iHeartRadio Music Awards 2024 set

Lore & Background

SZA built her name over years of viral moments, bedroom recordings, and a patient, almost anti-star approach to fame. By the time she stepped onto the iHeartRadio stage in 2024, the trajectory had shifted: she was no longer the surprise breakout but a headliner whose name alone could anchor a broadcast. The SOS album, with its themes of longing, self-doubt, and bittersweet romance, had given her a catalog rich enough to distill into a short televised set without feeling reductive.

What made the 2024 iHeartRadio slot resonate with fans was the contrast between the polished, multi-camera broadcast environment and SZA's signature delivery—slightly behind the beat, voice cracking at the edges, eyes half-closed as if she were still talking to the person across the bar rather than a stadium of strangers. That tension between intimacy and spectacle is the through-line of her live career, and this performance crystallized it for a mainstream audience.

In the broader narrative of her touring and live work, the iHeartRadio set functions as a bridge: it carries the momentum of the SOS era's commercial peak while hinting at the larger, more theatrical productions she would build for festival and arena dates later in the cycle.

In Their Own Story

The arena lights dim to a deep violet. A single spotlight catches the hem of a flowing gown as she walks out, not quite walking, more like drifting, the way she moves in music videos where the camera can't decide if she's arriving or leaving. The first note of the opening track hangs in the air, and the crowd—that electric, half-silent hush that only a SZA set produces—swells. She leans into the mic like she's confessing to one person in row three. The bass drops, the cameras cut wide, and for ninety seconds the Las Vegas arena is just a room full of people remembering a conversation they had at 2 a.m. and couldn't quite finish.

Reader's Guide

The set opens with the unmistakable, slightly delayed groove of a track that has already become a cultural shorthand for late-night vulnerability. SZA enters in a flowing, sculptural outfit, moving with that characteristic unhurried sway that makes even a broadcast slot feel like a private listening session. The staging is clean—minimal set pieces, warm amber and magenta lighting, a single riser rather than a full stage—letting her voice and the band's tight, live feel carry the weight.

The second number shifts the energy. The tempo picks up, the choreography becomes more defined, and the production leans into the rhythmic, almost confrontational edge of the track. She locks eyes with the camera, and the crowd's energy snaps from reverent to roaring. A brief instrumental break lets the band breathe, and she steps back, letting the groove land before the final chorus hits.

What fans remember most is the contrast: the studio versions of these songs are layered, almost overproduced, drenched in reverb and detail. Live, SZA strips them back. The vocal sits closer, the imperfections are audible, the timing is looser. It feels less like a performance and more like she's letting you in on something she's still working out. The last note fades, she gives a small, almost apologetic smile, and the arena detonates.

Did You Know?

• SZA's album SOS, the source material for many of her most-recognized singles, was released in 2022 and spent multiple weeks at the top of the Billboard 200.
• The iHeartRadio Music Awards have been a recurring platform for R&B and pop artists to deliver short, high-profile televised sets, and SZA's 2024 slot continued that tradition.
• SZA is known for a live performance style that deliberately resists over-choreography, favoring vocal nuance and physical stillness to let the song's emotion land.
• Her stage name SZA is a shortened form of her given name, Solemn, and she has spoken in interviews about the personal weight of that name and how it shaped her artistic identity.