Princess Diana Inspired SZA's SOS Album Art
SZA's newest album art, SOS, takes inspiration from an unlikely place: Princess Diana.
"Originally I was supposed to be on top of a shipping barge, but in the references that I pulled for that, I pulled the Diana reference," SZA said on Hot 97. "Because I just loved how she isolated she felt, and that was what I wanted to convey the most."
— SZA (@sza) November 30, 2022
In the photographs of Princess Diana from August 1997, she looks forlorn as she sits on the edge of a diving board on Mohamed Al Fayed's Jonikal yacht. The photographs were taken in Portofino, Italy, just a week before her tragic death in Paris.
Instead of wearing a turquoise bathing suit as Diana did, however, musician SZA opts for a custom jersey that says "SZA" on the back, and "S.O.S." on the sleeve. She also wears a pair of Timberland boots.
And, Twitter users noted key differences between SZA's photo and Diana's photo. As BLKshine tweeted, "let's talk about how body language plays an important part in photography. Because 1 of these images isn't like the other, and while yes SZA is isolated being visually surrounded by water, this photo, the posture, her gaze doesn't read 'Isolated', it reads 'Hopeful' & 'Optimistic.'" One user replied, "exactly. sza’s alone, diana’s lonely."
During the final episode of season five of The Crown, Princess Diana is packing for vacation to go on a yacht, the Jonikal, owned by Mohamed Al Fayed in July 1997. (Here, see photos of that vacation, with her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.) The following month, she would join just Dodi Al Fayed on the yacht—when the diving board photos were taken.
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