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R&B singer SZA, or Solana Imani Rowe, has opened up about her experience of dealing with fame, in an interview alongside Issa Rae and Keke Palmer for their upcoming film One of Them Days.
In an interview uploaded to the YouTube channel extratv on January 14, 2025, SZA admitted that she still finds the public eye "weird" despite being in the industry for over a decade.
“I don’t really know what is happening. I don’t know what the hell going on... I didn’t grow up famous, I grew up in the ‘burbs, I went to regular school, went to regular college, did regular odd jobs until everything popped off," she said.
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The singer further reflected on her meteoric rise to fame and added:
“They be like, ‘That’s what you signed up for,’ and then I’m like, ‘I didn’t even know what I was signing up for, actually.’ I just made a couple songs and I was grateful that they were liked, and then I kept going.”
SZA rose to fame with the release of her debut studio album Ctrl (2017), which brought her both critical and commercial success. Her second studio album, SOS (2022), remained at the top of Billboard Hot 200 for ten non-consecutive weeks. Further, her first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 came in 2023 with Kill Bill.
Rowe is often considered among the most popular R&B artists in the world. Meanwhile, her last release, SOS Deluxe: LANA, came out in December 2024.
"Some people are very well acclimated in being perceived": SZA appreciates Keke Palmer's way of dealing with fame
In her aforementioned interview with Issa Rae and Keke Palmer, SZA mentioned she has not been at ease while being "examined" by people, as she appreciated Palmer's way of dealing with it. She said:
“Some people are very well acclimated in being perceived and also have a different mechanism to approach that. So, Keke has this crazy network of a mechanism where it’s like, everything just kind of like flows, even when the cameras are on.”
When asked about her authenticity by the interviewer, the R&B singer continued:
"I get just a comfortability with letting my shoulders down and knowing that I’m not in danger just because I’m being perceived by people that I don’t know.”
SZA began her career in the early 2010s with two solo EPs, See.SZA.Run (2012) and S (2013). The success of the EPs led her to become the first female artist to be signed by Top Dawg Entertainment. Then, her third EP Z (2014) was among the top ten in the Independent Albums Chart in the United States.
Rowe released her debut studio album Ctrl in 2017, which received four Grammy nominations. It was also the second-longest charting R&B album by a female artist on the Billboard 200.
SZA is also often lauded for her popular collaboration with rapper Kendrick Lamar on the track All the Stars. It was a top-ten single in the UK and the US, and it led the singer to be nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.
The R&B singer won her first Grammy Award in the category 'Best Pop Duo Performance' after appearing on Doja Cat's Kiss Me More. SZA's fame rose even further after she released her second studio album SOS in 2022. The album spent ten non-consecutive weeks on top of the Billboard 200 and broke the record for the largest streaming week for an R&B album in the US.
The album had multiple hits that made it among the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, including Kill Bill, Good Days, Nobody Gets Me, Snooze, and I Hate U. Furthermore, in 2023, she got her first number 1 single with Kill Bill, before appearing on Drake's Slime You Out.
Meanwhile, in a January 2025 post on X, Rowe shared her plans to make two albums for children. She further said that she would consider leaving music after making those. She wrote:
"To fulfill my last 2 album requirements I think I just wanna make peaceful children’s music n get outta here. Then go be a farmer n donate the produce to underserved communities."
In December 2024, SZA released a revamped version of her 2022 hit album SOS, titled SOS Deluxe: LANA. The singer is also set to make her acting debut in the upcoming 2025 film One of Them Days, produced by Issa Rae.
