Eminem Reacts Bashfully to SZA’s Unexpected Cover of ‘Lose Yourself’

SZA, Eminem

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SZA unexpectedly shared a cover of Eminem‘s 2002 hit “Lose Yourself” on social media on Thursday night, leaving her followers and even Eminem in shock.

“U ever just cover Eminem on some tender shit for feels?” SZA said in the caption to her minute-long post. The piano cover features SZA sweetly singing the song from the “8 Mile” soundtrack in a stripped-back rendition she notes is not for a project and is purely “just for mental health.”

Just hours after she shared the cover, Eminem quickly responded with an emoji of a blushing, wide-eyed face. In the comments, other stars such as Camila Cabello, Kacey Musgraves and Questlove responded with praise and love for SZA’s voice and performance.

The cover arrived nearly at the same time as Eminem’s new single, “Houdini.” The song is the first taste of the rapper’s upcoming 12th album “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce),” dropping this summer. Earlier this week, he released an Instagram Reel with magician David Blaine where he announced “Houdini” as the first single. “For my last trick, I’m going to make my career disappear,” he told Blaine.

SZA, meanwhile, has been holding out on the release of the deluxe issue of her Grammy-winning “SOS” album. SZA began mentioning an expanded version of the 23-track, hour-plus-long “SOS” shortly after that album dropped in December of 2022, and spoke about it with Variety. However, in recent months, SZA has changed her tune on what fans can expect and she hasn’t provided much of an update since.

“SOS” remains in the Top 10 of Billboard’s all-genre-inclusive albums chart. SZA has also seen success with her single, “Saturn,” which has topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sits at No. 14 in the latest tracking week.

Listen to SZA’s cover of “Lose Yourself” below.