA admits, “and start realizing and living in what it is.”

How did you feel after SOS was released? Did you have any hesitations about its reception?

It’s hard making music as a Black woman [because] we don’t get the luxury to try something and have it be something that’s genuinely part of us. You have to allow people to get to know different parts of you. Some people may really f–king hate that, and some people might enjoy it. And I’m grateful for those who enjoy it.

Were you surprised that “Kill Bill” — which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 to become your highest-charting song to date — was the SOS song that took off?

I knew it would be something that pissed me off. It’s always a song that I don’t give a f–k about that’s just super easy, not the sh-t that I put so much heart and energy into. “Kill Bill” was super easy — one take, one night.

The chart success of SOS has put you in the same conversation as pop superstars. Is it important for you to be recognized outside of the R&B space?

To even be in the conversation with Taylor [Swift] and Miley [Cyrus], even the fact that our fans are fighting, is ridiculous because it’s like, “How?!” I just really appreciate the opportunity to be in that conversation at all. It’s something I never dreamed of.

What are your thoughts about your upcoming first-ever arena tour and performing this album in front of your fans?

It’s interesting because my other shows were intimate, and I felt like people were really coming to see me . But I know certain people are just coming to see what the hype is about, and that makes me nervous. But I just want to put on the best show that expresses my theatrical side.

How do you tour an emotionally intense album like SOS ? Do you insulate yourself from the material, or does it inevitably dredge up emotions?

I never know. When I was performing “20 Something” before my grandma died, it didn’t hit me the same. And then after my grandma died, I could barely get through it at rehearsal. Who knows what any of these songs will bring up for me in real life? Shooting the video for “Nobody Gets Me” was really f–king sad. I cried a lot. I’m just going to wing it and see.

What does it mean for you to be Billboard ’s Woman of the Year? It really scares me. But I really want to do something with my time in the sun right now. There’s so much I want to do for other people. I need to do something to deserve that in a way that has nothing to do with me, something that’s selfless and uplifts other women, people, period. It makes me feel more responsible than I was before. I feel like I owe everyone so much more than just smiling and getting onstage and waving. Part of it I know is just letting God use me and be myself and letting that be part of the work. But I know that there’s something more that I have to do.

You were the first woman signed to TDE in 2013. How did you manage to maneuver through the male-dominated label for nearly a decade on your own?

I didn’t mind the lack of female artists. I just felt like I was always the first to do something, and that was frustrating. It was me telling y’all I need hair and makeup because I’m super hands-on, on top of being a woman. I’m making PowerPoints trying to explain why I want to be in this type of publication versus that type of publication.

Who are some women in the music industry whom you look up to?

There’s nobody in the industry that f–ks with me and that I f–k with the way that Lizzo f–ks with me and the way I f–k with her. She never made me feel like because I don’t have a No. 1 song or I [previously] didn’t have a No. 1 album that I wasn’t capable. She’d been telling me that she thought I was the one for years. The way that she thinks of me so highly as a human being and as an artist means so much to me. I just have never met anybody like her in this entire industry.

There’s a lot of women I look up to in general that I don’t know personally, but watching them is incredible. Beyoncé, but who doesn’t look up to Beyoncé? I love Jozzy’s and Starrah’s energy. I love the way Nija is from New Jersey and has been able to transmute her energy from being a writer to an artist. Kehlani’s hella effervescent, and you can just feel the energy when she’s performing. I love Chloe Bailey and her commitment to perfection — I feel like she’s going to be a legend. Even Taylor letting that whole situation go with her masters and then selling all of those f–king records. That’s the biggest “f–k you” to the establishment I’ve ever seen in my life, and I deeply applaud that sh-t.

What does the future look like for SZA?

After I do the deluxe, I’m hoping to be able to accept that this chapter is done. I’m looking forward to actually feeling proud of myself and not just smiling and nodding at accolades but really feeling it internally and knowing that I’m good enough.

A version of this story originally appeared in the Feb. 25, 2023, issue of Billboard.

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SZA’s SOS Tour Set List

In December of 2022, SZA released her blockbuster sophomore album SOS, a stunning and ambitious mix of R&B, grunge, and pop-punk that featured Travis Scott and Phoebe Bridgers. Now she’s doing a victory lap and taking the album on the road. She’s occasionally varied the run of show (her March performances at New York’s Madison Square Garden featured a few diversions from her usual set list), but these are most of the songs you can expect to hear. 

