SZA is a seven-time Grammy Award winner with two RIAA diamond certified hit singles and the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame — but one of her greatest accomplishments came Thursday night as she was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame by Danny DeVito.
“Got inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame,” SZA wrote on Instagram. “MORE IMPORTANTLY I MET DANNY DEVITO.” DeVito hosted the induction ceremony at Dream Live Performing Arts Center at American Dream. He was inducted in 2010.
The singer and songwriter’s speech at the actual ceremony was more earnest. “This is probably one of the biggest honors I’ve ever had,” she said. SZA was born in St. Louis, but raised in the Maplewood, New Jersey suburbs. “I love Jersey, every corner of Jersey,” she said. She shared fond memories of working everywhere from a pizza parlor to a shoe store, but also of the community she built in her hometown.
“I just love community, and I promise to take that energy of community around the world wherever I go,” SZA said. “When it’s time to start a charity or just help other people, I think about how I come from a small town where everybody knows each other’s first and last name. We’ve all participated in each other’s lives and in raising each other, and I’m honored. So thank you so much.”
SZA joins previous New Jersey Hall of Fame inductees Whitney Houston, Queen Latifah, Wyclef Jean, Paul Rudd, Toni Morrison, Tony Bennett, the Isley Brothers, Meryl Streep, Jonas Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and more. During her speech, SZA shouted out New Jersey’s own Lauryn Hill, who attended the same high school as her. Hill has not yet been inducted.
“It kind of prepared me for the world because it’s not utopian, but it’s very real,” SZA said about growing up in New Jersey. “Sometimes people over Jersey and go straight to New York. But they’re missing the meat. They’re missing the energy. They’re missing the heartbeat of the tri-state.”
