A month after being snubbed at the Grammys, SZA has two new interviews (and one major cover) out that have all but solidified her status as one of the most relatable chart-toppers in the game right now.
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Speaking to GQ, SZA revealed that she was โmad as hellโ about her Grammy losses. The most nominated woman at the Grammys this year, the 27-year-old singer was the crowd favorite to take home the award for Best New Artist, which Alessia Cara ended up winning.
As she discusses how she felt before and after that night, SZA keeps things all-the-way real in a way that few artists with her level of success do. Like when she discusses how hard it was to deal with the loss publicly:
Youโd think having all of these people excessively posting or vocalizing their support for you after losing would be uplifting and flattering. But on the receiving end, thatโs difficult to take.
You know, I never looked at the Internet [after the Grammys]. I never looked at anything anyone ever said after that onlineโnot once. The only time I ever heard about it was in person, when someone walked up to me and was like, โYou were robbedโ or whatever the fuck. I was like, โI feel you.โ My home girl actually showed me Alessia [Cara]โs post and I thought, This is really crazy.
I just didnโt know how to take it. I didnโt say anything, I didnโt post, because Iโve never had to deal with anything I really believed in wholeheartedly, or invested in, and went through something that publicly before. I wanted to be honest as fuck, and if today Iโm just mad as hell, I donโt want to say something that reflects me being mad as hell. But I definitely feel blessed now. I also donโt feel compelled to explain myself.
And battling your ego:
Do you feel like you are in a battle with your ego?
Yeah, of course! I donโt think of the ego in terms of who I am to other people. I think of it in terms of who I am to myself and when I take shit personally. Shit like the Grammys. I can have an attitude and really take that shit an ugly-ass way and get caught up in the wrong moment and miss everything about it. Miss the whole blessing in it. But you gotta identify the ego so that you can get over it.
In SZAโs conversation with Kara Brown at The Fader, the cover of which she graces this month, readers are treated to another side of the performer. She comes off as an artist whoโs managed to hold on to herself through the fame and attentionโeating ribs, sushi and spinach-artichoke dip, and delivering blunt observations about, life, Ctrl and managing success.
Hereโs the alt-R&B singer on eating right:
โTrying to fix my diet. Trying to cut back on a lot of things just โcause your body is a machine and needs shit to energize the focus, and if Iโm high eating ribs all the time, I canโt do anything.โ
And on managing her schedule:
When I tell her she looks like sheโs just come from the woods, she purrs and playfully faux-primps her hair: โOh my god. Dream. Please. Please stop.โ Originally, she wanted to take me to โthe forestโ and โsmoke me out,โ but plans changed due to a hectic timetable filled with preparations for her trip. โThe art of squeezing shit in,โ she says, shaking her head.
This was SZAโs reaction to hearing that her song โBroken Clocksโ (which still brings her dad to tears) made it to former President Barack Obamaโs list of favorite songs of 2017:
Appropriately, she heard the news while she was in Hawaii, his home state. โItโs so weird โcause I had been talking about Obama since I landed in Hawaii,โ she says. โI was like, โIs it weird if I DM his daughters and ask to hang out?โ And Iโm like, โOK, never mind Iโm gonna smoke weed,โโ she laughs.
And on the disconnect between how she perceived Ctrl and how the rest of the world saw it:
For all the success and all the acclaim, thereโs still a disconnect between how SZA sees herself and how the world sees her. โI didnโt even fuck with my own album, so I was so confused and almost, like, angry that everyone fucked with it so much,โ she says. โIt meant everything I felt about myself was wrong. And it was just like, If thatโs not the truth, then what is the truth?โ
Never change, SZA.
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