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Your favorite artist’s favorite artist: How SZA went from cult star to pop superstar

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As the sun sets on a balmy February afternoon in West Hollywood, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter known as SZA has just wrapped her second photo shoot of the day, inside a historic three-story house off Sunset Boulevard. She wears rainbow chakra beads around her neck and rhinestones on her cheeks; sinking into an antique armchair, she details her weekly agenda in spurts, as if releasing a long-repressed sigh through a pressure valve. She’s recovering from a carousel of winter illnesses: tonsillitis, then a respiratory infection, followed by a sinus infection.

“And I still gotta put in 30 minutes on the treadmill!” she says.

With more than six years between the release of her first and her most recent album, SZA, 33, is making up for lost time. Her arena tour, in support of the chart-topping LP “SOS,” begins in two weeks, including shows at the Kia Forum on March 22 and 23; the 17-show run marks her first proper North American tour since 2018. After our interview, she will fly to Delaware for 10 days of rehearsals. She describes the stage show as a “Cinderella moment where there’s weird, ethereal, mystical, soft things,” but with a “hardcore” edge.

“There might be a little blood,” she adds with a grin.

On the dazzling ‘SOS,’ SZA spares no one, least of all herself

‘SOS’ evokes memories of ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,’ ‘Beyoncé,’ Rihanna’s ‘Anti’ and even Taylor Swift’s ‘Red.’

Dec. 8, 2022

Distinguished by SZA’s biting candor around love, sex and other social entanglements, “SOS” evokes the therapy-informed prose of girlfriends venting over lattes. Such intimacy has paid off beyond anyone’s expectations; released in December, “SOS” has been the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 for nine nonconsecutive weeks, the longest stretch for a female artist since 2016, when Adele’s “25” topped the charts for 10 nonconsecutive weeks.

“SOS” is SZA’s first No. 1 album — her acclaimed 2017 debut, “Ctrl,” reached No. 3 — and the revenge fantasy “Kill Bill” currently sits at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“It’s funny,” she says, when I stress the magnitude of those accomplishments. “I guess I’m not mad that I’m busy. I’ve been un-busy for so long. I just wish I had better planning. I’m still learning how to assert myself.”

SZA says she spent years trying to live up to her reputation as an A-List hitmaker. (She wrote for Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé, and collaborated with Kendrick Lamar and Maroon 5 before being nominated for the best new artist Grammy in 2017.) First, she booked sessions with producer and artist whisperer Rick Rubin in his Malibu studio, Shangri-La, and tinkered with singing bowls at his home in Hawaii. She also met with Timbaland in Los Angeles, and penned a few songs with Sia while sitting crisscross on the floor of her Malibu home.

Yet none of those sessions yielded anything SZA felt comfortable sharing. By the spring of 2022, she had more than a hundred songs written, and no impetus to share a single one.

“I was pretending to be an artist,” she says of those sessions, nervously thumbing one of several rings on her fingers. “That was me doing what I thought I should be doing — people-pleasing — because I felt hella ashamed that I didn’t do it sooner. But I’ve done the opposite of pleasing my fans by not dropping music for [almost] six years.”

By the fall, SZA’s cache of songs was finally whittled down to 23, but not without the usual shame spiral that precedes her releases.

“She was still picking songs after the album was out,” says Terrence “Punch” Henderson, president of Top Dawg Entertainment, better known as TDE.

SZA, born Solána Imani Rowe, was signed to TDE in 2013; she became both the first woman and singer on the roster, which then featured such acts as Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar. Henderson met SZA in 2011 at one of Lamar’s shows in New York, where she, a doe-eyed fashionista from Maplewood, N.J., sold merch for a sponsor’s clothing line. Even though her demos cribbed beats from other rappers, “it was such an easy call,” he says. “I was thinking of ways to further the label. She matched our energy, creatively.”

But in the decade since he signed SZA, the two have publicly butted heads, with Henderson cast in the role of evil corporate suit trying to wrangle new music out of her. During recording sessions, he says, he’s learned to be scarce, only popping in to discuss surface-level matters, like deadlines.

In 2020, SZA implied to fans on Twitter that her new album was being held up by Henderson. “Y’all gotta ask Punch,” she tweeted, noting that their relationship had “been hostile.”

SZA eventually scrubbed those tweets. In the last year, says Henderson, the two have shared a more compassionate understanding. “I think it’s hard living under the magnifying glass,” he offers.

