SZA Lollapalooza 2024 Preview

One of the biggest artists not only in R&B/Soul, but all of music right now. Multi-platinum, multi-GRAMMYs Award-winning singer and songwriter, SZA, is no stranger to Chicago’s Lollapalooza that she will be headlining in just a few more weeks here in Grant Park. Having also played the festival in 2015, as the first performer on the Samsung Galaxy Stage that Paul McCartney headlined that opening Friday that year. When the festival was still only three days like most other music festival’s. It should be no surprise that the Top Dawg Entertainment signee that was also the first ever female and R&B artist signed to the very popular California-based record label is one of the headliners for the festival’s upcoming 20th Anniversary here in Chicago. Headlining that same stage that is now the T-Mobile Stage and quite poetically will also be on a Friday night.

That it took almost a decade for SZA not only be a headliner, but even just being set to perform at the festival again is one of the biggest head scratchers. As nearly two year’s after her last and only Lollapalooza performance in 2015 she would go on to release her very critically-acclaimed debut album, Ctrl. That racked her up a very impressive five GRAMMYs nominations the year after its release. Which included the highly coveted New Artist award that she would go on to lose to another Lollapalooza alum, Alessia Cara, at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. The album itself with all of its success that included making SZA become the second longest-charting R&B album by a female artist on the Billboard 200, really catapulting her into a type of superstardom she was not fully ready for at that time. That she touches on a lot during her often delayed also very critically-acclaimed sophomore album, SOS, which she released in December of 2022.

The longtime TDE rep not only amassing success on her own, but with several of her collaborations over the year’s. That includes everyone from her one-time labelmate Kendrick Lamar to her current labelmates, Jay Rock, ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Isaiah Rashad, Punch and Doechii. As well as the likes of Chance the Rapper, The Weeknd, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Maroon 5, Doja Cat, Calvin Harris, Ty Dolla $ign, Travis Scott and Justin Bieber, to name a few. With her top-ten hit single collaboration with Kendrick Lamar, All the Stars, that would become the theme song to Marvel’s hit movie Black Panther soundtrack being nominated for Best Original Song at both the 76th Golden Globe Awards and the 91st Academy Awards. Getting several nominations for a variety of various other awards that included Best Visual Effects that its video won at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards. One of her biggest hit collaborations though being Doja Cat’s hit single, Kiss Me More, that she was featured on and not only won SZA her first ever Grammy Award, but helped both break the record for the longest-running all-female collaboration within the US top ten charts.

All this chart success and accolades not even including her second album, SOS, that earned SZA her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and spent ten non-consecutive weeks atop the chart. Thus making it the longest-running number-one female album of the decade so far and the first R&B album to spend its first seven weeks atop the charts since the late great Whitney Houston’s critically-acclaimed sophomore album, Whitney, did in 1987. With SZA’s 2023 hit single, Kill Bill, also earning SZA her first ever song to top the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Global 200 charts. Also earning SZA nine more GRAMMYs nominations for which she won three of.

It’s SZA always stellar and masterful music videos. Plus her stunningly dreamy performances of Shirt and Blind on Saturday Night Live in December of 2022. Not to mention her absolutely breathtaking performance of Kill Bill and Snooze at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards earlier this year. That really confirmed SZA as a true superstar and why she is not only headlining, but one of the main headliners for this year’s upcoming Lollapalooza that starts in a little over two and a half more weeks with her headlining Friday evening. Her headlining set one me and many others are really looking forward to as one of our most anticipated performances of the whole festival.