SZA — Solána Rowe, born 1990 in St. Louis — is the first female artist signed to Top Dawg Entertainment and one of the defining voices of contemporary R&B. Ctrl (2017) is the confessional classic; SOS (2022) sold over 3 million in the US and took the Best Progressive R&B Album Grammy. Shop SZA vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Solána Imani Rowe, performing as SZA (pronounced 'siz-uh'), was born in St. Louis, Missouri on November 8, 1990 and raised in Maplewood, New Jersey. Her stage name SZA is derived from the Five Percent Nation alphabet (Sovereign-Zig-Zag-Allah, derived from her childhood interest in the Five Percenters via her Muslim father). She is the first female artist signed to the Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) collective in 2013 alongside Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, and Isaiah Rashad. Her 2017 debut Ctrl established her as one of the most important contemporary R&B figures. Her 2022 follow-up SOS - featuring the international singles Kill Bill, Snooze, Good Days, and Nobody Gets Me - became a international commercial breakthrough, selling over 3 million copies in the US alone, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200, and winning the Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album in 2024 (alongside additional Grammy wins for Snooze). Her 2024 deluxe edition SOS Deluxe: LANA continued her commercial trajectory. She is the most-streamed female R&B artist on Spotify globally and one of the most awarded contemporary R&B artists. Her foundational influence on contemporary R&B and broader popular music is widely cited.
SZA's sound combines contemporary R&B, alternative R&B, neo-soul, indie R&B, pop, hip hop influences, and bedroom pop with her distinctive vocal delivery (use of intimate, conversational phrasing and confessional approach), TDE signature production approaches (Sounwave / Solo / Carter Lang collaborations), and lyrical content addressing relationships, mental health, identity, and personal experience drawing on confessional songwriting traditions.
TDE and RCA Records pressings of the SZA catalog have been issued in extensive color variant editions and elaborate limited deluxe pressings, with collector demand. The 5th anniversary edition of Ctrl (2022) has been.
Listeners new to SZA typically start with Ctrl (2017) or SOS (2022).