“You want to give an artist as much creative freedom as possible so they can do their thing, but sometimes you have to push them to go,” he says. “You gotta let the artist be upset with you. Because if you sharpen the pencil too much, and you keep sharpening, you’ll have none left.”

She learned that only in the sanctuary of her home — or in the lived-in spaces of others — can she incubate songs worth hatching. “I made [‘SOS’ lead single] ‘ Good Days ’ in my attic at home in Malibu — same thing with ‘ Kiss Me More ’,” she says of her Grammy-winning pop collaboration with Doja Cat. Other spaces of inspiration include a cottage in the woods that belongs to producer Carter Lang‘s grandma, a coat closet in producer Felix Snow’s apartment and underneath a blanket in engineer Matt Cody’s basement.

“Working in a fancy studio is bad for me,” she explains. “I’ve never made anything real at Shangri-La. When you’re in Shangri-La, you’re supposed to be a star . I’m a person. It’s easier to feel like a person in personal surroundings. I made more stuff in Rick Rubin’s bedroom in Hawaii, just being there with [producer and co-writer] Rob Bisel for a week.”

SZA also decided that, to fully gestate “SOS,” she needed to shed her dependencies. First, she stopped smoking weed — “I feel so much better now that I’m not a slave to it” — and cigarettes, a habit she laughingly credits to trying Backwoods cigars in her youth. “Backwoods will make you ugly,” she says. “My teeth are too big to be yellow. Vanity stopped me from smoking, or really [doing] any drugs. I’d try them, but then I’d realize, ‘This sucks.’ Drugs suck!”

And where she previously sought out solace in men, she now finds it in therapy. Although she generously detailed her romantic mishaps in “SOS,” she’s much too private to reveal the subjects themselves.

“I know who I am and what I bring to the table,” she says of her love life, reflecting on stinging guitar ballads like “ Special ” and “Good Days.” “Have I felt like I’ve actually given the best of me to a loser before? Yes! Does that mean I’m actually a loser? Well, I felt that way in the moment. It’s OK to acknowledge, ‘Damn, I made a mistake dating this person. I’ll never shortchange myself like that again.’”

What’s the one thing your exes would say about you? I’m selfish.

Well, you’re an artist! That’s why I don’t have children. I know that I have selfish tendencies. You forget there’s other s— happening outside your vacuum. Everyone else is like, “How could you not see me? How could you not know this is happening?” I didn’t mean to.

As tabloids run circles trying to sniff out her suitors, fans rejoice in reading between the lines of her songs. She draws titillating hypotheses with ruthless, smack-talking bars in “ Smoking on My Ex Pack ” (“I got your favorite rapper blocked / I heard the d— was whack,” she spits). And in the Tarantino-inspired “Kill Bill,” she openly fantasizes about killing her ex (and his girlfriend) to the tune of a soda-shop doo-wop gone noir.

Spotify reported that SZA’s murder ballad was the second most-played track on the platform on Valentine’s Day. (She was upstaged by Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers.”) On social media, listeners questioned why SZA would echo a common thought pattern among domestic abusers.

“It doesn’t mean I’m supporting violence,” she explains. “The actualization of a human being is when the Buddha and the demon meet each other — they’re two ends of the same spectrum. You can’t kill your shadow, it just has to be part of you. Cleansing oneself of negative feelings is an act of healing. I wish healing for everybody.”

How did it feel to come out guns blazing on this album, after the extreme vulnerability of “Ctrl”? I was tired and angry. I feel like men just pick on women so much in music, it’s corny. Women sell so much music! A lot of y’all that are talking down on women — we sell more records than you. We literally make more money.

Was there any one event that triggered that anger? It was just seeing a lot of aggression in the [online] comments from men about women. I don’t tolerate it. Like OK, you lack emotional availability. Why does it make you better than me? What bars are you dropping? Y’all [complain that] we’re always talking about p—, but y’all talk about dogging women and it’s boring … Then you’ll be crying over text, acting weird for a crumb of the p— that you judge us for. Respectfully, I get jiggy and have fun in some songs.

The extreme of that misogyny is the ordeal that Megan Thee Stallion went through in court last year, after being shot by Tory Lanez, who was ultimately convicted of three felony counts. It was embarrassing for men. [Megan] was harmed — why did we require so much from Megan to have empathy for her? It was inhumane how it all went, with the bizarre level of scrutiny on her sex life. But justice was served. I hope that Megan’s somewhere healing. I always find that Black women are constantly protecting everyone without being asked. What happened to protecting Black women?

