Following the release of SZA’s widely successful album, SOS, the St. Louis songstress’ first arena tour made nearly $35 million in sales, according to a Billboard report.
The SOS tour stretched across 12 cities in North America and averaged about 12,000 tickets per night, making roughly $1.9 million per night, the publication reported.
SOS dropped last December, five years after her Grammy-nominated debut album, CTRL. Shortly after her sophomore album was released, she announced on Instagram that it was “time to take this sh*t on the road.”
The album would eventually climb the charts since its highly-anticipated release and would make her the first female artist to claim the top spot on the Billboard charts for nine nonconsecutive weeks.
“I’m looking forward to actually feeling proud of myself and not just smiling and nodding at accolades, but really feeling it internally and knowing that I’m good enough,” she said after accomplishing the feat.
S.O.S. blends a smooth and soulful mix of melodies, harmonious beats and heavyweight features, but the 33-year-old said she was a bit down that several collaborators weren’t featured because they ghosted her when it came time to record.
During an interview on HOT 97, SZA told host Nessa that she reached out to several artists to lay vocals on some tracks – to which they agreed – but then never got back to her.
“[Collaborations happen] in the DMs and begging people,” she said. “Sometimes people turn in their verses and sometimes they don’t. A lot of people just like, did not turn in their verses — but I’m grateful for who did.”
She also confessed that she has ignored feature requests from some potential collaborators in the past so she “can’t be too mad,” but said she still felt disappointed that some artists didn’t reach back out to her.
“A lot of these people, I didn’t turn in my verse, so I can’t be too mad,” the 33-year-old said. “But also, at the same token it’s like, ‘Damn, this sucks. I really needed you. I wish you showed up for me.’ But I’m sure they felt the same way for me.”
Despite the ghosting, her sophomore album released under Top Dawg Entertainment features some of the music industry’s biggest stars, including Travis Scott, Don Toliver and Phoebe Bridgers. The late Ol’ Dirty Bastard also makes a posthumous appearance on the album’s last track.
“I doubted that this was gonna be allowed to be on the album, but it surprisingly was,” SZA said about the collaboration with the Wu-Tang Clan icon. “I talked to his estate. It really just came from a piece of documentary footage. He was freestyling in the background of the footage so I took the audio. It’s cool.”
She also gushed about working with Travis Scott, who lent a hand in her 2017 Grammy-nominated single Love Galore. “I love Travis and he always shows up for me, and I really appreciate that, that he’s a consistent friend in my life and really believes in me as an artist,” she said. “He’s my gang!”
She continued: “Same thing with Don [Toliver] — a genius. There’s another song with Don that didn’t make this album, but it may be on it at a later time.”
