There’s no doubt that women are dominating in music right now, with a promising year ahead. Leading the pack with the most nominations at the 2024 GRAMMYs is SZA, followed by Phoebe Bridgers, Victoria Monét and Taylor Swift.
SZA Leads At The 2024 GRAMMYs
SZA collects nine total nominations for her groundbreaking album SOS where she submerges into pop, rap and R&B. Not only does her sophomore album showcase her versatility and vocal range, but her songwriting gifts are on full display. The singer-songwriter has one GRAMMY win under her belt for the explosive summer smash collaboration “Kiss Me More” with Doja Cat.
The jaw-dropping Billboard number one hit “Kill Bill” from SZA accumulated three Grammy nominations. SZA writes about murdering her ex, drawing inspiration from the film series Kill Bill.
3X GRAMMY-Nominated Smash Hit “Kill Bill”
“I hated it,” SZA says in an interview with Variety. Then recants her statement implying, “Well, I didn’t hate it. But I was like, ‘Can I say this? Is it silly?’ Rob was like, ‘You have to say it!’ So I sent it to my homegirl, and she was like, ‘I don’t know. I think you should maybe say something to clarify.’ I was really scared that people would harm each other, ’cause some people are f*****g strange. But it was a joke.”
“We played her a bunch of tracks in the studio, and she asked me to pull that beat back up,” recalls co-writer and co-producer Rob Bisel, who created the song’s musical backing with collaborator Carter Lang. “And she was just sitting there quietly on her phone in the back of the studio. I didn’t really know if she was writing or just scrolling through Instagram. But after 10 minutes of silence, she was like, ‘OK, I got this idea for this song. It might be a little too crazy, but let me know what you think.’”
“And then she sang, ‘I just killed my ex…’ and the whole hook from that point on. Her lyric and melody was written from top to bottom in no more than an hour, right there on the spot. And the finished record is pretty much the vocals from the one or two takes we did that night. It just kind of fell out of the sky.”
The certified platinum single competes in the Record of the Year category up against Billie Eilish, boygenius, Jon Batiste, Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Victoria Monét. Additionally, SZA’s “Kill Bill” challenges for Song of the Year and Best R&B performance.
SOS
The highly anticipated sophomore LP SOS from SZA is up for the Album of the Year category. Every track except for “Forgiveless” with Ol’ Dirty Bastard surpasses 60 million streams on Spotify alone. Fans anxiously await the deluxe version with unreleased tracks “PSA” and “Diamond Boy” set to release in 2024.
In her intimate interview with Variety Magazine, SZA gives her input on the GRAMMYs and her nine nominations.
“I’ve lost enough times to know that investing in this moment is not wise,” SZA states. “And not because it’s not important — I’m so happy for it — but because you have to place your importance on who you are as an artist and as a person. It’s my first time being this popular, and I saw a huge uptick in negativity at the exact same time.”