However personal this record is for SZA, the musical breadth of “SOS” is a bid for the industry to properly recognize the artistry of Black women, beyond oft-racialized genres like urban or R&B. These designations feel outdated in the increasingly blurred pop topography of 2023. “Sharing all those sides [of ourselves] will beget a clearer understanding,” says SZA.

It was the urge to blur that inspired SZA to recruit Lizzo to help write “F2F,” a three-minute pop-rock joyride that recalls the Y2K-era brattitude of Avril Lavigne. The two were kicking it in an L.A. studio when they began to reminisce on music from their teen years. “I hate me enough for the two of us / Hate that I can’t let go of you enough,” sings SZA, before dropping the most toxic of truth bombs to an ex: “I f— him ‘cause I miss you!”

“People don’t know I’m naturally alternative,” says SZA. She even texted a clip of “F2F” to Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams for her personal emo endorsement. “I was like, ‘Does this suck? Because you actually do this for a living,’” says SZA. “She said, ‘This is great!’”

SZA speaks of other artists with a tinge of fan girl reverence; in reality, SZA’s on texting basis with all her faves because she is their fave. The electronic, alien cool of “ Ghost in the Machine ” only made the cut because indie singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers answered an 11th hour DM; “she’s picturesque with her words,” says SZA. For closing track “ Forgiveless ,” SZA tapped longtime pen-pal Björk for a sample from her 2001 classic, “ Hidden Place ,” to add shimmer to her hard-nosed freestyle. (SZA also finessed the estate of late Wu-Tang Clan member Ol’ Dirty Bastard to supply a never-released guest verse in the track.)

Given its critical plaudits and musical inclusiveness, “SOS” should be a top contender at the 2024 Grammys. When I begin to speculate on SZA’s fate at next year’s awards, she cuts me off — “Please don’t say it,” she groans — for fear of manifesting an outcome similar to this year’s, when Beyoncé, nominated for record, song and album of the year, failed to win any of those top awards .

“Beyoncé — she’s so much bigger than a f— Grammy,” says SZA. “She’s Beyoncé! She’s done it for women, she’s done it for Black people, she’s done it for artists. She’s done so much for the world by just being herself.”

After years of isolation from her fans, SZA’s about to face just how much being herself matters too.

“To sell yourself is really hard,” she says. “Thankfully, just being myself has been enough.”

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SZA Concert Setlists & Tour Dates

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• Date and Venue Doors Scheduled
• Nov 20 2024 Al Dana Amphitheatre Bahrain, Bahrain Add time Add time Add times

SZA at Osheaga Festival 2024

• Love Galore
• Broken Clocks
• All the Stars
• Garden (Say It Like Dat)
• Drew Barrymore
• Forgiveless
• Ghost in the Machine
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SZA at Lollapalooza 2024

Sza at roskilde festival 2024.

• The Weekend

SZA at Malahide Castle Summer Concerts 2024

Sza at glastonbury festival 2024, sza at british summer time 2024, sza at summerfest 2024.

• Seek & Destroy

SZA at Governors Ball 2024

Sza at primavera sound porto 2024, sza at we love green 2024.

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• The Weekend ( 145 )
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Brooke Alexx Avery Anna BadBitz BassNotBass Zack Bia Justin Bieber BINI Carly Cosgrove Ant Clemons Dispatch Don Toliver dvsn FLETCHER HWASA Kara Jackson Monica Karina Kendrick Lamar Lil Baby Tkay Maidza James Marriott Vinny Mauro Tate McRae Ashley Mehta MK The Mowgli’s Kacey Musgraves No Guidnce Olivia O’Brien ODD EYE CIRCLE chiara oliver P1Harmony Rex Orange County RL + KLAV Destiny Rogers Serena Ryder Travis Scott SEULGI Shehxna skaiwater Jazmine Sullivan Ty Dolla $ign UMI Various Artists Stevie Wonder

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Artists covered

Aliyah’s Interlude Erykah Badu Cardi B Doja Cat Drake Dreya Mac Fleetwood Mac Aretha Franklin GloRilla Mildred J. Hill & Patty Hill Elton John & Kiki Dee DJ Khaled Khalid Kendrick Lamar & SZA Lil Baby Lizzo Musiq Soulchild O.T. Genasis Prince Isaiah Rashad Trippie Redd Rihanna ScHoolboy Q Sexyy Red Sixpence None the Richer Summer Walker Wheatus

