SZA is blown away by the success of her album, SOS.
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Following its release on December 9, SOS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and achieved the highest streaming week in history for an R&B album. SOS also had the third-biggest streaming week for an album released in 2022, with more than 404 million on-demand streams. She also has two songs in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Kill Bill” and current single, “Nobody Gets Me.”
The hit singer took to Instagram to celebrate her accomplishments and recognize the people who helped her get there. “A number one album and two songs in the top ten is NOT what I expected,” SZA said in a since-deleted Instagram post, according to Billboard. “I’m bad at celebrating myself but I wanna thank everybody that rallied around me and positively reinforced me these last few years.”
She also hints that a deluxe edition of the album is in the works. “Thank you to every person that poured into this album,” she continues. “I love my team. Thank y’all for loving and arguing about the album Lmaoo. Imma take another swing at it for the deluxe then shut up for a while. God is excellent.”
SOS features collaborations with Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott and Don Toliver, with subtle vocal contributions from Lizzo on “F2F.” In addition to commercial success, it achieved critical acclaim upon its release.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, one of the producers on SOS, Rob Bisel, revealed that there are other songs SZA recorded with Lizzo, along with some unreleased rock songs. “There’s definitely a handful [of tracks with Lizzo],” Bisel told the publication. “I don’t want to incriminate myself here, but there’s some stuff floating around for sure.”
“They were putting some energy into it,” added fellow producer, Carter Lang, of “F2F.” “That was the thing that I feel sparked SZA really taking it into her own world and figuring out how it can be part of her story in an authentic way and not like, ‘hey, I just did a rock joint.’”
SOS marks SZA’s first No. 1 album following her 2017 debut, Ctrl. She’ll embark on the 19-date SOS Tour across North America in 2023, marking her first arena headlining tour. The trek kicks off on February 21 in Columbus, Ohio, and concludes a month later on March 23 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, just outside of Los Angeles.
Photo by Erika Goldring/WireImage
