SZA appeared at the Hyde Park event on June 29^th, in a head-to-toe vintage, Dior outfit, styled by Matthew and Reginald Reisman. She donned a halter-style top, mini shorts, knee-high boots, knee-brace, and oversized bomber-style jacket completely clothed in the iconic Dior multi-logo with the addition of green, red, and yellow stripes in various places on the garments – perhaps a nod to her mixed-race heritage. The vintage Dior came from John Galliano’s Dior Rasta line that was released in 2004, inspired by the colours of the Rastafarian movement. The outfit definitely made a statement, incorporating her new backdrop perfectly with the more subtle Dior print and pops of colour blending nicely with the trees and insects that adorned the set. 

The 90-minute show gave us hit after hit, featuring songs from her five-time Grammy-nominated Ctrl, and her second record SOS. We heard ‘Love Language,’ ‘Broken Clocks,’ ‘All the Stars,’ ‘Drew Barrymore,’ ‘F2F,’ and her hit song with Doja Cat ‘Kiss Me More.’ We also saw a sword-wielding spectacle during ‘Kill Bill,’ a nod to the infamous Uma Thurman movie and her iconic yellow jumpsuit. SZA even sang one song whilst riding a giant ant, a truly crazy and entertaining moment of the show that showed her prowess in working a crowd and providing a show for her audience. As she neared the show’s end, background vocals played as she casually shouted, “New album, you ready?” The crowd went wild, with SZA’s new music becoming highly anticipated after her announcement on Saturday. She concluded the show with ’20 Something,’ thanking the crowd and telling them she’ll return…hopefully for her new album.  

SZA’s headline act was not the only glorious performance on Saturday, with numerous supporting acts bringing their talent to the BST Hyde Park stage. Prior to SZA, London-based legend Sampha appeared on the Great Oak stage, performing songs from his two albums, ‘Process’ and ‘Lahai.’ Snoh Aalegra also added to the R&B theme of the day, performing early favourites such as ‘Nothing Burns Like the Cold ft. Vince Staples,’ ‘Nothing to Me,’ to ‘DYING 4 YOUR LOVE.’ 

British artists had the chance to shine at the London event, with performances from Oxford-born Elmiene and Leicester’s Sekou. Elmiene’s set was 21^st Century R&B, inspired by 90’s neo-soul with searing vocal runs and shimmering music. He told the audience “You’re sounding beautiful […] And they say festivals are hard. I don’t know what they’re chatting about. This is the sh*t!” Later in the day, Sekou appeared on The Rainbow Stage, bringing a new kind of soul to Hyde Park with her breakthrough single ‘Better Man.’

Also on The Rainbow Stage, headliners No Guidance resurrected the golden age of R&B, with their viral new EP, released just last year, titled Is It a Crime? That went viral on TikTok and caught the attention of artists like Anderson.Paak and Labrinth. Other incredible artists of the day included Hope Tala, Fabiana Palladino, Nia Smith, and Jessy Blackmore. 

Bethan Gwynne

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Her new album continually sits at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, holding its position for three weeks already as the top new album release. She also sits in the second spot for Billboard’s Artist 100 and is noted as having the hottest R&B song at the moment. Truly a testament to her phenomenally poetic lyricisms and industry-norm subversions.  

SOS assumedly sits within the landscape as an R&B/alt R&B album, however, SZA’s influences prove to stem from a variety of genres making the album an eclectic blend of sounds – with songs rooted in pop punk, rap and ballad-like pop music. 

Her confessional lyrics and soulful initiative to the genre have made SOS a prolific album of 2022 despite its late release in the year. 

SZA tells the Rolling Stones in a podcast interview for Rolling Stone Music Now that she was pejoratively apprehensive to release her album to the public, with fears in the reception of her as an artist – as a non-conformist creator in a rapid-fire strictly-traditional industry. 

Her fears can ultimately be debunked in the actuality of the reception of the album. Songs like ‘Kill Bill’ currently sit at around 150 million streams on Spotify, despite only being out since December. Surely this is indication enough that public appraisal was indeed laudatory?

The reverent adoration for her new album has virally sent it to platforms like TikTok, with snippets from her newly released songs as the backing to transitional trends/ and emerging new lyric-related trends, e.g. ‘Good Days’, ‘I Hate U’ and ‘Kill Bill’ have all generated a mass hype on the platform. It is apparent that the emotion behind the lyrics “I might kill my ex, not the best idea, his new girlfriend’s next, how’d I get here” within ‘Kill Bill’ has prompted a trend in which people lip sync to the audio. The viral capabilities of platforms like TikTok have meant the continual relevance of SZA’s album in the charts. 

A viral video that surfaced recently was a TikTok vox pop with an elderly woman in the subway somewhere in the US, she is asked to name her favourite new album and she speaks fondly of SOS and specifically the heart-wrenching meaning behind SZA’s song ‘Kill Bill’ – this generated a lot of traction on TikTok sparking positive comments of the community surrounding the new release. 

Likewise, raking in around 65k views on TikTok, the artist who animated SZAs album art for alternate cover renditions went viral time lapsing his creative process. 

Her inspiration for the album has many roots. Partially fuelled by her involvement with public ridicule but also through motifs of lost love. It is prolific to note that she sits as a woman of colour within a light-skin masculine-dominated genre and thus this album is a metaphorical departure from the “nice girl” archetype that is assumed of her. 

Following the release of her album, SZA is set to embark on her first North American arena tour, in February of this year. 

The artist has stated that this tour is her way of giving her audience a show that they deserve, whether that means playing a setlist of unreleased songs they’ve heard snippets of on Twitter or deep cuts of released songs. This 2023 tour is SZA’s method of appreciation after the long-anticipated (five years!) wait from her loyal fanbase. Are you as excited as we are to see what she does with the extended album version?

_{Words By Hannah Doherty}

^{Header Image : @sza Instagram}

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