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SZA - Postponed

SZA Announces Her Historic First Arena Tour: The S.O.S North American Tour

Featuring Special Guest Omar Apollo New Sophomore Album ‘SOS’ Out Globally Now Tour Stopping at Wells Fargo Center on March 2 Tickets On Sale Starting Friday, December 16 at 12 p.m. at WellsFargoCenterPhilly.com

Off the heels of her long-awaited new sophomore album ‘SOS’, music trendsetter and icon SZA will embark on a highly anticipated arena tour this spring with support from Grammy-nominated best new artist Omar Apollo. Produced by Live Nation, the exclusive 17-city tour will stop by Wells Fargo Center on Thursday, March 2. This tour marks the first time the Grammy-award-winning artist is playing venues of this size and debuting her latest album live to fans.

TICKETS: Tickets go on sale starting Friday, December 16 at 12pm local time on wellsfargocenterphilly.com .

Born in St. Louis and raised in Maplewood, NJ, genre-defying, and GRAMMY Award winning recording artist SZA released her major label debut album Ctrl (TDE/RCA) in 2017. Revered for its raw and honest lyrics, it landed at No.1 on Billboard’s R&B Albums chart, No. 2 on the R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart and No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, according to Nielsen Music. The now RIAA-certified 3xPlatinum album received five Grammy nominations in 2018 and more than half the songs on Ctrl are currently certified multi-Platinum and Gold. Ctrl remains on the Billboard 200 chart since its release in 2017 and holds the record for the longest run for any Black female artist’s debut album. In 2022 alone it sold over 600,000 units and is the 10th best-selling female album this year in the country and 50th best-selling album in 2022 overall.

SZA has won various awards since the release of Ctrl including a 2022 GRAMMY Award for Best Pop Dou/Group Performance for “Kiss Me More” with Doja Cat, Billboard Music Awards’ Top R&B Female Artist, BET Awards’ Best New Artist, BET Soul Train Awards’ Best R&B/Soul Female Artist and Best New Artist, MTV Video Music Awards’ Best Visual Effects for the “All The Stars” with Kendrick Lamar, and NAACP Image Awards’ Outstanding New Artist. In 2019, she won NAACP Image Awards’ Outstanding Duo or Group for “All The Stars” with Kendrick Lamar and Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation for the Black Panther Soundtrack. SZA also received Billboard’s 2019 Women in Music Rule Breaker award.

To this day, SZA continues to set the standard on creativity and songwriting, while shattering records with over 7.2 billion streams worldwide across all platforms. To close out the trying year of 2020, SZA gifted fans on Christmas Day with the hopeful track “Good Days.” Grammy-nominated for Best R&B Song, the single quickly became SZA’s greatest gainer solo single release, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and marking her first time in the chart’s top ten as the main artist. December 2021, SZA scored her second lead artist top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with the official release of “I Hate U,” which debuted at #7. The song also entered at #1 on both Spotify and Apple Music US charts and broke the record for the most streamed R&B song by a female artist on Apple Music in its first week. “Shirt,” her most recent single has garnered over 60 million streams globally since its release in October. SZA’s long-awaited new album SOS includes features by Travis Scott, Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers and

Ol’ Dirty Bastard; with production by Ctrl hitmaking collaborators ThankGod4Cody and Carter Lang, alongside Jeff Bhasker, Rob Bisel, Benny Blanco, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Emile Haynie, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Jay Versace, and more.

About Omar Apollo

Omar Apollo is one of music’s most exciting shape-shifters. In just a few years time, the Indiana-raised Mexican-American singer-songwriter went from teenage strummer to one of the most hotly-tipped rising stars of his generation— most recently honored with a Grammy Nomination for Best New Artist. His debut, critically acclaimed album "Ivory" released in April 2022 featured the Billboard Hot 100 hit "Evergreen" and was supported by 2 sold out North American tours including stops at historic venues like The Greek Theatre, Kings Theatre, and Coachella.

About Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com .

SZA - New Date

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The phenomenal, groundbreaking, genre-bending artist SZA will headline on Saturday 29 June, the first Saturday of BST Hyde Park’s three weekends. SZA is joined by special guests Sampha and Snoh Aalegra, with full lineup TBA.

A distinct force in contemporary R&B, SZA has set herself apart with a vulnerable and casually poetic songwriting style and a voice conveying a multitude of emotions with subtle twists and turns. She established herself with a trio of spaced-out Eps and collaborations with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, and Rihanna, and continued her ascent with Ctrl (2017), a Top Ten album that resulted in five Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist.

