SZA

Solána Imani Rowe (born November 8, 1989), known professionally as SZA (/ˈsɪzə/ ^ⓘ SIZ-ə), is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her diaristic lyrics and genre explorations, she is regarded as a prominent figure in influencing contemporary R&B music and popularizing alternative R&B.

SZA signed with Top Dawg Entertainment in 2013 after gaining attention online with two self-released extended plays (EP). Under the label, she released the lo-fi and psychedelic EP Z (2014), then her R&B debut album Ctrl (2017). The latter was a critical success; it placed in several year-end lists and earned SZA five Grammy Award nominations in 2018. After Ctrl, she embarked on a four-year series of collaborations, including the Academy Award–nominated "All the Stars" (2018) with Kendrick Lamar, which reached the top 10 in the US and UK. Her feature on Doja Cat's "Kiss Me More" (2021) won SZA her first Grammy Award.

With the acclaimed and multi-genre SOS (2022), SZA set several new chart records. The album became the first by a woman to spend 100 weeks in the Billboard 200's top 10 and broke the record for the longest-running US top-10 by a Black musician. Its fifth single, "Kill Bill", was the third best-selling song of 2023 and peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100. From 2024 to 2025, SZA achieved a string of top-tens with "Saturn" and "30 for 30", both from the deluxe reissue of SOS entitled Lana (2024), and her longest-running US number-one "Luther". Her 2025 Grand National Tour with Lamar is the highest-grossing co-headlining tour in history.

SZA has earned numerous accolades throughout her career, including five Grammy Awards, a Brit Award, three American Music Awards, a Guild of Music Supervisors Award, and two Billboard Women in Music awards, including Woman of the Year. She has co-written songs for artists such as Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, Travis Scott, Schoolboy Q, and Rihanna. In 2024, she received the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Solána Imani Rowe was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 8, 1989. She grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, with parents who are from the Southern United States. Her mother, Audrey, is a former executive at AT&T, and her father, Abdul, used to be a video producer at CNN. As a child, Rowe was affectionally nicknamed by her mother "Chickabee", derived from the film Nell (1994). Rowe's relatives include a half-sister, Panya, who is eleven years older than her; and a brother, Daniel, who is a rapper known by the stage name Manhattan. She has a niece, Carolyn, who also makes music. Rowe considers her maternal grandmother, Norma, her best friend.

Audrey is Christian, while Abdul is Muslim. Rowe's father would attend her mother's church for special occasions, while her mother would dress up for Jum'ah and accompany her father to the mosque. Rowe attended both Sunday school and Muslim school. In an interview with the blog Muslim Girl, she said that her parents have accepted each other's religions, "their faiths and beliefs [having integrated]".

It's like the belief in one God, all the pillars of Islam et cetera, and I think those are ideas that will never leave me, those make sense in my spirit. It's the way that I connect with God; it has always made sense to me. I think I would love to wear my hijab but I feel like I don't wanna wear my hijab and talk crazy on stage and be in videos with Travis Scott. Like I don't wanna be disrespectful because I have too much love and respect for the religion, for my father, and for myself.

Rowe wore a hijab during elementary and early middle school. Following the September 11 attacks, in her middle school years, she stopped wearing one for fears of Islamophobic bullying. She later attended Columbia High School, where she participated in the school's gymnastics and cheerleading teams, as well as its dance team dubbed the Special Dance Company. After graduating in 2008, Rowe enrolled in three different colleges before settling at Delaware State University to study marine biology. She dropped out in her final semester to focus on her music career and worked various jobs to support herself.