SZA
Solána Imani Rowe, known professionally as SZA, is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her diaristic songwriting and genre explorations, she is regarded as a prominent figure in influencing contemporary R&B music and popularizing alternative R&B.
After gaining attention online with two self-released extended plays, SZA signed to Top Dawg Entertainment in 2013. Under the label, she released the lo-fi and psychedelic EP Z and her R&B debut album Ctrl. The latter was critically acclaimed; it placed in several year-end lists and earned SZA five Grammy Award nominations in 2018. Following Ctrl, she engaged in a series of high-profile collaborations over the next four years. These included the top-ten singles "All the Stars" with Kendrick Lamar, which garnered Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, and "Kiss Me More" with Doja Cat, which won SZA her first Grammy Award.
With her acclaimed and eclectic second album SOS, SZA broke several chart records. The album became the first by a woman to spend 100 weeks in the Billboard 200's top-ten and broke the record for the longest-running US top-ten by a Black musician. Its fifth single, "Kill Bill", was the third best-selling song of 2023 and peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100. From 2024 to 2025, SZA achieved a string of top-tens with "Saturn" and "30 for 30", both from the deluxe reissue of SOS entitled Lana, and her longest-running US number-one "Luther". Her 2025 Grand National Tour with Lamar is the highest-grossing co-headlining tour in history.
SZA has earned numerous accolades throughout her career, including six Grammy Awards, a Brit Award, three American Music Awards, a Guild of Music Supervisors Award, two Billboard Women in Music awards, including Woman of the Year, as well as a nomination for an Academy Award. She has co-written songs for artists such as Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, Travis Scott, Schoolboy Q, and Rihanna. In 2024, she received the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Early life and education
Solána Imani Rowe was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 8, 1989. She grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, with parents who are from the Southern United States. Her mother, Audrey, is a former executive at AT&T, and her father, Abdul, used to be a video producer at CNN. As a child, Rowe was affectionally nicknamed by her mother "Chickabee", derived from the film Nell. Rowe's relatives include a half-sister, Panya, who is eleven years older than her; and a brother, Daniel, who is a rapper known by the stage name Manhattan. She has a niece, Carolyn, who also makes music. Rowe considers her maternal grandmother, Norma, her best friend.Audrey is Christian, while Abdul is Muslim. Rowe's father would attend her mother's church for special occasions, while her mother would dress up for Jum'ah and accompany her father to the mosque. Rowe attended both Sunday school and Muslim school. In an interview with the blog Muslim Girl, she said that her parents have accepted each other's religions, "their faiths and beliefs ".
It's like the belief in one God, all the pillars of Islam et cetera, and I think those are ideas that will never leave me, those make sense in my spirit. It's the way that I connect with God; it has always made sense to me. I think I would love to wear my hijab but I feel like I don't wanna wear my hijab and talk crazy on stage and be in videos with Travis Scott. Like I don't wanna be disrespectful because I have too much love and respect for the religion, for my father, and for myself.
Rowe wore a hijab during elementary and early middle school. Following the September 11 attacks, in her middle school years, she stopped wearing one for fears of Islamophobic bullying. She later attended Columbia High School, where she participated in the school's gymnastics and cheerleading teams, as well as its dance team dubbed the Special Dance Company. After graduating in 2008, Rowe enrolled in three different colleges before settling at Delaware State University to study marine biology. She dropped out in her final semester to focus on her music career and worked various jobs to support herself.
After dropping out, Rowe often drank Malibu, smoked marijuana, and overslept daily. She lied about her age to get a bartending job and occasionally danced at several strip clubs in New Jersey and New York City. Rowe's stage name, SZA, was inspired by Nation of Islam, a Black nationalist religious movement. She took cues from the Supreme Alphabet, taking influence from rappers RZA and GZA of Wu-Tang Clan. The last two letters in her name stand for Zig-Zag and Allah, while the first letter S can mean either savior or sovereign.
Career
2011–2014: Career beginnings and EPs
SZA first met members of Top Dawg Entertainment during the CMJ New Music Report in 2011, when her boyfriend's clothing company sponsored a show in which Kendrick Lamar was performing. SZA's early music was shared with TDE president Terrence "Punch" Henderson, who was impressed by the quality of the material. SZA's early music was recorded with friends and neighbors; many of the beats were taken from the Internet. SZA self-released her debut extended play See.SZA.Run on October 29, 2012. The extended play was met with positive reviews upon release. The Guardian commended the EP, its lyrical content and production, and compared it to the work of musicians like Drake and the Weeknd.SZA self-released her second EP, S, on April 10, 2013. It was positively received; Consequence of Sound thought that the "dreamy warped manage to exude confidence and fragility". SZA promoted the extended play with the release of a music video for the EP's lead single, "Ice.Moon". SZA and Punch stayed in contact, and after the former began garnering attention with the release of her two EPs, TDE signed her on July 14, 2013, making her the label's first female artist. In October 2013, SZA joined Swedish band Little Dragon for a four-show tour, beginning on October 17 at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles and concluding on October 24 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. That December, she released the song "Teen Spirit", which was later remixed with a guest verse from rapper 50 Cent. The remix was accompanied by a music video directed by APlusFilmz.
