SZA performs “Blind” and “Shirt” on SNL

SZA pulled up to SNL as the music guest on December 3rd, where she performed the songs “Blind” and “Shirt”, both featured on her second studio album SOS, which is finally out after 84 years.

When SZA dropped the video for “Shirt”, I was like ‘That was cute, but what is the song at the end of the video!?’. Turns out that it was “Blind”. And given how SZA likes to sit on things and tease for years, I figured that we may not get to hear “Blind” in full until 2023. Just for this bitch to announce her new album is dropping in December, then perform the song in full on Saturday Night Live, and for the album to be out before I even posted this. 

“Blind” is SUBLIME. I was sold on when I first heard it at the end of the music video for “Shirt”. Still liked it when I heard it in the SOS album trailer. Still liked it when I heard the album. But the live version SZA graced SNL with is even better. SZA’s voice and the strings sound so much richer and add this layer of texture to the song. And visually, the use of projections for this performance was a really nice touch. I’ve seen a whole bunch of themes and set dressings for SNL performances, but I have never seen a screen and projections used this way on the show before. It was simple, but really beautiful, and perfectly fit the tone of the song and the theme of the album title and the cover.

“Shirt” isn’t doing much for me. But this performance, with this arrangement!? It’s a ‘yes’ from me dawg. This is the version of “Shirt” I will be playing from now on.

SZA performing “Blind” on Saturday Night Live | NBC Universal Media

SZA is growing slowly as a live performer. Which is just as well, given that she’ll be touring in 2023. I was thoroughly impressed by Grey Goose set she did in 2021. But SZA is also growing in terms of how she presents herself visually. All of the fashion choices, music videos, teasers, clips and performances we’ve gotten from SZA post Ctrl have seen her move into this new space where she’s expressing new sides of herself we hadn’t really seen before. SZA is throwing us back to the early 90s and early 2000s, when more artists dressed for public appearances and performances to express themselves and their personal brand over that of being a poster child for a fashion brand. Which was also a time when more artists treated music videos as extensions of the song - and I dig that. I wish more artists would follow suit. Especially in this day and age of YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, where there is more of a demand for visual components to things than ever before, and everybody is just doing the same thing in the same way. SZA honestly feels like a breath of fresh air to me right now. Even if she’d rather just be done with it all, and just sit up at home with her singing bowls, crystals and her Motorola Razr.