On Sunday, June 9, 2024, SZA celebrated the seventh anniversary of her debut studio album, CTRL. In short message, the Maplewood, New Jersey native thanked the 14-track LP for “saving [her] life.”
“Seven years ago today. Seven is my number. Today will be excellent. Happy birthday, Ctrl. Thank you for saving my life,” she wrote.
CTRL, released June 9, 2017, certified SZA as megastar across all genres of music. While the album initially debuted third on the Billboard 200, it’s steady momentum lead to long term success. Nearly a decade later, the album has produced five platinum singles, spent more than 300 weeks on the Billboard 200 and gone triple platinum.
“I felt a shift. Like, I came a really long-ass way. I didn’t imagine this album doing much anyway. I was so grateful to even have been honored by being nominated and having so many people f—k with my music,” SZA told GQ in 2018 as the album picked up GRAMMY Award nominations.
“I feel like at some point you start to get sucked up into the accolades and you’re like, Oh, this is what this is about, and this is what quantifies my success or me as an artist or a human being.”
Seven years later, SZA is fresh off of the stage at Governors Ball. In front of a crowd just outside of her home state, SZA performed cuts from bother debut album and her sophomore LP, S.O.S, which was recently named one of Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums of All-Time.
