SZA has revealed that her own record label told her not to expect her album SOS to beat Taylor Swift on the charts, a prediction that turned out to be spectacularly wrong.
In a new cover story for i-D’s The Lore Issue, the 36-year-old singer looked back on the chart battle between SOS and Swift’s Midnights that played out at the end of 2022.
“My label told me that it was likely that I wouldn’t beat Taylor Swift, and I should prepare for that,” SZA said.
Her response? “I was laughing by week three. It was just like, ‘What is this? I never even imagined I could be on the radio.'”
SOS went on to spend ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. When she released the deluxe version, LANA, two years later, it topped the chart for a further three weeks.
Reflecting on it all now, SZA, born Solána Imani Rowe, said the experience taught her that “anything is possible.”
She added with wit: “I feel like I’m adulting kind of hard right now, and I might be eating. I feel like I might be alright when it’s all said and done.”
The chart rivalry briefly stirred up a moment of unnecessary drama online.
In January 2023, SZA posted to social media noting there was one minute left in the tracking period, a comment that led some Swift fans to accuse her of trying to publicly outshine Midnights.
SZA shut it down quickly. “Uhh I feel silly that I even have to say this but i see supporters arguing and I hate that,” she wrote on X.
“I don’t have beef w ANYONE especially not Taylor lmao. I genuinely loved her album and the writing! Everyone’s jus tryna do their BEST as we all should. LOVE TO EVERYONE. Gn.”
Speaking to i-D about where her head was before SOS came out, SZA was honest about the gap between her own belief in the work and her expectations for it.
“I thought that what I was doing was special. Because it made me feel smart and special when I made it,” she said. “I didn’t have a ceiling”, but she also “definitely didn’t see this at all.”
