1990-present
SZA News: “Snooze” Singer Picks Up Three 2024 Grammys
SZA entered the 2024 Grammy Awards as the most nominated artist, and left as one of the night’s biggest winners with three trophies.
The 33-year-old performed during Sunday’s ceremony, then collected her trophy for Best R&B Song for “Snooze” shortly after. Earlier in the day, SZA also won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Ghost In The Machine,” her collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers, and Best Progressive R&B Album for SOS prior to the televised portion of the Grammys.
The R&B artist, whose real name is Solána Rowe, was obviously overwhelmed during her acceptance speech. “I came really, really far, and I can’t believe this is happening, and it feels really fake and—hi, Taylor,” she said, cutting herself off when she spotted Taylor Swift. “I’m just really grateful.”
SZA was nominated for nine awards total, including Album of the Year for SOS. However, Swift would take home that honor for Midnights during the final presentation of the night.
Who Is SZA?
Grammy-winning R&B artist SZA, whose real name is Solána Rowe, is known for her hit songs “Kill Bill,” “Good Days,” and “Snooze.” Her independently released work caught the attention of Top Dawg Entertainment, and she became the label’s first female artist in 2013. Her first full-length album, 2017’s Ctrl, earned critical acclaim en route to platinum certification, but her 2022 album SOS was an even bigger smash, topping the Billboard 200 album chart, featuring her first No. 1 song “Kill Bill,” and receiving a 2024 Grammy win for Best Progressive R&B Album. The musician has collaborated with popular artists such as Rihanna, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar. Her duet with Doja Cat, “Kiss Me More,” earned the pair a Grammy in 2022.
Quick Facts
REAL NAME: Solána Imani Rowe
BORN: November 8, 1990
BIRTHPLACE: St. Louis, Missouri
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Scorpio
HEIGHT: 5 ft. 4 in.
Early Life
SZA was born Solána Imani Rowe on November 8, 1990, in St. Louis. Her stage name, pronounced “siz-za,” comes from a division of Islam’s supreme alphabet, which assigns meanings to letters of the Roman alphabet. S stands for sovereign or savior, Z is for zig-zag, and A is for Allah.
Rowe primarily grew up outside of New York City, in the suburb of Maplewood, New Jersey. Her parents shared similar career paths as media executives. Her father, Abdul Mubarak-Rowe, was employed by CNN and her mother, Audrey Rowe, by AT&T. However, they differed with their personal faith. Her father determined that their children would be raised Orthodox Muslim, and her Christian mother followed along, even attending a mosque for prayers.
Along with sending their daughter to a Muslim preparatory school, Abdul set rules for no television or radio, limiting Solána’s musical exposure to his collection of jazz greats like Miles Davis and Billie Holiday. But she got a taste of contemporary music when her older half-sister, Panya, came to live with the family, bringing her own collection that included Wu-Tang Clan and Lil Jon. Rowe’s interests were further piqued after gaining access to a gymnastics teammate’s iPod, which included more hip-hop from Common and Mos Def, as well as the unusual vocals of Björk.
As one of the few Muslims in Maplewood, Rowe was subjected to verbal abuse in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She subsequently abandoned her traditional religious clothing and attempted to blend in with her peers, becoming a cheerleader at Columbia High School.
Rowe briefly attended Delaware State University to study marine biology but spent much of her time working as a bartender and dancer at nearby clubs. She dropped out and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology for one summer before her musical career took off.
Music Career
In 2011, SZA was working for the clothing label 10Deep, which assigned her to hand out merchandise at a Kendrick Lamar concert. A friend was playing some of SZA’s mixtapes, and her music captured the attention of Top Dawg Entertainment co-president Terrence “Punch” Henderson. The two stayed in touch.
After dropping out of college, SZA independently released a pair of EPs: See.SZA.Run in 2012 and S in 2013. The former drew praise for its atmospheric track “Country,” with The Guardian comparing her to R&B heavyweights Frank Ocean and The Weeknd. S featured the celestial “Ice Moon” and such unusual touches as samples from the horror flick Rosemary’s Baby, cemented SZA’s standing as an artist to watch. The buzz resulted in a record deal with TDE in 2013. She was the label’s first female artist.
SZA initially surfaced as a guest on tracks by TDE label mates like Isaiah Rashad as she worked on more new music. Before long, her vocal abilities were in high demand from other artists. She teamed with R&B singer Jill Scott for “Divinity” in 2014, before going on to co-write and perform on Rihanna’s “Consideration” in 2016.
The next year, the budding artist entered a joint deal with TDE and RCA Records, released her long-awaited first album, and enhanced her mainstream recognition by collaborating with Maroon 5 for the song “What Lovers Do.” SZA has since worked with Lamar on the 2018 single “All the Stars” from the Blank Panther movie soundtrack, Justin Timberlake on “The Other Side” from the Trolls World Tour (2020) movie soundtrack, and Drake for the 2023 Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Slime You Out.”
