Did NZ Herald announce a fake SZA tour?
UPDATE: The shows appear to be real :)
The headline was emphatic, the report celebratory.
“Singer SZA NZ-bound,” read bold black font inside the back page of today’s print edition of the NZ Herald.
“She just won three Grammys and gave an impressive performance, now SZA is coming to New Zealand,” read the story.
“Live Nation announced yesterday morning the 34-year-old American singer-songwriter is returning to the country for the first time since 2018 to perform not one but two huge shows at Auckland’s Spark Arena.”
Dates were confirmed: April 15 and 16.
Ticket on-sale details were issued: Pre-sales from Friday, general release on Monday.
It sounds official, legit, even.
But something smells fishy here.
The Herald’s SZA story hasn’t been published online.
No other media has announced this tour, or these shows.
Live Nation has not confirmed a SZA tour, via its social media accounts, or its local website.
When I searched Spark Arena’s event listings, no SZA gigs are listed there.
Likewise, they’re not listed on SZA’s website.
Same goes with Ticketmaster, the official seller for tickets of concerts at Spark Arena.
So, is it true?
It’s hard to tell.
If the report is real, but the Herald broke an embargo and jumped the gun, it’s a major screw up that will no doubt result in a few angry emails being sent out, and a few apologies being sent in return.
But it is huge news.
In Ctrl and SOS, SZA has released two timeless and wildly popular R&B albums full of songs that wrinkle with minimalist production flourishes over which her emotional outpouring grabs your heart and doesn’t let go.
In recent years, she has entered the rarefied air of Frank Ocean, a mysterious presence who has a committed fan base that hangs out for every release, hangs off her every word, and tortures themselves with interpretations of her cryptic lyrics, ethereal videos and ultra-personal social media posts.
It is entirely possible SZA could, if she follows her current trajectory and releases another album of the quality of her first two, join Beyoncé right up there on that very high perch of hers.
She has, to date, performed in New Zealand just the once: in early January, 2018, at the cursed Logan Campbell Centre, a show I was at, and a show I still get chills thinking about.
“Last night showed glimpses of a true superstar, one that rose above venue and technical issues to impress at every point,” I wrote at the time.
“Hits like ‘Doves in the Wind’ and ‘The Weekend’, and deeper cuts ‘Wavy’ and ‘2am’, were sung [by fans] with such a ferocity there were times it was tough to hear her.”
“I will be back,” SZA promised at the time.
But when she tried to return the following year, things got awkward.
She was due to perform a Splendour in the Grass New Zealand sideshow at Spark Arena on July 26 in 2019, a performance cancelled at the last-minute due to “unforeseen circumstances”. (That’s industry code for ‘low ticket sales’.)
A few days later, SZA took to Twitter to say she might come anyway and perform for free because, “I never experienced crowd energy like that in my life”.
So it’s on-trend that a New Zealand SZA tour announcement comes delivered in a confusing package, through the print edition of NZ Herald and literally nowhere else.
It’s true that promoters rarely announce two shows together, instead preferring to confirm one concert and wait for that to sell out before announcing the second.
It’s also true that this has been a huge week for tour announcements, with Trevor Noah, Take That (with Sophie Ellis-Bextor!) and Gym Class Heroes, along with an old school hip-hop showcase of Xzibit, D12 and Obie Trice, all confirming imminent appearances.
Earlier today, Frontier Touring announced a Tenacious D tour for July, news which may have forced Live Nation to push its SZA announcement out.
But another thing is true: SZA just won three Grammy awards, meaning she may be receiving bigger and better tour or festival opportunities than that offered by travelling all the way to New Zealand to play two shows in April.
Those alleged New Zealand dates clash with Coachella, which is struggling with sluggish ticket sales after releasing a line-up dominated by 90s-adjacent acts, and one that would almost certainly receive a boost with SZA’s name high up on the bill.
I don’t know anything.
These are just hunches.
I desperately hope SZA’s tour is real.
But with the state of music journalism right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not.
UPDATE: It looks like the shows are real. Live Nation has announced two SZA shows in April, with pre-sales beginning tomorrow.
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