SZA's manager shades VMAs Artist of the Year 'off-cycle' nominees after snub

SZA decided to sit out her performance at the 2023 MTV VMAs on the suggestion of her manager.

In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, the Kill Bill singer’s manager Terrence “Punch” Henderson, revealed he was the one to pull out her VMAs performance after she was snubbed for Artist of the Year nomination.

"I figured, why go perform and do this if she's not going to be respected to the highest level?" affirmed Punch. "So, it was my call to actually pull out of the performance."

Not only did SZA not perform at the event, the Snooze artist didn’t attend the awards ceremony at all, despite being the second-nominated artist there.

"Why wouldn't she be nominated for artist of the year?" Punch said of SZA. "Even with the other artists that were nominated for artist of the year, some of them were even off-cycle."

He continued: “They didn't have an album out. I mean, no disrespect to them or anybody else; everybody's great and all of that, but still, you can't discredit what SOS has done and is currently doing."

"Obviously, she had one of the best years, if not the best year, of any artist at this point… It just really didn't make any sense to me.”

Punch also revealed he contacted MTV after the nominations were announced, however, he didn’t get a “clear answer” on her lack of nomination.

SZA ended up winning an award for the Best R&B prize for her song Shirt, which was received by Ashanti on her behalf.