These accolades proved to be no fluke, as SZA earned almost as many Grammy nominations the next year by assisting Kendrick Lamar with “All the Stars,” a Top Ten hit, only one in a slew of platinum singles she has scored as a headliner or featured artist. Her rich and complex second album, SOS (2022), went straight to number one on the Billboard 200, produced four Top Ten pop singles – including the chart-topping revenge fantasy “Kill Bill” – and earned the artist three Grammy awards.

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She's Your Favorite Artist's Favorite Artist! 12 Musicians Who Love Chappell Roan, from Beyoncé to Adele

Chappell Roan was right: She truly is your favorite artist's favorite artist

Kerry Marshall/Getty; Dana Jacobs/WireImage; Gareth Cattermole/Getty

The “Femininomenon” of Chappell Roan has gone global — and stars are taking notice!

Since releasing her acclaimed debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and opening for Olivia Rodrigo on her Guts World Tour, Roan has ascended from a cult following to a festival favorite. Her Lollapalooza performance in Chicago was “the biggest daytime set we’ve ever seen,” a festival spokesperson told the L.A. Times .  

During her Coachella set in April, the “Hot to Go!” singer looked into the camera and proclaimed, “I’m your favorite artist’s favorite artist!” And her fellow musicians have proven her statement. Here are 10 industry powerhouses who have come out as Roan superfans during her rapid rise to fame.

Elton John/Instagram

Elton John might be Chappell Roan's biggest fan.

In May, John brought the "Red Wine Supernova" singer onto his show Rocket Hour , where the two discussed her recent success and John gushed over her.

“I rang you the other night and said, ‘Listen, I’m not stalking you, but I’m as excited about your album’s success as you are,' ” John said. “It’s wonderful to see true talent being recognized.”

(Roan recently recalled to Rolling Stone that he actually called her 11 times from an unidentified number, leading her to think she was being pranked: He attempted to reach her 11 times in five days. “I thought a f------ fan found my iCloud ... I was so mad. I finally answered it one day, and it was Elton F------ John."

The next month, the "Your Song" singer met up with Roan to have dinner, joined by her producer Dan Nigro and John's husband David Furnish . In a photo posted to John's Instagram , the music legend wrote, "The BEST evening of pizza and outrageous laughter with the fiercely fabulous @chappellroan."

He concluded succinctly, "Love her, love her, love her 🚀❤️🌈."

Mike Marsland/WireImage, Astrida Valigorsky/Getty

Adele publicly expressed her adoration for Chappell during an August concert at Munich's Messe München in August. In the middle of her show, the "Hello" singer told the crowd of 80,000 that she had heard one of Roan's songs at her birthday party and "loved it."

"Then, I went down a rabbit hole on Monday. All day long," she continued. "She is spectacular, and it turns out, she’s not just got one song. She’s got, like, seven f---ing brilliant songs. I think she’s absolutely amazing."

The Grammy winner also acknowledged Roan's recent statements about being overwhelmed by the influx of attention. "Do what you gotta do, baby girl, but you're phenomenal," Adele added.

Olivia Rodrigo

Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty

Chappell Roan has been by Olivia Rodrigo 's side since the "Driver's License" singer's unprecedented breakthrough in 2021. On Rodrigo's Sour Tour, Roan opened the San Francisco show. Three years later, she accompanied Rodrigo as the U.S. leg's opener on the Guts World Tour.

Now, Roan — whose debut album was produced by Rodrigo's main collaborator Dan Nigro — is having her own moment in the sun. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , Rodrigo revealed that Roan was her No. 1 artist on Spotify Wrapped in 2023.

The Grammy winner also invited Roan back to the Guts World Tour — but as a special guest. On the penultimate night of her second U.S. leg, Rodrigo and the "Casual" singer sang and danced to Roan's "Hot to Go!"

"I think she is one of the most singular, inspiring, powerful artists I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, and I’m so excited because she’s gonna sing one of my favorite songs of all time,” said Rodrigo while introducing Roan.

Sabrina Carpenter

This summer belonged to pop up-and-comers Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. In a June 2024 Rolling Stone interview, the "Espresso" singer revealed that she listens to Roan's "Good Luck, Babe!" on "loopty loop."

“I’ve been just as obsessed with her as everyone has,” Carpenter admitted.

For her BBC Live Lounge sessions, Carpenter sang a twangy rendition of Roan's ear-worm hit.

