A collaboration between Lizzo AND SZA? Can this week’s New Music Friday playlist get any better?
Less than a week after her performance at the 65th Annual GRAMMY Awards AND her Record of the Year win for her hit song “About Damn Time,” Lizzo is back with a very ✨special✨ remix to one of her beloved tracks, ultimately adding the chart-topping superstar SZA to her hit song “Special.”
SZA has had a HUGE year since releasing SOS in December, a highly-anticipated project that serves as the follow-up to her 2017 album CTRL. The viral project has earned SZA her first number one album, with songs like “Kill Bill,” “Shirt,” “Nobody Gets Me,” “Snooze” and more making waves on both social media AND the charts.
Lizzo is known for teasing upcoming projects on social media, and after a few intriguing posts with her “actual sister” SZA, fans have been counting down the days until the two queens release music together.
On November 20th, Lizzo posted a selfie-style video on Twitter of her and SZA singing along to “Special,” with a caption that reads “Something Special coming your way soon,” ultimately sending fans into a frenzy.
The plot only thickened, as SZA was then seen taking the stage in Lizzo: Live in Concert, Lizzo’s mind-blowing HBO Max special. In the movie, the duo performed “Special” onstage at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, and a few months after the show, Lizzo posted a clip of the performance on Instagram with a very heartfelt caption: “My actual sister. I could cry thinking about you right now. Nothing could make ‘Special’ more special than you.”
After this post, fans KNEW that “Special (feat. SZA)” was on the way, but nobody could figure out when. Ever since its out-of-the-blue release on Thursday (February 9th), Twitter has been buzzing with positive feedback surrounding the song, with tweets that read “The perfect sign from the universe to remind me that I am worthy and fabulous just as I am,” “I didn’t think this song could get even better and special but she did it again,” “This is beyond beautiful” and more.
Amassing over 17 million Spotify streams on “Special,” we already know that “Special (feat. SZA)” will be yet another success for the GRAMMY-winning artist, and we have had it on repeat ever since its release!
Lizzo and SZA are not the only ICONIC duo that collaborated this week! As a part of this week’s New Music Friday, Dove Cameron and Khalid released “We Go Down Together,” Jason Derulo and David Guetta released “Saturday/Sunday,” Jax Jones and Calum Scott released “Whistle” and more.
Collaborations aside, there were some phenomenal solo singles that came out this week as well, including “If We Ever Broke Up” by Mae Stephens, “Amelie” by Gracie Abrams, “Kids Are Growing Up (Part 1)” by The Kid LAROI, “Green Honda” by BENEE, “Let Me Go” by Daniel Caesar, “Best Friend Breakup” by Lauren Spencer Smith, “Borderline” by Tove Lo and more.
Franklin Jonas, who some may refer to as the “Bonus Jonas,” even made his musical debut with his brand new song titled “Cocaine.” Will he reach the same EXTREME level of success as the Jonas Brothers? We will have to wait and see!
Speaking of boy bands, Big Time Rush released their first single of 2023 titled “Can’t Get Enough,” which came with a veryyyy special announcement… Click HERE to read all about it 👀
To top it all off, this week’s New Music Friday consists of some incredible albums and EPs as well, in addition to the collaborations and solo singles that we are loving! Paramore came out with their highly-anticipated project This Is Why, Rebecca Black with Let Her Burn, Pierce the Veil with The Jaws of Life, Emblem 3 with Songs From The Couch, Vol. 2, Zolita with Falling Out / Falling In and more.
After lotssss of debate, we compiled a list of our favorite New Music Friday releases! Keep scrolling to see our picks, and be sure to let us know what you think of them by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post, or by sending us a tweet at @celebsecrets.
