SZA was so scared during her Glastonbury headline set in June that she felt like she was “drowning” on stage.
The R&B singer became the first Black woman after Beyoncé to headline Glastonbury solo when she took to the Pyramid Stage on the closing night of the festival in June. However, she drew less of a crowd than fellow headliners Dua Lipa and Coldplay and suffered a series of sound problems.
Reflecting on the experience, she said in a cover interview for British Vogue, “I’m like, I’m freaked out right now. I’m scared. I feel like I’m drowning on stage and I feel like I’m failing.”
The Kill Bill hitmaker, real name Solána Rowe, admitted that she was crippled with anxiety beforehand because she felt that nothing she did would have been good enough to please the Glastonbury crowd, who had criticised her appointment in the first place.
“I just felt like nothing I could do would be enough for Glastonbury, no matter what I did,” she stated. “It scared me. I was like, well, I wish I wasn’t doing it, but I couldn’t walk away from it…
“I want to be the second Black woman in history, but then it’s such a f**king tall order. It’s like, no matter what you do here, you will be subject to criticism. Because of who you are. But that’s life.”
The 35-year-old, who is gearing up to release her third album, Lana, also revealed during the interview that she often wonders if she’s done with the music industry.
“Maybe I’m just not meant to be famous – I’m crashing and burning and behaving erratically. It’s not for me because I have so much anxiety,” SZA explained. “But why would God put me in this position if I wasn’t supposed to be doing this? So I just keep trying to rise to the occasion. But I’m also just like, ‘Please, the occasion is beating my a*s.'”
