SZA Joins New Jersey Hall of Fame
Audrey Rowe and Abdul Mubarak-Rowe were already onstage at the Dream Live Performing Arts Center at American Dream in East Rutherford, speaking about their daughter before the room had seen her. It was Sept. 24, 2026, the 18th annual New Jersey Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and Solána Imani Rowe — SZA — was being welcomed into the Performing Arts & Entertainment category. Audrey told the crowd she was often asked whether she had known her daughter would be a star. She had known Solána would do something special, she said, but she had not been certain what it would be. From early on the girl had succeeded at whatever she tried, often the youngest, the smallest, and often the only person of color in the room. Abdul described listening to her debut album Ctrl and being brought to tears each time. Her words, he said, were that profound and penetrating; he felt he was being reintroduced to her for the first time.
When their speeches ended, SZA stepped out to cheers and squeals. The Asbury Park All Stars had welcomed her with “You Are So Beautiful.” At the microphone she made her first claim on the night.
“I just want to say, I love Jersey, every corner of Jersey,” she said.
She continued from there. She recalled eating Portuguese-style ribs in Newark’s Ironbound and attending bar and bat mitzvahs growing up.
“I love the nature, the culture, the richness in experience,” she said. “I love my county. Shout out to Essex County.”
“It’s not utopian, but it’s very real...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.”
“This is probably one of the biggest honors I’ve ever had,” she said.
She was born Solána Imani Rowe in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 8, 1989, and raised in Maplewood, New Jersey. Her mother, Audrey, had worked as an executive at AT&T; her father, Abdul, had been a video producer at CNN. Both parents came from the Southern United States. Audrey was Christian and Abdul was Muslim; she attended Sunday school and Muslim school as the two faiths sat side by side in the house. At Columbia High School she took part in gymnastics and cheerleading and performed with the dance team known as the Special Dance Company. She graduated in 2008. She enrolled in three different colleges before settling at Delaware State University to study marine biology, then left in her final semester to concentrate on music.
To support herself she worked at Village Trattoria, a pizzeria in Maplewood, and at Magic Fit Sneakers in Irvington.
“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,” she said. “I just love community, and I promise to take that energy of community around the world wherever I go.”
She was already a seven-time Grammy winner, a singer and songwriter known for introspective lyrics and a style that moved freely across R&B and neighboring genres. Her 2017 debut album was Ctrl. The Billboard 200 is the main U.S. album chart, ranked each week by a combination of album sales, individual track sales, and streams converted into album-equivalent units.
Ctrl stayed on the Billboard 200 for 460 consecutive weeks. It was the first album by a female artist to do so.
The Recording Industry Association of America certified it six times platinum. Her 2022 album SOS debuted at No. 1 and spent thirteen weeks at the top of the same chart. It reached eight times platinum. Two tracks from it, “Kill Bill” and “Snooze,” each received diamond certification. Diamond is the RIAA’s mark for ten million units in the United States, counting sales and streams together. Her full catalog had drawn more than seventy billion career streams. In 2024 the Songwriters Hall of Fame presented her with the Hal David Starlight Award.
The rest of the night’s stage was still waiting.
Danny DeVito hosted the ceremony for the fifth consecutive year. He had been inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2010. He introduced a short tribute video about the late Nicky Addeo, the Asbury Park singer who had gone to grade school with him.
The rest of the 2026 company kept the stage working. Christine Todd Whitman was inducted. Eddie Brigati entered with his late brother David and the late Rascals drummer Dino Danelli, Stevie Van Zandt giving the induction after recalling the band he had seen as a teenager. Lawrence Taylor was inducted with Harry Carson speaking. Tommy James, a prior Hall member, performed “Mony Mony,” Van Zandt joining on guitar and backing vocals. The Asbury All-Stars backed the night’s music.
Brigati then sang “How Can I Be Sure” and brought the company together for “Good Lovin’,” most of the inductees crowding the stage. Taylor, James, and Van Zandt sang backing vocals on the same mic. DeVito rested his head on Taylor’s leg.
SZA posted on Instagram. “Got inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. MORE IMPORTANTLY I MET DANNY DEVITO.”
SZA had referenced Lauryn Hill. The singer is a fellow graduate of Columbia High School. Lauryn Hill has not yet been inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
The New Jersey Hall of Fame is an organization that honors individuals from New Jersey who have made contributions to society and the world beyond. It operates as a non-profit overseen by a board of trustees. With only rare exceptions, nominees must have resided in New Jersey for a period of at least five years. The first induction ceremony took place on May 4, 2008, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. A mobile museum designed by Michael Graves and Ralph Applebaum toured the state starting in June 2013 and reached more than 300,000 people over three years. In 2017 a satellite exhibition opened at Newark Airport with five holograms, posters and a Wall of Fame. In September 2018 the announcement came that the Hall of Fame would move to a permanent home at American Dream. The Entertainment and Learning Center opened at American Dream in 2024. It is an interactive museum dedicated to celebrating the lives and accomplishments of notable New Jerseyans. The Hall’s permanent home and Entertainment and Learning Center are at American Dream.