Along with the piercing honesty of her lyrics, SZA has been lauded for her voice, which has been described in such ways as “ethereal” and “dripping with honey.” However, the demands of constant touring took its toll on her money-maker, as she announced she was pulling out of TDE’s The Championship Tour in May 2018 due to swollen vocal cords. She gave fans a scare when she tweeted that her vocal cords were permanently damaged, but that turned out not to be the case, as she returned to the stage for the Firefly Music Festival in Delaware that June.
SZA has headlined two of her own tours following the release of both her studio albums. She visited cities across Europe, the United States, and Canada in 2023 on the SOS Tour, her first concert series in arenas.
Songs and Albums
Among SZA’s hit songs are the No. 1 singles “Kill Bill” and “Slime You Out,” a collaboration with Drake. Other popular tracks include “Love Galore,” “Snooze,” and “Good Days.” To date, SZA has released one EP, Z (2014), and two studio albums, Ctrl (2017) and SOS (2022), with the backing of major labels.
Z
On her first EP with a major label, SZA continued developing her trippy, genre-defying sound. Z (2014) included the tracks “Babylon,” with label mate Kendrick Lamar; “Childs Play,” with Chance the Rapper; the soul throwback “Sweet November;” and the ’80s-tinged “Julia.” Underscoring her growing mainstream recognition, Z cracked the Billboard 200’s top 40 upon its release.
Ctrl
Frustrated with the process of getting her first full-length album off the ground, SZA tweeted “I actually quit” in October 2016. Lucky for fans, this turned out not to be the case as the singer unveiled Ctrl in June 2017.
Debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 en route to platinum certification, Ctrl wowed critics with the depth of its creator’s storytelling. “Love Galore,” featuring Travis Scott, spotlighted a toxic romance; “Drew Barrymore” reflected on her feelings of not being good enough; and her sultry ruminations on sharing a lover were captured on “The Weekend.” Altogether, SZA showed she was unafraid to mine her raw emotions. Her stellar efforts on the No. 1 R&B album resulted in five Grammy nominations, though she left the 2018 ceremony empty-handed in a surprise to many.
SOS
SZA’s newest album, SOS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in December 2022. It also broke a 54-year record Aretha Franklin previously held to become the longest-running No. 1 album by a female artist on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart; SOS spent 22 weeks in the top spot.
In April 2023, the album’s most popular song “Kill Bill” became SZA’s first No. 1 on the Billboard 100. The song additionally spent 30 weeks atop the Hot R&B Songs chart. SOS produced four more top-10 mainstream hits: “Snooze,” “Nobody Gets Me,” “I Hate U,” and “Good Days.”
The singer has described the tracks on the album as vignettes about “bizarre acts of self-embarrassment” and said she found inspiration from some of the more vulnerable elements of her life. “There’s mad aspects to my life. But people don’t really know that, because all I sing about are the hidden aspects that I think are more interesting,” she told Variety. “Honestly, I could write about jet-skiing with my friends, but I don’t want to make a song about that, and I don’t want to hear a song about it either.”
Listen to SOS on Amazon Music or Spotify
Grammy Awards
SZA has collected four Grammys out of 24 nominations.
Her first win was for her collaboration with Doja Cat on the 2021 hit song “Kiss Me More.” It earned the pair the trophy for Best Pop Duo Performance.
She entered the 2024 Grammy Awards ceremony as the year’s most nominated artist, competing for nine possible trophies. Her song “Kill Bill” was up for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best R&B Performance, plus SOS received nominations for Album of the Year and Best Progressive R&B Album.
SZA ultimately won for Best Progressive R&B Album, as well as Best R&B Song for “Snooze” and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Ghost In The Machine,” which features Phoebe Bridgers
Personal Style: SZA Crocs
SZA stands 5 feet, 4 inches, a measurement that would jump if taking into her account her famously voluminous head of hair. The artist says she began going for the look after shedding her hijab in middle school, enduring a stint with illness and a medication that caused her hair to fall out, before recovering to let it all flow free once again.
SZA is also known for her love of Crocs. In an interview with People, the singer revealed she wears the shoes “at all times and anywhere” because she can “be comfortable and be cute at the same time.” She has collaborated with the American footwear brand on two custom lines. The first shoes, from May 2022, had an earthy pattern with custom charms representing totems that keep the singer “grounded, calm, and collected.” That December, Crocs released the second collection that featured a distressed denim pattern and nostalgic charms like a flip phone and floppy disk.
Net Worth
SZA’s total value is estimated to be $6 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Quotes
- Follow your passion, ignore everyone.
- Loving yourself and practicing self-love is not just a task. Self-esteem is a slow process.
- People grapple with labeling me as hip-hop, R&B, or pop, and it’s interesting to me. I’m just making music.
Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us!
The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us
Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.
