Description

The cover of SOS is mostly ocean. A vast expanse of dark blue water fills the frame, and SZA sits alone at the very end of a diving board that juts out over it, so small she is easy to miss. The pose recreates a well known photograph of Diana, Princess of Wales, sitting at the end of a diving board on the Jonikal yacht off Portofino, Italy, taken in the summer of 1997, shortly before her death.

SZA explained that the reference was about mood. "I pulled the Diana reference because I just loved how isolated she felt," she said, "and that's what I wanted to convey the most." Her first idea was to pose on top of a shipping barge, but when the team could not get clearance for the barges, they built a diving board instead. "We didn't nix the boat altogether and we tried it and it turned out cool," she said.

Where Diana wore a swimsuit, SZA wears a custom St. Louis Blues hockey jersey with her name on the back and the album title on the sleeves, a nod to her birthplace, along with Timberland boots. The jersey was designed by art director Jass Bell, who also worked on the artwork for the album's singles. SZA posted the cover on 30 November 2022, and the album arrived on 9 December. Its title, the Morse code distress call, gives the lonely figure at sea its meaning.

Credit

Jersey and art direction by Jass Bell