We are now less than four months away from the next Grammy Awards ceremony, scheduled to take place on February 4, 2024. To prepare for this, SZA recently talked with Rolling Stone, where she shared her experiences at previous Grammy shows, as well as discussed her December 2022 album SOS, which will likely be nominated in several categories.
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When speaking about the essence of the Recording Academy and everything that goes into winning a Grammy Award, SZA recalled the disappointment she dealt with in 2018 when her 2017 debut album Ctrl lost in all five categories it was nominated for. As she was still slated to perform at the ceremony, SZA touched on the strange dichotomy between the Grammys and the artists that are invited to perform, where you can still be showcased but not awarded for it.
“It’s not normal,” she said. “I hate that n****s be acting like this shit is normal and nobody talks about it at all.”
Additionally, she continued by saying the arena where the award show is hosted can be a peculiar setting with an uneasy vibe, which she calls “a thirsty, dark space.”
“The Grammy room is one of the weirdest rooms ever,” she said. “There is so much wanting in there. Wanting to be noticed, wanting to be acknowledged, to win, wanting to just be amongst n****s in the room, wanting to feel valuable or validated. All of us are in there striving for something. It means something, even though this isn’t everything. But it’s important that I’m here. It matters.”
This echoes a similar sentiment that was displayed recently by the higher-ups in SZA’s label Top Dawg Entertainment, where her manager and label co-president Terrence “Punch” Henderson and CEO Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith explained why she did not perform at the recent MTV Video Music Awards. Though she was nominated for eight different awards, and took home the trophy for one of them, SZA wanted to earn a nomination in the Artist of the Year at the VMAs. However, while they asked her to perform at the show, the VMAs ultimately neglected to include SZA in the most important category.
“I stand behind Punch and the decision to pull out of the VMAs 100%,”Tiffith told HitsDailyDouble in a September interview. “MTV wasn’t even willing to discuss why SZA wasn’t nominated for Artist of Year. If we aren’t even worth talking to about it, we don’t need to be there. She gave the world a great body of work and we will not allow any disrespect.”
[RELATED: SZA Sets New Record on Billboard R&B Chart]
Regardless, SOS will still likely be in serious contention for some major awards at the 2024 Grammys, with or without SZA’s Rolling Stone comments. But, the overwhelming success of the album was not something SZA immediately envisioned upon release last year, as she noted that she didn’t even think it would hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
“I didn’t think I’d be No. 1 at all,” she told Rolling Stone. “I thought Taylor [Swift] was going to dust me. I don’t know what n****s wanna hear from me. I never know when things are going to be popular. I never know what songs people are going to attach to.”
Now, though, it seems like she has been very receptive to her fans’ wishes, evident in the impending release of SOS‘ deluxe, which she dubbed Lana. Still, without a release date, Lana will add 10 new songs to the original track list of the LP, a decision that was inspired by one made by Lil Uzi Vert in 2020.
“She cites Lil Uzi Vert’s LUV vs. the World 2, the deluxe version of their beloved Eternal Atake, as an example of what she’s thinking,” Rolling Stone writer Mankaprr Conteh said in the new SZA feature. “She seems excited and focused.”
Photo by Erika Goldring/WireImage
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