She's won Grammys, broken Billboard records, performed sold-out concerts and gone Platinum, yet SZA still feels like an underdog. She tells Chappell Roan for Interview magazine that she has one quality that keeps her pushing.
"My curiosity has led me to want to discover what’s next, or to see if I can dig myself out of the weird, self-deprecating hole that comes from being in this business," she explains. "I never really know what the f*** is going on."
SZA says her curiosity has also helped her to push past her fears, one of which included joining Kendrick Lamar on the Grand National Tour.
"I've never been on a f****** stadium tour before. There's so much fear," SZA says. Instead of occupying her mind with questions like, "Am I going to feel the crowd so far away from me versus being in a smaller venue?" and "Am I going to be able to catch it and release it and flip it?" she says she's "too curious about what it's going to be like to go up in that harness and too curious about what it's going to be like to really give my best Tina Turner impression."
SZA said she used to seek external validation, until her God told her "to stop trying to find my answer externally." She also learned not to give into imposter syndrome.
"I used to not show up to something because it was like, 'I’m never going to win. No one cares that I’m here. Why would I go?'” she says.
That's where curiosity saves the day. "Now it’s just like, 'F*** it. I don’t have anything else to do, and I want to see where this door is going to lead. ... I want to walk through the door. I want to see what happens in the uncertainty.' That’s the true magic."