More than a year has passed since SZA confirmed that a collaboration with Paramore was on the way.
There’s been a cover, updates, hints and teases stringing the two artists together, but no official collab just yet.
“Soon! Soon! It’s in the works,” SZA once said in an Apple Music interview in December of 2023. This followed Hayley Williams’ Black People Love Paramore podcast, where the Paramore singer shared that the two had been “sending texts weekly” about it all.
@spotifypodcasts Hayley Williams has wanted a SZA x Paramore collab for 6 years and it’s finally happening 🥹 @Black People Love Paramore Pod #sza #paramore #hayleywilliams #szacover #szacollab #blackhistorymonth #sos #miserybusiness ♬ original sound – Spotify Podcasts
Williams had been manifesting a team-up for months. She expressed her admiration for the R&B singer in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2023, including in an unreleased segment of the discussion.
“I’m such a fan of her voice. And what I love about her voice is that she can easily slide around genre as well,” Williams told Rolling Stone. “Like she has plenty of songs throughout her catalog that feel very alternative to me and feel a little bit Strokes-y, in a way. She just has that thing.”
Williams further shared how they’ve long discussed partnering up. “She’s like that person where I feel like we could write any type of song, and it would be cool. I would love to hear her on something that we wrote that’s more alternative-leaning, just because I think it would be interesting. We’ve talked back and forth about it for a long time. We both get really caught up in whatever we’re doing at the moment. But I fucking worship her regardless. I just think she’s wonderful.”
Williams posted an acoustic cover of SZA’s “Drew Barrymore” on Instagram last April.
“this was weeks ago,” she wrote of the cover. “April 11th, to be exact. have a few saved up. guess i’ve been holding out on yall. the only constant for me (besides limp ass, unwashed, unfixed hair) in the age of covid, is a guitar and free reign to mess up all my favorite songs. here’s ‘Drew Barrymore’ by queen @sza. please ignore my face.”
SZA once told People that she had reached out to Williams for advice on her sophomore album SOS, which garnered several Album of the Year awards.
“[SOS] was literally me checking off goals,” SZA said at the time. “Just me wanting to be like, ‘Oh, I can do this. I don’t suck. Is it possible to achieve this specific goal?’ And for each of those genres I would text people like Hayley Williams and be like, ‘Does it sound like I’m trying to do something that I shouldn’t be doing, or does it sound organic? Because it felt really natural to me, but you’re the queen of this, how does it sound to you?’ And she’d be like, ‘This is perfect.’”
With longstanding mutual appreciation for each other’s work, hopefully the new year will see their long-awaited collaboration.
SZA newly returned to the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart for SOS Deluxe: LANA, the deluxe version of her SOS album. The collection had led the US albums tally 22 months earlier.
Williams had her 36th birthday recently, and hinted at a 2025 tour for her solo project. “I’m going to try and finally play some shows next year that would’ve happened nearly 5 years ago now,” she said of her Covid-canceled Petals for Armor odyssey.
“36 is exciting and a little scary, already. So much to hope for. I’m still in the dirt, ready for whatever might grow. Fruit?”
Let’s hope something ripe falls from SZA and Paramore’s tree this year. There will certainly be many fans from both sides eager to hear their collaboration.
