SZA, Elvis Costello, and GloRilla all have concerts this week

SZA’s “SOS” tour arrives in South Philly as the pop music event of the year (so far). It highlights a week that also includes a rising Memphis star, and a stalwart Philly rapper. What’s more? An Elvis Costello date down the shore, and the indie songwriter formerly known as Smog in West Philly.

My five bonus picks are: Aeon Station at Johnny Brenda’s on Friday; Shawn Colvin, Marc Cohn, and Sarah Jarosz at the Keswick Theatre on Saturday, Pile at PhilaMOCA on Monday, Ruthie Foster at Ardmore Music Hall on Wednesday, and Richard Lloyd of Television at City Winery on Thursday.

GloRilla broke out with “F.N.F. (Let’s Go),” and the Memphis rapper born Gloria Woods has been going nonstop ever since. The viral hit, a collaboration with producer HitKid, was nominated for a Grammy for rap song of the year. (She lost to Kendrick Lamar).

Cardi B. guested on GloRilla’s second single, “Tomorrow,” and she made her “Made in America” debut last September. This week, it was announced she’ll be playing the Roots Picnic in June. But first, she headlines the TLA on South Street this weekend. $60-$195, 8 p.m., Feb. 24, Theater of Living Arts, 332 South St., tlaphilly.com

Elvis Costello is fresh off a 10-night run of solo shows at New York’s Gramercy Theater, where he dug deep into his 600-title songbook. This weekend, the enduring British singer-guitarist is back on the road with his band, with concerts in Bethlehem on Thursday and Montclair on Sunday bookending this Saturday night in Atlantic City. For this run, Texas guitar great Charlie Sexton is an Imposter. The Songs of Costello & Bacharach, a box set built around Painted From Memory, a 1996 collaborative album with Burt Bacharach, comes out next week. So expect a tribute to the late songwriter, who died Feb. 8. $39-$129, 8 p.m., Feb. 25, Ovation Hall at Ocean Casino Resort, 500 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, theoceanac.com

It’s been 20 years since Philadelphia rapper Leslie Pridgen — a.k.a. Freeway — made a dramatic entrance with Philadelphia Freeway, his debut album which included the classic single “What We Do,” featuring Beanie Sigel and Jay-Z. In his eventful career since, he recorded the 2014 album Broken Ankles with Pittsburgh DJ-producer Girl Talk and wrote about his kidney failure health scare in 2016′s Think Free. (He received a transplant in 2019).

He’ll be part of the State Property reunion at this year’s Roots Picnic, and he’ll celebrate two decades in the game with special guests this weekend. $32, 8 p.m., Feb. 25, Fillmore Philadelphia, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com

Bill Callahan called himself Smog for 15 years before he started using his real name with 2007′s Woke on a Whaleheart. Since then, his mostly-acoustic spoken-sung music has gotten warmer and more welcoming. He continues to concoct hypnotic rambles that conjure a dream state but convey just enough complexity to avoid becoming soporific. His new YTILAER (that’s reality spelled backwards) is top-shelf Callahan, as he revels in the comforts and joy of becoming a father in his 50s, while the excitement of creative life and the anxieties of the pandemic keep him on his toes. As he sings on “Everyway”: “I feel something coming on, either a disease or a song.” $30, 8 p.m., March 1, Music Hall at World Cafe live, 3025 Walnut St., worldcafelive.com.

It took SZA five years to fully follow up her 2017 debut album, Ctrl, though the Maple Shade-raised artist born Sôlana Rowe has released plenty of music in the interim. This includes “All the Stars,” a 2019 Oscar-nominated Black Panther collaboration with Kendrick Lamar, and an expanded edition of Ctrl with seven extra songs. And when SOS finally arrived just before Christmas, the 23 song genre-splicing opus — which includes contributions from Don Toliver, Travis Scott, Phoebe Bridgers, and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard — did not disappoint in size, scope, or commercial impact. It’s been at the top of the Billboard charts for nine weeks, the most by a woman since Adele’s 25 in 2016. $54.50-$169.50, 8 p.m., March 2, Wells Fargo Center, 3602 S. Broad St., wellsfargocenterphilly.com