This was in large part due to Ctrl's critical acclaim, as well as the five-year-long wait and the several delays that occurred surrounding SOS's release.

"[8] Tickets went on sale via SZA's website on December 16, at 12 pm local time,[9] with pre-sales hosted by Ticketmaster one day beforehand.

[10] Several publications called the tour one of 2023's most anticipated[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]; some cited the critical acclaim of SOS[18] and the years-long wait for SZA's album as reasons.

[33] In a November 2023 Variety interview with SZA for the magazine's Hitmaker of the Year award, author Jem Aswad revealed that a fourth leg set in Latin America and Oceania will take place in 2024.

[37][38] The setup included footage of waters, projected onto video screens, alongside several large props like a boat or anchor, reinforcing the tour's visual theme.

[44][45] Apart from the standard SOS tracks, SZA performed various songs from Ctrl, such as "Love Galore", "Broken Clocks", and "Garden (Say It like Dat)".

[53][54] A concert began with SZA's recreation of the album's cover art—which shows her atop a diving board in the middle of the ocean—backed by "PSA".

The screen projected a pre-filmed scene in which, through visual effects, her silhouette throws her microphone at the ocean and dives into the water headfirst.

[55][56] Emerging for "Seek & Destroy", SZA and her backup dancers appeared behind the first stage setting, a pier into which a fishing trawler is docked.

Following a performance of her rock song "F2F", in which she and her guitarist headbanged to channel a mosh pit, the screen and stage floor projected a scene of a turbulent sea, leading her to retreat to a floating life raft.

She wore red biker pants and a motor suit with a spiked ball and chain in hand, recreating her outfit in the music video for "Kill Bill".

Her prop was a callback to a scene in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) where Gogo Yubari fought the protagonist, the Bride, at the House of Blue Leaves using a meteor hammer.

SZA concluded the show back on the diving board, as the screen projected a scene of the sun either rising or setting.

[46][54] SZA's approach with the tour was to "pop ass and cry and give theater", aiming for catharsis through cinematics and theatrics.

SZA described it as a "Cinderella moment where there's weird, ethereal, mystical, soft things" combined with a "hardcore edge", reflected through the sets and costumes.

[66][61] While performing the medley, SZA wore a yellow tulle gown for the shows' third outfit, reminiscent of the character Belle from Beauty and the Beast (1991).

[40] When SZA began with "PSA", she wore a variant of the St. Louis Blues hockey jersey, with its number substituted for an "S" to recall the SOS cover art.

[67] Part of SZA's fashion sense was an affinity for oversized varsity jackets, reflected on the first costume, so Hernandez knew to always have several in their wardrobe.

[68] Many of those critics wrote the tour's voyage premise, through props like the submarine and lighthouse, symbolized navigation of one's self to heal from a turbulent past.

The ocean, according to the interpretation, represented the highs and lows of love: "SZA's voyage mirrors the turbulence and good times that can be had in any relationship.

In Wood's view, the lighthouse searchlight helps the concert attendee feel seen, reflecting the vulnerable, confessional qualities of "Special" and SZA's works as a whole.

He said: "She puts all the detailed complexities of a messy personal life, with its betrayals and disappointments and compromises, into a highly focused beam that somehow makes her listeners feel uniquely [acknowledged].

[71] Billboard wrote the "slow-burning success" of Ctrl on the US albums chart was a major contributor to the tour's commercial performance.

To promote the album, SZA performed in places that could accommodate around 1,000 people, a relatively low capacity, such as Brooklyn Steel in New York City.

Ctrl's five-year run on the chart[72] was a sign of anticipation for new music and thus, according to them, bolstered high demand for a tour that involved larger venues.

Her back-to-back New York City shows saw 1,376% more concertgoers and at least 10,000% more gross compared to when she earned $45,000 from 1,800 attendees at the Brooklyn Steel concert.