During her headlining set at BST Hyde Park on June 29, 2024, SZA shared exciting news with fans about her upcoming album. She asked the crowd, โNew album, you ready?โ before playing a snippet of an unreleased song titled โStorytimeโ. The artist later shared the official teaser via social media, revealing the lyrics โI know you told stories about me/ Most of them awful, all of them true/ Hereโs some for you, yeah.โ
In the accompanying clip, viewers got a closer look at SZAโs alien-like grasshopper makeup created by FX artists Malina Stearns and Sasha Glasser, the latter of whom worked on Doja Catโs โPaint The Town Redโ costume.
Although SZA didnโt confirm the albumโs title, fans have been anticipating LANA, which was teased as a deluxe edition of her chart-topping album SOS. She first announced the project during a surprise performance in New Yorkโs Brooklyn Navy Yard, revealing it would span seven to 10 songs.
โIt was gonna be [SOS] outtakes and some new songs, but itโs become more than I expected,โ the โLove Galoreโ singer told Variety in a cover story. โIt was gonna be really soft because I had made all my screaming points, and I just wanted to glide, and not think [too much], and get out of my own head โ I was so happy to say some st that didnโt mean a fking thing.โ
In March 2024, SZA shared that she would be starting the LP from scratch after several unauthorized songs surfaced online. โSo, weโll make this really simple. Yโall leaked three songs from the deluxe. At this point, yโall can keep the throwaways and leaks,โ she wrote on Twitter. โDo not ask me about it again. Thank you.โ
