When SZA first broke out with Z in 2014, she was hipster-adjacent, a soft-spoken songwriter with a love for sci-fi metaphors and lo-fi beats. Now? She’s the blueprint. With her BET Awards 2025 nomination for Best Female R&B/Pop Artist, she’s not just one of the genre’s leading women—she’s its north star. In an industry full of noise, SZA mastered the art of vulnerability and made her own language out of love, loss, and late-night spirals. Let’s break down how she got here.

Before CTRL, before the sold-out arenas, SZA was making dreamy, experimental soul music that didn’t care about structure. Z wasn’t a traditional R&B album—it was more like a journal, with glitchy samples, spacey synths, and deeply personal lyrics that hinted at her genius to come. Songs like “Child’s Play” and “Julia” introduced a new kind of softness—messy, complicated, but magnetic.

It didn’t go platinum. It didn’t chart high. But it made her a moment in the making.

Released in 2017, CTRL didn’t just level SZA up—it bent the genre around her. With confessional bangers like “Love Galore,” “The Weekend,” and “Supermodel,” she redefined modern womanhood in music. She was flawed, insecure, confident, and sexual—all at once. And that honesty became her superpower.

No one was writing about side-chick status with the self-awareness of “The Weekend.” No one was making insecurity sound like gospel on “Normal Girl.” And no one was pulling you into their world with lyrics that felt like they were texted, not written.

CTRL became the unofficial R&B Bible for an entire generation of Black girls who needed permission to feel everything—and not have it all figured out.

When SOS dropped in December 2022, it was a full takeover. The album debuted at No. 1 and stayed there for ten straight weeks. But more importantly, it showed range. Punk-rock inflected tracks like “F2F” sat next to ‘90s-style slow jams like “Snooze,” and it all worked.

She went full chaos goddess on “Kill Bill” (which hit No. 1), got messy on “Seek & Destroy,” and gave us the TikTok heartbreak theme song with “Nobody Gets Me.” And that album wasn’t short—23 tracks deep, no skips, all hits. SOS wasn’t a sophomore slump—it was a flex.

SZA’s appeal isn’t just her vocals—it’s her voice. The way she writes. Her stream-of-consciousness lyrics feel like group chats turned into poetry. Her anxieties are our anxieties. Her pettiness is relatable. She sings about stalking her ex, gaining weight, being ghosted—and we eat it up because she makes it sound beautiful.

In a genre once known for perfection and polished heartbreak, SZA gave us permission to be messy and divine at the same time. That’s power.

The SOS Tour became one of the highest-grossing R&B tours by a Black woman in history. Her underwater-themed set design, stunning vocals, and theatrical transitions made it a visual feast. SZA didn’t just perform songs—she built an emotional world fans could live inside.

On TikTok, her music soundtracked every breakup, glow-up, and “soft life” era. On red carpets, she brought back quiet luxury before the trend hit Pinterest. And in the studio? She kept redefining what R&B could look like without needing to shout about it.

SZA took over R&B not by trying to dominate it—but by daring to be honest. By staying outside the lines. By singing about being “too much” and “not enough” in the same breath. Her BET Awards 2025 Best Female R&B/Pop Artist nomination is not just deserved—it’s inevitable.

Don’t miss SZA and the full roster of R&B queens at the BET Awards 2025, airing live Monday, June 9 at 8PM ET/PT on BET.