SZA defends Creed and Nickelback: “Why do y’all hate it so much?”

SZA has expressed her love for the music of two of rock’s most polarising bands, Creed and Nickelback in a new interview.

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The ‘Kill Bill’ singer named Creed and Nickelback while speaking to Variety about her favourite music in commemoration of being named the magazine’s ‘Hitmaker of the Year’.

“The other day you know what I pulled up? Creed, Nickelback, Train’s ‘Drops of Jupiter’, just a whole bunch of that,” she said, as the interviewer facepalmed and burst out in laughter. “Wait, you know what’s crazy? Do white people hate Creed and Nickelback? Why? Black people love them! They rock! That shit is bomb!”

She proceeded to specifically express her admiration for ‘Higher’, the ninth track off Creed’s 1999 sophomore full-length, ‘Human Clay’. “Have you ever felt more inspired and uplifted in your life? I’m in the car and I’m blasting ‘Higher’,” she expressed.

“I feel like it’s a gospel song, the vocals are going crazy and it’s also somehow slightly romantic, it just feels so fun,” SZA added. “Because even if it’s cliche, he’s so fucking dead ass!”

She added that stumbling on Creed’s music in the shower led her to listen to their and Nickelback’s music for the following week, later professing that she will “be a Creed fan forever”.

Earlier in the interview, SZA demonstrated the wide breadth of her listening habits, highlighting her father’s love for jazz as an influence, but also naming Fall Out Boy, Blink-182, Thundercat, Cleo Sol, Hiatus Kaiyote, Little Dragon, Bjork, The Cars, Joni Mitchell among a host of other artists as part of her regular rotations.

SZA has had a big 2023 following the surprise release of her sophomore full-length, ‘SOS’, in late 2022. This month, she was nominated for ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Best Progressive R&B Album’ at the 2024 Grammy Awards.

In September, she announced a deluxe version of ‘SOS’. Entitled ‘Lana’, the singer said in a live show that the release will contain “7 to 10 songs” and will be “out this fall”. A release date for the album has yet to be announced.