SZA accused of lip-syncing during Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl performance: 'Thought no one would notice'

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: SZA is facing some backlash following her pitch-perfect Super Bowl performance.

The 'Kill Bill' hitmaker, 35, took the stage during the Super Bowl 2025 halftime show, joining Kendrick Lamar for a performance that should have been legendary. The two delivered their chart-topping hits 'Luther' and 'All The Stars', making for a memorable night - at least, that’s all it should have been.

But as soon as the show ended, critics on the internet accused SZA of lip-syncing.

Fans call out SZA for 'obvious' lip-syncing

Social media wasted no time in dissecting the performance, and the reviews were brutal.

"I should have known SZA was going to get up there and lip sync for her life…#SuperBowl," one posted on X.

"That dumb b***h SZA really lip-synced the whole performance to studio versions and thought no one would notice I'm crying," another wrote.

"SZA not doing live vocals is crazy. The lip sync is obvious af lmao," read a comment.

"Sza could’ve gotten away with lip-syncing if she would stop performing lol idk if that makes sense but she keeps throwing her head around like it’s not connected to her throat!" someone else quipped.

"Look Sza performed down! But you weren’t gonna catch her stressed she threw the vocal track all the way up and gave us The Lip Sync for Her Life," another chimed in.

But SZA’s loyal fanbase was not about to let their queen get dragged without a fight.

"Someone said SZA was lipsyncing???? THE LIES THE MIC WAS OOOOON," one fan insisted.

"People were expecting SZA to sing bad but she delivered and b****es are mad now and saying she was lip singing. That mic was OOON," a comment read.

"It hasn’t even been an hour and yall saying sza lip syncing…. She did a high note SHUT THE F**K UP," another fumed.

Kendrick Lamar takes another shot at Drake

As if the lip-sync debate wasn’t enough, Kendrick Lamar made sure to keep the buzz alive with yet another jab at his longtime rival Drake.

For those keeping up with the Drake-SZA timeline, the two dated briefly in 2009 - and then again in 2023. But despite that history, SZA was more than happy to hit the Super Bowl stage with Drake’s biggest rival to date.

Now, Kendrick has been torching Drake for months. After all, his song 'Not Like Us' had some choice words for the latter - and the fallout has been ugly.

Even though Drake is now suing Universal Music Group (which represents both him and Kendrick), Kendrick still went ahead and performed 'Not Like Us' during the halftime show.

Before launching into the track, Kendrick threw some serious shade as he told the crowd: "I want to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue."

Where do SZA and Drake stand?

Given all this drama, people naturally started wondering - where does SZA stand when it comes to her past with Drake?

According to SZA, there’s no bad blood.

In 2022, she addressed their relationship in an interview with Audacy. "We're cool. And we've always been cool. It’s never been weird," she clarified.

Even when Drake name-dropped her on his 2020 track 'Mr Right Now', SZA never had a problem with it. In fact, she said he's always spoken about her in a positive light.

"Anytime he’s ever mentioned me, it’s always been positive. He’s never said anything negative about me. I’m grateful for that. I think highly of him… He’s King Drake," she told Complex.

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