SZA Reflects on Fame: ‘I Didn’t Even Know What I Was Signing Up For’

R&B singer-songwriter SZA has opened up about her complicated relationship with fame.

In a candid conversation during One of Them Days alongside Issa Rae and Keke Palmer, SZA (real name Solana Imani Rowe) admitted that even after over a decade in the spotlight, she still finds being in the public eye “weird.”

“Some people are very well acclimated in being perceived and also have a different mechanism to approach that,” she explained. “Keke has this crazy network of a mechanism where it’s like, everything just kind of like flows, even when the cameras are on.”

For SZA, who last month dropped SOS Deluxe: LANA, fame is a foreign concept. “I don’t really know what is happening. I don’t know what the hell going on,” she continued.

“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.”

The four-time Grammy winner elaborated, “I’ve never been examined in this way. … 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.” She echoed Keke Palmer’s sentiment, describing fame as “weird” and admitting that people often assume she’s more at ease with it than she truly is.

SZA also reflected on her unexpected rise to superstardom: “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.”

In a recent social media post in January, SZA shared her intention to create two children’s albums, describing the move as a way to channel her creativity while contemplating a future outside of mainstream music.

“Every day I grapple with, ‘Am I done with music?’ Maybe I’m just not meant to be famous – I’m crashing and burning and behaving erratically,” the singer told British Vogue last year.

“It’s not for me because I have so much anxiety. But why would God put me in this position if I wasn’t supposed to be doing this? So I just keep trying to rise to the occasion. But I’m also just like, ‘Please, the occasion is beating my ass.’”

SZA’s recent accomplishments suggest otherwise. Her latest album, SOS Deluxe: LANA, released on December 20, 2024, builds upon the monumental success of SOS,” which spent multiple weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. SOS returned to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in December after 22 months, thanks largely to activity generated by the album’s deluxe reissue.

In addition to her solo work, SZA’s collaboration with Kendrick Lamar on “30 for 30” from the SOS Deluxe: LANA album debuted at No. 1 on Hot R&B Songs Chart, with the two artists set to embark on a joint tour in 2025.