The Real Meaning Behind 'Good Days' By SZA
It's tough to have a bad day after listening to "Good Days" by SZA. What is the catchy and tranquil song from the rising R&B superstar all about?
Born Solána Imani Rowe and raised in New Jersey, per All Music, SZA has quickly become one of the music world's most vulnerable and soulful poets. Her 2017 album, Ctrl, included songs about longing, relationships, and malaise, like "Drew Barrymore" and "Love Galore (feat. Travis Scott)," which resonated with not just fans (she has more than 25 million monthly Spotify listeners) but also critics. The album brought her five Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist. SZA has nine nominations total, the rest coming from her 2018 hit single "All The Stars," written with Kendrick Lamar for Marvel's Black Panther. But from the big screen to your bedroom speakers, there is just something about SZA's detailed lyrics, unique voice, and overall sense of intimacy that really does "Hit Different."
During the week of Jan. 30, 2021, "Good Days," SZA's second single since that hallmark 2017 album, hit No. 10 on Billboard's Hot 100. The single first dropped on Christmas Day in 2020, according to Genius, and it truly is a gift... of positivity and zen. "I feel like I'm only trying to make music that I care about, and I'm trying to work with people that will f*** with me for real," she told Rolling Stone. "That's it."
Here's the meaning behind "Good Days" by SZA.
SZA's 'Good Days' is about finding hope in darkness
With a chorus that goes, "Good days, always inside / Good day living in my mind," Genius wrote about the tune that "SZA tries to move away from past and present negativity, looking forward to the future instead."
2020 was a dark year for SZA, as it was for many of us. As the star told Rolling Stone, it included the death of her grandmother, who she was extremely close with. "My grandma was like my best friend," she told the outlet. "It was the longest five months of my life." That low point led to, as SZA put it, her "own journey out of this dark-a** depression," which included exercise, Pilates, and meditation. "You really have to choose to feel better. You have to. Have to," SZA tearfully added to Rolling Stone. "Because if you don't, you just die."
SZA elaborated on how she brought that mantra into "Good Days" in the comments section of a YouTube fan video. "Good days is a mantra, More than... a belief," she wrote on Feb. 21, 2021. "Good days is about not being sure .. not Sure hope is still a thing, not sure better is coming, not sure any of even it matters. its an acknowledgement were all in the same ugly chaotic beautiful existence. We're all shattered and stretched beyond our means in all Ways."
She added that the song embodies "shared energy," "possibility," and "A SLIVER of hope.. not even a whole lot. A reminder to OURSELVES .. that a sliver is sometimes all u need." Amen to that.