The Meaning Behind SZA’s Grammy-Nominated “Snooze”

SZA previously spoke about how bothered she was by the fact that she was nominated in five different categories at the 2018 Grammys and didn’t win a single award but was still asked to perform at the ceremony. Adding onto this in an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year, she also criticized the atmosphere of the award show, where nominees are all “striving for something” but get caught up in “wanting to be noticed.”

“The Grammy room is one of the weirdest rooms ever,” she told Rolling Stone. “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.”

Still, though, SZA was able to earn nine nominations last Friday (November 10) for the 2024 Grammys, the most of any artist. One of the most significant categories she was nominated in, aside from Record of the Year and Album of the Year, was Best R&B Song, for her song “Snooze.”

“Snooze” was placed at No. 8 on the track list for SZA’s December 2022 album SOS. And, while the song landed on the Billboard Hot 100 spin the release of the LP, it did not hit its peak at No. 2 on the chart until October of this year.

With its incredibly charming I can’t lose when I’m with you / How can I snooze and miss the moment? hook, the song has been able to captivate listeners ever since SOS first came out. However, the song was not originally her idea and was not even supposed to be released by her at all.

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In an interview with Apple Music earlier this year, the songwriter of “Snooze” Leon Thomas explained that he was working on the track originally for the iconic R&B singer Babyface. Per Thomas, “snooze” was meant to land on Babyface’s comeback album Girls Night Out, which officially dropped in October 2022.

But, while Thomas was working on the song with Babyface in the studio, SZA happened to walk by and overhear the two men rehearsing it. After this, “Snooze” was meant to be a Babyface x SZA collaboration for Girls Night Out. Eventually, though, SZA claimed the song all for herself.

“[SZA’s “Snooze”] wasn’t even originally for her album,” Thomas said in a separate interview with Revolt. “It was a collaboration she was doing for Babyface’s new album, Girls Night Out. We were essentially just getting creative and having Babyface walk in and out of the room and lay parts. We did the beat that same day, and she recorded the song on the same day.”

In August, SZA finally put out the music video for “Snooze,” which included marquee cameos from SZA’s friends like Justin Bieber, pop instrumentalist Benny Blanco (who produced SOS songs like “Nobody Gets Me” and “Special”), and actors Woody McClain and Young Mazino. On top of this, SZA would release an acoustic remix of “Snooze” featuring Bieber, where the Canadian star takes over on one of SZA’s verses, while also aiding her in singing the chorus.

Check out both versions of the Grammy-nominated “Snooze” below.

(Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)