SZA

The topic of this page has a wiki of its own: SZA Wiki.

SZA
General information
Birth name	Solána Imani Rowe
Born	November 8, 1989 (age 35) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Gender	Female
Genres	R&B, Pop, Hip-Hop, Alternative R&B, Neo Soul
Occupation	Singer, Songwriter
Years active	2011–present

Solána Imani Rowe (born November 8, 1989), known professionally as SZA, is an American singer-songwriter. She first gained recognition through her self-released extended plays (EPs), See.SZA.Run (2012) and S (2013), which helped her become the first female artist to sign with Top Dawg Entertainment. Her third EP, Z (2014), was her first project to be released to digital retailers and reached the top-ten on the US Independent Albums chart.

After signing a joint recording contract with RCA Records, SZA released her debut studio album, Ctrl (2017). It was met with critical and commercial success, earning four Grammy Award nominations and becoming the second longest-charting R&B album by a female artist on the Billboard 200. The following year, SZA was nominated for the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Original Song via her collaboration with Kendrick Lamar on the US and UK top-ten single "All the Stars". Her featured appearance on Doja Cat's song "Kiss Me More" broke the record for the longest-running all-female collaboration within the US top ten, and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

Early life and education

Solána Imani Rowe was born on November 8, 1989 in St. Louis, and was raised in Maplewood, New Jersey. Her father was an executive producer at CNN, while her mother was an executive at AT&T. Rowe has an older half-sister, Panya Jamila. Her mother is Christian and her father is Muslim. She was raised as a Muslim and continues to follow Islam.

“

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.

”

She attended a Muslim prep school every day after her regular schooling, where she was forced by her father to wear a hijab. After the September 11 attacks, Rowe was subjected to bullying in 7th grade, leading her to stop wearing one. Rowe attended Columbia High School, where she was active in sports, including gymnastics and cheerleading. After graduating from high school in 2008, Rowe later went to three separate colleges, finally settling at Delaware State University to study marine biology. She eventually dropped out in her last semester, taking on a variety of jobs in order to make money.

Rowe formed her stage name from the Supreme Alphabet, taking influence from rapper RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. The last two letters in her name stand for Zig-Zag and Allah, while the first letter S can mean either savior or sovereign.

Discography

• See.SZA.Run (2012)
• S (2013)
• Z (2014)
• Ctrl (2017)
• SOS (2022)
• Apple Music Live: SZA (2024)
• Lana (2024)

Collaborations

• "Kiss Me More" - Planet HER (2021)
• "Shirt" (Doja Cat Demo) (2022)
• "Kill Bill (Remix)" (featuring Doja Cat) (2023)

Trivia

• Doja and SZA first met at an American Apparel in 2015.
• SZA interviewed Doja Cat for VMagazine.
• Doja Cat and SZA won their first Grammy together in 2022 for "Best Pop Duo Performance" with "Kiss Me More".