Emma McIntyre/Getty; Erika Goldring/WireImage

Lady Gaga loves Chappell, and the feeling is mutual!

Roan, who has drawn comparisons to Gaga for her campy onstage style, covered the singer's 2009 hit "Bad Romance" at a Cincinnati concert in April 2024. When a clip of Roan performing the song went viral on TikTok, the multi-Grammy winner commented on the video, "I love Chappell 🖤🖤🖤🖤.”

Troye Sivan

Kristy Sparow/Getty; Dana Jacobs/WireImage

Troye Sivan and Chappell Roan go way back.

Before Roan adopted her stage name, she posted covers on YouTube under her first and middle name, Kayleigh Rose. Sivan, then a famous YouTuber, tweeted about Roan in November 2014.

"i've had 16 year old girl on repeat for 2 months. you HAVE to listen to this, guys - go send some love," he wrote in a tweet , linking to her now-private cover of Kesha 's "Die Young."

In another tweet , he added enthusiastically, "LETS BLOW KAYLEIGH UP BC I HAVENT HEARD A VOICE LIKE THIS SINCE ADELE, NO EXAGGERATION."

An X (formerly known as Twitter) user also unearthed a throwback photo of a young Sivan, Roan and YouTuber Connor Franta. “unblocked memory: Troye Sivan and Chappell Roan in 2015,” read the post.

Ariana Grande

Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty; Marleen Moise/Getty

Talent recognizes talent, and Ariana Grande has shown Chappell Roan love on social media. After Roan dressed up as the Statue of Liberty during her Governors Ball performance, Grande reposted a meme of her Wicked character, Glinda, seemingly speaking to Roan.

"You're green," the text read, above an image of Roan in costume.

"i really ♡ @chappellroan," the Eternal Sunshine singer wrote in the story.

SZA/Instagram

SZA is just as in love with Chappell Roan as the rest of us. The R&B hitmaker left a since-deleted comment on Rolling Stone 's Governors Ball post featuring Chappell: "I LOVE HER," the "Snooze" singer wrote.

After the breakout star's massive Lollapalooza performance, SZA reposted a clip of Roan onstage with the caption, "She makes me wanna keep making music n art forever."

When teaching the iconic "Hot to Go!" dance at Outside Lands, Roan called out the VIP section for thinking they were "too cool" to do the moves. SZA backed her up over Instagram, posting the clip to her Instagram Stories and writing, "BRUH VIP ALWAYS SUCKSSSSSSSS GET THEM QUEEN 😭😭😭."

Matthew Baker/Getty; Steve Jennings/FilmMagic

Chappell Roan is definitely a part of Charli xcx 's Brat Summer. In July, the pop singer-songwriter posted a playful TikTok featuring a sound that remixed her song "365" with Roan's "Femininomenon."

"obsessed w this," Charli captioned the video.

Gracie Abrams

Gracie Abrams has had Chappell Roan on loop. Speaking to Billboard at the 2024 Met Gala, the singer stated that her song of the summer was "all Chappell Roan." Asked for a specific song, she immediately answered, "'Good Luck, Babe!' "

The "Close to You" singer had more praise for Roan during a SiriusXM interview in May 2024: "I just think that what she's doing is so brilliant, and I think it's some of the most compelling and beautiful and fun and pure music I've heard in a long time."

Mason Poole/Parkwood Media/Getty

Beyoncé doesn't often speak publicly anymore, so when she gave a rare interview to GQ and mentioned Roan's name as a current favorite, that was as good as being anointed official pop royalty by the queen herself.

"I love and respect all of the female singers-songwriters who are out right now.… Raye, Victoria Monét, Sasha Keable, Chloe x Halle, and Reneé Rapp. I love Doechii and GloRilla ... I really like 'Please Please Please' by Sabrina Carpenter, and I think that Thee Sacred Souls and Chappell Roan are talented and interesting."

Kacey Musgraves

Theo Wargo/Getty

Kacey Musgraves has been stanning all summer (see: the photo below of her with Roan after her Bonnaroo set) and she took her fandom to the next level by covering "Pink Pony Club" on the first stop of her "Deeper Well" tour.

Related Articles

A Cross-Country Truck Tour Fighting for Bodily Autonomy

Activists Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline Jampol brought together dozens of artists for their on-the-move show

For Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline Jampol, the founders and co-directors of Project for Empty Space , art has always been the answer.

