Victoria Monét: From Industry Secret to Grammy Winner
In 2023, On My Mama became Victoria
Monet’s first charting solo single. This moment was long incoming for her as
she has been in the industry for a decade. It got the industries noticing as it
helped her win Best New Artist at the 2024 Grammys. But how did she get in this
situation and why did it take so long for people to notice her. Today on jgtv,
we are going go through Victoria Monet’s musical journey and explaining why it
too so long for her to get her flowers, so without further ado…
Victoria
Monét: From Industry Secret to Grammy Winner
Victoria Monet McCants was born on
May 1st, 1989. While she was born in Atlanta, her family moved to
Sacramento sometime after birth. Not much is known about her father as she was
primarily raised by mother and grandmother. At an early age, Monét displayed a
keen interest in performing arts, singing in the church choir and participating
in dance teams. This would leave her to teach two dance classes. While in the
world of dance, she found a love for poetry. So, she got behind the scene and
learn the production aspect of music.
She learned about Rodney
“Darkchild” Jerkins and followed him on myspace. Darkchild noticed Monet and
reached out to join a group he was developing. She agreed and join the group
which would be name Purple Reign. The group was signed to Universal Motown but
was dropped before releasing any music. Monet went back behind the scene and
worked on her songwriting. In 2010, she got her first major songwriting credit
on Diddy-Dirty Money album Last Train to Paris on the song I Hate That You Love
Me. One person that gave her inspiration further was Bruno Mars as 2010 was his
breakout year. She started to notice how big/catchy his hooks where with not
only his own music but as a featured guest. That’s when she started to take
hooks more seriously. She would try and record hooks for demos in hope that she
got put on but would often get take off for better and bigger artists.
Monet would spend her early career
songwriting as that was bringing a guarantee income compared to being an actual
artist. In 2013 she would meet an artist that would change the trajectory of
her career in Ariana Grande. In 2013, Ariana was starting to breakaway from
Nickelodeon stardom into a full fledge serious music career. She wrote two
songs for Grande’s debut album Yours Truly those songs where Honeymoon Avenue
and Daydreamin. The next year Grande tabbed her as main songwriter again for
the follow-up album My Everything where Monet wrote the title track, Only One
and Cadillac Song.
In 2015 she returned to working for
Ariana Grande on her third album Dangerous Woman, she wrote 7 songs for that
album. Ariana then invited her to be the opening act on her Dangerous Woman
Tour. She also was an opening act for Fifth Harmony on their 7/27 show. In 2018
Victoria Monet came out as bisexual. She had this to say in regards her
sexuality “I thought that conforming would make me go further. Being
picturesque, straight. It almost felt like you didn’t want to add any more
weights to your ankles trying to win a race. It’s like, you’re already a woman,
you’re already Black – you’d better pick a struggle.” In that same interview,
she mentioned Whitney Houston as it was alleged that she also bi but was unable
to come out as the 90s were toxic in regards of sexual orientation. In 2018,
she released two more EPs, Life After Love Part 1 & 2.
But in 2019-2020, Victoria Monet
would go on a run. And you could thank her contributions on Ariana Grande’s
sweeter and thank u next albums, especially the latter. Her contributions
included the big singles “thank u next” and “7 rings” both going #1 on the Hot
100. She also wrote needy, NASA, make up, and ghostin. She was even able to
collab on the song “Monopoly” and that became her first Billboard charting
single reaching #69 on the Hot 100 (nice). The album gave Monet her first
nomination for Record of the Year and Album of the Year for her contributions.
2020 she wrote Chloe & Halle biggest single to date in “Do It” and that
gave Monet another nomination for Best R&B Song. While Blackpink were in
everyone’s area, Monet wrote Blackpink highest charting single in “Ice Cream.
In 2020, Victoria Monet released
her fifth EP Jaguar teaming up with D’Ernest “D-Mile” Emile II. The EP would
become her most successful project to this point as it was critically
successful as it blended Classic R&B, Funk, Soul and Modern pop. More
importantly, it introduced Victoria as a fully realized artist, not just a
songwriter. Back with her contribution for Ariana Grande, her biggest
contribution was the song 34+35. Victoria Monet was gearing up to start work on
her second part to her EP Jaguar II. But late in 2020, she announced that she
was pregnant with her boyfriend. In 2021, Hazel Monet was born. After becoming
a mother, she continued to work on the second part to her EP Jaguar II. Her
Jaguar series was supposed to be a three-part trilogy but she was experiencing
major delays, personal and industry like. So, Monet decided to make Jaguar II a
full-length album, her first.
In 2023, she released the single
“Smoke” with Lucky Daye but that song went nowhere. Second single was “Party
Girl” ft. Buju Banton and that song reached #25 on the Hot R&B charts. Then
she released “On My Mama”. The song became known for the choreography showcased
done by Sean Bankhead, who also worked on Party Girl, as the song interpolates
Charlie Boy “I Look Good”. The song had a moment and it went viral on TikTok
and it become Victoria Monet’s first charting single as a solo artist
eventually going #33 on the Hot 100, #4 on the R&B Charts.
In August 2023, her long awaited
highly anticipated Jaguar II album was released, the album was another critical
darling. To promote she embarked on a small yet effective Jaguar Tour, her
first as a headliner. And thanks to this era, it saw her nominated for 7
Grammys, one of the most nominated that night. Her daughter was nominated for
Best Traditional R&B performance for “Hollywood” as it features her
laughter in the song and with this at just the age of three, Hazel Monet became
the youngest person to ever be nominated for a Grammy. As for Monet, she won
Best R&B Album, Best Engineered Album Non-Classical, and the coveted and
somewhat cursed Best New Artist, a nearly ten-year journey to get to this
point.
With a Grammy win, she was finally
getting the recognition she deserved. Billboard Women in Music honored her with
the Rising Star Award. IHeart radio gave her Best New R&B Artist and BET
gave her two awards for Video of the Year and the BET Her Award both for On My
Mama. She also dropped the song “Alright” a song that reached #13 on the
R&B Charts. One year after Jaguar II, she released its deluxe edition and
it featured the song SOS (Sex on Sight) ft. Usher. The song reached #12 on the
R&B Charts.
Her contribution in the songwriting world didn’t stop either. She wrote two songs on Normani’s solo debut in Dopamine. In 2025, she teamed up with Afrobeats artist Davido on the song “Offa Me”, a song that reached #5 on the US Afrobeats Charts. To close, Victoria Monet is the definition of patience, it took her nearly ten years for her career to take off. Playing behind the scenes and finally emerging. The best part about all of this is that her story is still being written.
SOURCES
https://bi.org/en/famous/victoria-monet
https://www.popfiltr.com/artist-profile/victoria-monet
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