Victoria Monét McCants (born May 1, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. She became involved in performing arts at a young age, singing in the youth choir at her church, and performing in a city dance team. She soon took to writing and began working with producer Rodney Jerkins. Previously signed to Atlantic Records, Monét released her debut EP Nightmares & Lullabies: Act 1 in 2014 and her follow-up EP Nightmares & Lullabies: Act 2 in 2015. Monét would follow this with the Life After Love, Pt. 1 and Life After Love Pt. 2 EPs in February and September 2018 respectively. Part one of her debut album, Jaguar, was released on August 7, 2020.
Monét has written songs for a number of artists including Nas, Ariana Grande, Fifth Harmony, T.I., GOOD Music, Lupe Fiasco, Chrisette Michele, Coco Jones, Chris Brown, and Diddy-Dirty Money. In 2019, Monét received two Grammy Award nominations for Album of the Year for her work on Grande’s Thank U, Next, and Record of the Year for “7 Rings“.
Monét was born in Georgia to a mother of mixed-race Creole ancestry and a French father, and moved to Sacramento, California, as a child.[2] She was fascinated with performing arts, taking an interest in singing and dancing. Her first onstage experience came when she sang in her Catholic school holiday plays. She also sang in the youth choir at her local church but it was a dance that initially gave her a sense of herself as a performer. By the time she became a student at the local performing arts high school, Monét had developed a grueling rehearsal schedule. She taught at two different dance studios and rehearsed with a local dance group, Boogie Monstarz, at Step One Dance Studios in Sacramento while working at a local bank.
Following the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and the Dallas Police shooting, Monét released “Better Days” with Ariana Grande on July 10, 2016. Monét joined the girl group, Fifth Harmony, on the North American leg of the 7/27 Tour, which began on July 25, 2016, as an opening act along with pop singer JoJo. Grande joined Monet on one of the tour dates to perform “Better Days.” On September 22, 2016, Grande announced on Twitter that Monét will serve as an opening act along with the British girl group Little Mix on the North American leg of the Dangerous Woman Tour. Monét also supported Grande on the European leg of the tour alongside rapper Bia.
In 2016, Monét released the promotional single “Do You Like It” which was followed by the single “Ready”, which was released while on tour with Ariana Grande in April 2017. Both singles would later be included on Life After Love Pt. 2. On February 23, 2018, Monét released the first half of her “Life After Love” series, Life After Love, Pt. 1. The project features the single “Freak”, which was released on February 9 with the project’s pre-order. A remix of the song featuring previous tour-mate Bia was released on July 19, 2018, alongside a music video. The latter half of the “Life After Love” series, Life After Love, Pt. 2, was released on September 28, 2018, and was preceded by the single “New Love”
On April 1, 2019, Victoria Monét and Ariana Grande released the single “Monopoly” while Ariana Grande was on her Sweetener World Tour.
In late 2019, Monét released the single “Ass Like That”. The song served as the lead single to her upcoming debut project. In early 2020, Monét released the single “Moment” followed by the promotional single “Dive”. Monét was announced as Apple Music‘s Up Next artist in February 2020.[16] On June 19, Monét released the single “Experience” with Khalid and SG Lewis and announced her debut project, Jaguar.
On February 1, 2021, she released the single “F.U.C.K.”, serving as the lead single to the second part of her debut project.
Monét has a long history of writing songs for other artists. In 2010, she helped pen “I Hate That You Love Me” by Diddy Dirty Money and went on to co-write songs such as “Be Alright“, “Let Me Love You“, “Thank U, Next“, and “Monopoly” (featuring Monét) by Ariana Grande; “Memories Back Then” by T.I., B.o.B and Kendrick Lamar; “Drunk Texting” by Chris Brown; “Everlasting Love”, “Them Girls Be Like”, “Reflection”, “We Know”, and “No Way” by Fifth Harmony; “You Wouldn’t Understand” by Nas; “Sin City” by GOOD Music; “Visual Love” by Chrisette Michele; “Live on Tonight” by T.I.; “Do It” by Chloe x Halle; “Rather Be” by Brandy; as well as “Ice Cream” by Blackpink and Selena Gomez.
For her work with Grande she was nominated for two awards at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, Record of the Year for “7 Rings” and Album of the Year” for Thank U, Next. The following year she was nominated in the Best R&B Song category for co-writing Chloe x Halle‘s single “Do It.”