How SZA, the reigning queen of R&B who won 3 Grammy awards, came into the spotlight

Of her nine nominations, leading the pack, SZA won three awards – for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Best Progressive R&B Album and Best R&B Song. Her sophomore album ‘SOS’ was also nominated for some of the biggest awards of the night, such as ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Record of the Year’.

“I’m just really overwhelmed,” said a tearful SZA. “You don’t really understand. I came really, really far, and I can’t believe this is happening, and it feels very fake,” she said. We take a look at her rise in the music scene, and what sets her apart.

How SZA’s Grammy-winning ‘SOS’ dominated the charts

SZA’s music comes with a minimalist soul sound. With ‘SOS’, she has created a heartbreak album with an edge and a lush production. SZA has found appreciation for her interesting vocal range, which can go from high-pitched falsettos to guttural bass in no time.

Her earnest writing, laying bare her thoughts on sexuality, heartbreak, and wistfulness, has also been praised. The album also has a slight Indian connection. The song ‘Far’ opens with a recording of SZA speaking to Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru, where she says, “How do I deal with rejection…” He replies, “Oh, that’s great. If nobody wants you, you are free”, just as she dives into the piece.

The album has had a record run on the Billboard charts, spending seven weeks on top and making her the first woman artiste to have the longest run for an album in the decade so far.

No other Black artiste has managed to do so since Whitney Houston, who was also the first to spend seven weeks on top of the charts with her album ‘Whitney’ (1987). The cover photograph, with SZA looking into the ocean while sitting on a diving board, was inspired by a 1997 photograph of Princess Diana. In ‘SOS’, SZA wanted to convey the same feeling of “how isolated she felt”.

SZA’s early years, multi-religious background

SZA, born Solána Imani Rowe, grew up in an interfaith Christian-Muslim home. She was brought up as a conservative Muslim and wore a hijab for a while in school. Her mother Audrey Rowe was an executive at the American telecommunication company AT&T, while her father Abdul-Alim Mubarak-Rowe worked as a producer for CNN.

As a child, SZA attended a Muslim prep school besides her regular schooling. She stopped wearing the hijab after facing Islamophobia and bullying in school after the 9/11 attacks.

SZA had multiple interests growing up and a deep passion for writing poetry. She was studying to be a marine biologist at Delaware State University. After doing extremely well in the first two semesters, SZA got bored of studying, began to smoke marijuana, and failed her course.

Transition into music, by accident

She took up odd jobs to support herself – until music happened. Her brother Daniel Rowe aka Manhatten, a musician, asked her to record some vocals on some tracks he was working on. He asked her to be as honest and vulnerable as possible in the lyrics.

Since SZA didn’t grow up wanting to be a singer and had a very nasal voice, she was completely unsure of this being a career option. But she enjoyed the sense of satisfaction she got from creating music and began to put out her pieces on the Internet.

Why is she called SZA?

SZA stands for ‘Sovereign/Saviour-Zig zag-Allah’. The name comes from the Supreme Alphabet, a concept where deeper meaning is found in words by giving different meanings to the letters in the Latin alphabet.

The concept comes from Five Percenters, a Black nationalist movement that was founded in 1964. Interestingly, it has had a relationship with music. Both Hip-hop and the Five Percenter movement took their first breath in New York by impoverished Black and Latino people and bumped into each other quite early. SZA has said in her interviews that she was inspired by Wu-Tang rapper RZA, who also uses the Supreme Alphabet in his stage name.

The beginning of an interesting career

SZA released her first mixtape in 2012. Then dabbling in fashion, she interned with musicians Pharrell William and Nigo’s clothing brand Billionaire Boys Club and later worked for streetwear designer Scott Sasso.

An order delivery led her to the home of rapper, record producer and president of Top Dawg Entertainment, Terrence “Punch” Henderson Jr. He heard SZA’s friend playing her music and got in touch with her, eventually signing her to the label in 2013. She became the first woman artiste to be endorsed by the label.

By this time SZA had already released her debut EP ‘See.Sza.Run’, a minimalist R&B and neo-soul EP that was made using production apps and beats available online. Her second EP, ‘S’, came with a music video. SZA also wrote songs for Rihanna and Beyonce before releasing her debut album ‘Ctrl’, which found much acclaim among both the critics and the masses.

With her dominant voice, kooky personality, and soul-bearing lyrics where she isn’t afraid to talk about her sexuality or what she really thinks of herself and the world, SZA walks the space that very few have.