Seven things to know about SZA

For the first time in history Glastonbury has two female headliners. After Dua Lipa’s set on Friday, US R&B star SZA will close the main stage on Sunday.

With billions of streams under her belt, the 34-year-old is one of the most-listened to artists on the planet. Her 70 million monthly Spotify listeners put her within touching distance of fellow headliners Coldplay.

It’s fair to say she isn’t as well-known as them for UK audiences… But that could be about to change.

Here’s everything you need to know about the superstar.

If you’re wondering how to pronounce SZA, it’s “sizza” – a little like sizzle, or the singular of scissors.

Born Solána Imani Rowe, the singer took inspiration from RZA in Wu-Tang Clan for her stage name.

The acronym comes from the Supreme Alphabet, used by the Five Percent Nation, a black nationalist movement influenced by Islam.

The Z stands for Zig-zag, while A stands for Allah, and she’s previously told Complex that the S stands for either saviour, or sovereign.

Her friends don’t call her SZA, though. Her nickname is Sous – very close to the name of her second album, SOS.

SZA’s first album, Ctrl, spawned five Grammy nominations in 2017 – but it was her second album SOS which landed her firmly in superstar status.

The album spent 10 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard charts – the most successful run for a female artist in the 2020s.

But she was making music long before smashing records.

Her record deal was signed in 2013, after she managed to get her self-released EPs in front of Terrence Henderson – the head of Kendrick Lamar’s then-record label, Top Dawg Entertainment.

And she doesn’t just write songs for herself – she’s also penned hits for Beyonce, Nicki Minaj , Travis Scott and Rihanna.

Her day job could’ve been oceans apart though, as she studied marine biology at university.

Even if you can’t name a song from the top of your head, if you’ve opened up TikTok, or listened to mainstream radio within the past few years, you’ll have probably heard something by SZA.

Her numbers on streaming are truly eye-watering. Kill Bill, her biggest track, has been streamed nearly 2 billion times on Spotify.

The song is a comically over the top break-up ballad, in which she fantasises about killing her ex and his new girlfriend.

Her other tracks are poetic and candid, exploring personal relationships and universal quandaries over an experimental-but-melodic brand of R&B.

The hits include Good Days, Snooze, and Love Galore, which features Travis Scott. She also duetted with Kendrick Lamar on the Black Panther soundtrack, scoring a breakout hit with the song All The Stars.

You might know her voice from one of her other collaborations, too: Doja Cat’s Kiss Me More, The Weeknd’s All The Stars or Maroon 5’s What Lovers Do.

SZA has a broad range of musical influences – and she’s cited names such as Ella Fitzagerald, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Björk as inspirations.

And, throughout her career, she’s said she doesn’t want to be limited to just R&B.

“Nobody does that to white people at all, ever. No one ever does that to Adele or Justin Bieber when they’re wholeheartedly singing R&B,” she told Wonderland in 2020.

Last year, she told The New York Times that “people just sweep me into this conversation of R&B” but that she “can do anything”.

Her last album was praised for its agnostic approach to musical styles – incorporating influences from soul to electronica and indie rock.

“While placing herself firmly in the tradition of R&B, she’s forcefully blasé about genre tropes,” wrote Pitchfork, awarding the album 8.7 out of 10.

Given her cultural ubiquity, many people expected Taylor Swift to pick up the international artist award at this year’s Brit awards.

In the end, it was SZA took the trophy – trouncing Swift alongside fellow pop stars Olivia Rodrigo and Miley Cyrus.

But this was no David-beats-Goliath moment. SZA’s album has been widely hailed as a masterpiece while, in 2023, Swift’s only new material consisted of re-recordings of her albums 1989 and Speak Now.

If anything, the Brits corrected a mistake made at the Grammys – where SZA went into the ceremony with more nominations than any other artist (nine in total), but was shut out of all the main categories.

In her pre-recorded acceptance speech, SZA hinted she’d “be back” in the UK “really soon”. A month later, she was announced as a headliner at Worthy Farm.

When the Glastonbury line-up was announced in March, there were a few people questioning, and no doubt Googling, who SZA was.

Even some fans of the singer questioned whether it might be too early in her career to be top of the bill.

But critics are looking forward to her set, and organiser Emily Eavis is “super excited” to have SZA on the bill.

“It’s an amazing thing to have SZA here, because she’s never played Glastonbury before,” she told Grazia.

“It’s always a different set of challenges, when you’re bringing someone who hasn’t been before – but it’s also super exciting when they’re really on board, and they’ve got loads of brilliant ideas, and figuring out how it’s going to fit onto the Pyramid stage.”

It’s clear that Glastonbury want to shake things up – firstly, by having two women headlining; and secondly, by moving away from its rock roots to more accurately reflect modern audiences’ listening habits.

Olivia Rodrigo bringing out Lily Allen, Kylie dueting with Nick Cave, Miley Cyrus inviting her dad Billy Ray and Lil Nas X on stage for Old Town Road – it isn’t Glastonbury without a few surprise guests.

And, when it comes to collaborators, SZA has quite the list to choose from, with everyone from Doja Cat to former Glastonbury headliner Kendrick Lamar nestled in her discography.

Fans at a New York City show last year were lucky enough to hear Bridgers and Cardi B perform their respective collaborations: Ghost in the Machine and I Do.

Summer Walker and Lizzo have also appeared alongside her; and Travis Scott made not one, not two, but three pit stops at SZA’s UK tour last year.

So a “ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome to the stage” moment isn’t unlikely on Sunday night.