Biography
SZA: Slow-Built R&B, Stadium Scale, and Record of the Year
From Maplewood to Top Dawg
Solána Rowe was born in St. Louis and raised in Maplewood, New Jersey, recording early EPs on her own terms before the industry found her. A self-released trilogy built from lo-fi uploads circulated until Top Dawg Entertainment, the independent home of Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolboy Q, signed her as its first woman. Even before her debut album existed she was writing with and for the biggest names in pop: she holds credits on Rihanna's Consideration and Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj's Feeling Myself, work she later described to i-D as proof she could compete at that level long before she had a record of her own on shelves. Those apprenticeship years shaped the hybrid identity that defines her catalog, equal parts R&B traditionalism, rap adjacency, and indie-leaning production instincts that resisted easy categorization.
Ctrl: A Debut With a Long Tail
Ctrl arrived in June 2017 and behaved like no other R&B debut of its time. It opened at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and simply stayed, eventually logging more than 400 weeks on the chart according to i-D, powered by songs like Love Galore, The Weekend, and Broken Clocks that turned diary-detail songwriting into radio staples. The Recording Academy responded with five nominations at the 2018 GRAMMYs, including Best New Artist and Best Progressive R&B Album. Her profile broadened through film work when All the Stars, her Black Panther duet with Kendrick Lamar, earned four nominations at the following year's ceremony. The era closed with a first win: Kiss Me More, her 2021 pairing with Doja Cat, took Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2022 GRAMMYs, giving her a trophy that matched the scale of her streaming numbers.
SOS Rewrites Her Ceiling
Released in December 2022, SOS converted critical standing into outright dominance. The album spent ten consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, anchored by Kill Bill, a revenge fantasy that drew Record of the Year and Song of the Year nominations, and Snooze, which became a multi-format radio institution. At the 66th GRAMMY Awards in February 2024 she won three trophies: Best Progressive R&B Album for SOS, Best R&B Song for Snooze, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for Ghost in the Machine with Phoebe Bridgers, per the Recording Academy's official tally. She graduated to her first headlining arena tour the same year, and the album's commercial life refused to fade, setting up an unusual strategy for its sequel: instead of a new LP, SZA reissued the original.
LANA, the Super Bowl, and Screens
SOS Deluxe: LANA arrived in December 2024 with new material led by the wry Scorsese Baby Daddy and restored the parent album to the summit; by early 2026 Billboard counted thirteen nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 for SOS across its lifecycle. The reissue window coincided with a deliberate expansion beyond music. One of Them Days, an Issa Rae-produced buddy comedy starring SZA opposite Keke Palmer, marked her acting debut in January 2025, and a month later she joined Kendrick Lamar as a featured performer at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show, her first appearance on sport's largest stage. Both moves widened an audience already primed by streaming ubiquity, and both fed directly into what came next: a joint stadium tour and the biggest hit either collaborator had known.
Grand National and Record of the Year
Luther, released on Lamar's GNX in late 2024 and built on a sample of Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn's If This World Were Mine, became the defining duet of 2025. Rolling Stone noted it spent thirteen consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100, the longest run for both artists and the second-longest for any hip-hop song. From April 2025 the pair co-headlined the Grand National stadium tour, which closed as the highest-grossing rap tour of the year and the highest-grossing co-headlining tour ever per figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, ranking third among all 2025 tours in Boxscore's year-end count. The campaign peaked at the 68th GRAMMY Awards on February 1, 2026, where luther won Record of the Year and Best Melodic Rap Performance; as The New York Times observed, SZA entered the night with five career wins and none in the all-genre categories, and left with seven total wins from thirty-one nominations.
Toward the Third Album
Work on album three has been deliberately unorthodox. SZA told i-D in early 2026 that longtime producer Carter Lang recorded sounds in every country the Grand National tour passed through, and that sessions now center on a live band building beats from scratch while she freestyles; Steve Lacy sat in for what became the duet Is It Cool?, released June 26, 2026 via RCA. Elsewhere she contributed Save The Day to Pixar's Hoppers, joined Doechii for Girl, Get Up, guested on Isaiah Rashad's Boy in Red, and honored Lauryn Hill at the June 2026 BET Awards, citing Hill's connection to their shared hometown and high school. She has spoken about the project as a defense of human-made music against AI saturation; no title or release date has been announced, and nothing in her public comments suggests she is in a hurry.
Selected moments
Career highlights
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Ctrl debuts at No. 3 on the Billboard 200
The TDE debut begins a chart residency exceeding 400 weeks and earns five GRAMMY nominations, including Best New Artist.
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First GRAMMY win for Kiss Me More
Her duet with Doja Cat takes Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 64th GRAMMY Awards, her first Academy trophy.
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SOS wins three GRAMMYs
Best Progressive R&B Album, Best R&B Song for Snooze, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Phoebe Bridgers cap the SOS campaign.
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Super Bowl LIX halftime and film debut
She performs alongside Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl and stars in One of Them Days with Keke Palmer within six weeks.
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Grand National stadium tour
Co-headlining with Kendrick Lamar from April 2025, the run ranks among the year's highest-grossing tours per industry reporting.
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Record of the Year for luther
The thirteen-week Hot 100 No. 1 wins Record of the Year and Best Melodic Rap Performance at the 68th GRAMMYs, bringing her to seven career wins.
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Third album sessions with a live band
She describes recording with Carter Lang and a live ensemble, surfacing on Steve Lacy's Is It Cool? and Pixar's Hoppers soundtrack.
Recognition
GRAMMY Awards History
Through the 68th GRAMMY Awards in February 2026, SZA has won seven GRAMMYs from thirty-one nominations, according to the Recording Academy. Her wins span pop, R&B, and rap categories, reflecting a catalog that crosses format lines.
Her signature triumph came at the 68th ceremony, where luther with Kendrick Lamar won Record of the Year and Best Melodic Rap Performance, her first wins in an all-genre category after earlier victories in field-specific awards. Prior wins include three trophies for the SOS era and one for Kiss Me More with Doja Cat.
- GRAMMY Awards wins
- 7
- GRAMMY Award nominations
- 31
| Year | Award | Category | Work |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | GRAMMY Awards | Record Of The YearWinner | luther |
| 2026 | GRAMMY Awards | Best Melodic Rap PerformanceWinner | luther |
| 2026 | GRAMMY Awards | Song Of The YearNominee | luther |
| 2026 | GRAMMY Awards | Best Pop Duo/Group PerformanceNominee | 30 For 30 |
| 2026 | GRAMMY Awards | Best Traditional R&B PerformanceNominee | Crybaby |
| 2025 | GRAMMY Awards | Best R&B SongWinner | Saturn |
| 2025 | GRAMMY Awards | Best R&B Solo PerformanceNominee | Saturn |
| 2024 | GRAMMY Awards | Best Progressive R&B AlbumWinner | SOS |
| 2024 | GRAMMY Awards | Best R&B SongWinner | Snooze |
| 2024 | GRAMMY Awards | Best Pop Duo/Group PerformanceWinner | Ghost In The Machine |
| 2024 | GRAMMY Awards | Record Of The YearNominee | Kill Bill |
| 2022 | GRAMMY Awards | Best Pop Duo/Group PerformanceWinner | Kiss Me More |
| 2018 | GRAMMY Awards | Best New ArtistNominee |