Throughout 2014, SZA was featured on multiple tracks from her labelmates' projects, including two songs on Isaiah Rashad's debut EP, Cilvia Demo, and a collaboration on Schoolboy Q's debut album, Oxymoron. She followed up with the release of her third studio EP, Z, on April 8, led by the single "Babylon" featuring Lamar, which was accompanied by a music video directed by APlusFilmz. To promote the EP, SZA performed at several showcases during the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Z marked SZA's chart debut in the UK, reaching number 32 on the R&B chart for the week ending April 19. In the US, the EP debuted at number 39 on the Billboard 200; it sold 6,980 copies in its first week and peaked at number nine on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Z acquired a small cult following online, gaining popularity within niche communities on Tumblr which contributed to her slow rise in popularity. By the end of the year, SZA opened for Jhené Aiko's Enter the Void Tour and Coldplay's Ghost Stories Tour.
During 2014, SZA befriended record producer ThankGod4Cody during a time when he was working on music for Rashad. One time, she overheard him making a beat from the next room, and they decided to build a song out of it. It eventually became the standalone single "Sobriety". She released it via SoundCloud in November, with the genre tag "Not R&B". In 2015, she met another record producer, Carter Lang, via a chance encounter at a studio; they and ThankGod4Cody began a work relationship the same year, collaborating on an upcoming project by SZA. Initially given the title A, the project was going to be the final EP of the "SZA" trilogy that started with S. Work on it started back in 2014. As time passed, A slowly developed into SZA's debut album Ctrl.
2015–2018: ''Ctrl'' and breakthrough
A release date was initially scheduled for late 2015. However, due to disputes with TDE and persistent feelings of anxiety fueled by her perfectionism, SZA had to rework the project multiple times. The label then postponed its release from 2015 to the start of 2016. In a February post on Instagram, TDE implied A was in its final stage of creation and would be released the same year. One of its prospective songs, "TwoAM", was surprise-released through their SoundCloud account in May; it was eventually scrapped from the tracklist. Later that same month, SZA told Entertainment Weekly that A was now growing into a full-length album. A mid-2016 release date was planned for the project, only for it to be delayed again to November 8. With frustrations mounting due to TDE's postponements, SZA angrily announced on Twitter that she wanted to quit music. She later retracted her statement.While working on A, SZA was co-writing songs for other singers. She co-wrote "Feeling Myself" by Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé in 2014, Scott's "Ok Alright" in 2015, and Rihanna's "Consideration" in 2016. "Consideration" was going to be on A as a track called "LouAnne Johnson"; SZA deemed it the album's "centerpiece" and even had a music video filmed. Much to her disappointment, TDE had other plans, handing the song to Rihanna for her album Anti and making SZA a feature instead. Regardless, "Consideration" contributed to SZA's breakthrough, and she grew to appreciate the label's decision. Apart from Rihanna, SZA's other collaborators from 2014 to 2016 included her several labelmates like Lamar, Rashad, Ab-Soul, and Schoolboy Q.
In 2017, SZA announced Ctrl as the new title for A; the official release was June 9 of that year. After she signed with RCA Records in April, the album was finally released as scheduled. In Ctrl, SZA continued to lean into her established alternative R&B sound, incorporating hints of alternative rock as well. Meanwhile, critics mainly categorized it under contemporary R&B. To promote the album, SZA released five singles: "Drew Barrymore", "Love Galore" featuring Scott, "The Weekend", "Broken Clocks", and "Garden ". She also embarked on the international Ctrl the Tour, which ran from 2017 to 2018.
Ctrl was universally acclaimed upon its release. Several publications included it on their 2017 year-end lists; the album topped Time ranking and placed at number two on Billboard, Pitchfork, and NPR's. In the US, Ctrl debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, sold 60,000 first-week units, and became the second longest-charting R&B album by a woman. Its run has lasted for over eight consecutive years. Furthermore, "The Weekend" and "Love Galore" peaked within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. In 2018, SZA received her first five Grammy nominations due to her work on Ctrl, including Best New Artist. Although she was the most-nominated woman for that year, she did not win in any category.
After Ctrl, SZA went on a series of song collaborations, two of which were her first Hot 100 top-tens. The first, "What Lovers Do" by Maroon 5, peaked at number nine; the second, "All the Stars" with Lamar, reached number seven. The latter was also her first top-ten in the UK, where it peaked at number five. "All the Stars" was released as the lead single from the soundtrack album of Black Panther. With it, SZA received her first film award nominations, like an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Critics' Choice Award for Best Song, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. At the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards, "All the Stars" won Best Visual Effects. Elsewhere, SZA contributed to the second soundtrack for the television series Insecure with "Quicksand"; featured on the remix of Lorde's "Homemade Dynamite" from Melodrama ; and appeared on Cardi B's "I Do" from Invasion of Privacy.