The curators and activists met in college, where they found themselves in the same creative circles, and soon became close collaborators, working on projects that centered on women’s rights, police brutality, and queer liberation. Their latest collaboration, Body Freedom for Every(Body) , is their most ambitious undertaking yet. Wahi and Jampol brought together artists including Mickalene Thomas , Yvette Molina, Marilyn Minter , and Barbara Kruger, to create a conversation-starting exhibition inside a 27-square-foot truck. Now, the show is making a cross-country road trip with stops in cities like Austin, Texas; Tempe, Arizona; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Washington, D.C.

Their ultimate goal is to highlight the importance and political urgency of Americans’ current battles for control of their own bodies, as conservative officials restrict access to abortion and gender-affirming care. For both founders, the right to bodily autonomy isn’t just a women’s issue or a New York issue or a liberal issue—it’s a global issue.

When I initially met with both Wahi and Jampol to learn more about how Body Freedom for Every(Body) came to be, the future of our nation looked very different. Then, in the week before our next conversation, President Joe Biden dropped out of the race against former president Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris became the new Democratic nominee , and the word hope re-entered the election conversation.

“I’m feeling more optimistic than I was the last time we spoke,” Wahi says in that second talk. “And I’m really hoping that the changes in candidate and potential leadership push people to get out and vote and make sure we protect what is so important for us. It’s been nice to see that boost of energy from people."

The Body Freedom for Every(Body) truck, of course, was created to jump-start discussions. Alongside a rotating curation of pieces that will feature artists from across the nation, the truck itself is a vessel for highlighting some of the uncomfortable truths we face when it comes to the United States’ views on bodily autonomy, and the relentless wave of threats to reproductive and gender-affirming health care here.

“I really did think one day, following so many of the projects we had previously done … it would be so great if we just had a truck to take this across the country,” says Wahi. “And it just so happened that one of our supporters had a truck, which meant we didn’t have an excuse not to do it.” One Kickstarter and an influx of donations later, the Body Freedom for Every(Body) exhibit was born.

Turning a truck into a mobile, art-filled, physical political statement was also a way to disrupt the accessibility gaps that often exist in the art world.

“We absolutely could have done another series of gallery exhibitions or museum exhibitions,” says Wahi. “But we are also really aware of the some of the barriers to entry with museums and art spaces, so this is a way to have these conversations using art but not just in the context of art. I like to think of this project as a FUBU project in the sense that it’s really for us and by us.”

Jampol adds: “Art is a mode of expression and a mode of expressing one’s identity. We’re taking this truck that shows this beautiful array of perspectives and reflections of folks’ identities, and that is in many ways a more effective and in fact impactful way of having a conversation around these social issues.”

Both Wahi and Jampol looked to their personal creative communities when it came time to curate the exhibition. The truck’s interior curation (which includes paintings, collages, photography, and even wallpaper installations) will change throughout the duration of its tour across the country,

“There’s over 200 artists that are in it, and a lot of them have been making work around this topic for a really long time and have dedicated their practice to having conversations around body autonomy,” says Jampol. “We wanted to honor the artists that have been doing this work in a variety of environments for so long, but then also open up space for, you know, a continued growing list.”

The official tour kicked off last week in New York City, with an event in Times Square that featured speakers and a performance by the Resistance Revival Chorus to bless the vehicle for the journey ahead. The first attendees toured the truck while Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” and Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” soundtracked the soft opening.

Celebratory and interactive events will take place across the country during the tour, including “truck talks” with local activists and community leaders, resource fairs, and special performances. But the founders very much see the tour as just the beginning; they'll tell anyone who will listen that this exhibition is meant to endure far past election season. It will have an online home with an accessible digital database, so that those who aren’t physically able to visit a tour stop can still experience the work of the artists involved. An oral history project will also eventually be uploaded to the official website to commemorate the ongoing truck talks and the project as a whole.

“The truck is not going away, but this is a first big step in a larger, more kind of archival component of the project,” says Jampol. “When we bring art into the picture, it offers this vehicle for thinking in a new way or imagining or dreaming or celebrating or feeling seen. Art to us is our love language, and it’s our dialect or vernacular to have a larger conversation around these issues. Art, social change, and social movement should exist in a symbiotic relationship.”

Follow along with the Body Freedom for Every(Body) project , and see when the truck will stop in a city near you.

Bianca Betancourt is the culture editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com , where she covers all things film, TV, music, and more. When she's not writing, she loves impulsively baking a batch of cookies, re-listening to the same early-2000s pop playlist, and stalking Mariah Carey's Twitter feed. 

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