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“Every new version of yourself requires the death of the previous you.”
These were some of the words spoken by R&B songstress Muni Long during her acceptance speech at the 2025 Grammys earlier this month. Decked out in a regal Elizabeth Taylor-inspired Schiaparelli look, the Florida born singer-songwriter breathlessly encouraged the audience to begin their journey of change today, saying, “I’m speaking from experience – you can do it.”
And what an experience it’s been for Long thus far. The “Time Machine” singer, born Priscilla Renea Hamilton, was discovered through YouTube after racking up views in the early days of the video-sharing platform with her infectious covers, originals and even singing her way through the dictionary to the tune of Fergie’s “Glamorous.”
After releasing her 2009 debut album Jukebox under Capitol Records to little chart success, Muni Long’s songwriting career began to flourish after Rihanna recorded the country-tinged ballad “California King Bed” for her 2010 album Loud.
Over the next nine years, Long’s pen would go on to power the catalogs of Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson, Ariana Grande, Mary J. Blige, Selena Gomez and countless others. And while she achieved massive success as a songwriter, shady business dealings, constant disrespect and general burnout left Long feeling unfulfilled.
Simply put Long, now 36, tells PEOPLE: “I truly had things that I wanted to say [as an artist] the way I wanted to say them. I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone else’s vision.”
While promoting her new single “Slow Grind,” Muni Long exclusively revealed to PEOPLE how she was able to break free, then break in as a successful mainstream R&B act. According to Long, taking charge of her artistic trajectory came with a golden requirement: silence.
“I’m the type of person who is very aware of the perception of myself, not that it matters. But I’m just aware of it,” Long begins. “I definitely sensed along this journey that if I was going to transition from my previous life or iteration seamlessly to Muni Long, that I was going to have to do it in silence.”
After releasing her final project as Priscilla Renea in 2018, the singer made the big leap. In 2020, a new look, a completely-wiped Instagram page, a new sound and a new name was introduced without warning. That made it official: Priscilla Renea was no more. And while Priscilla’s “death” felt like a purge of negative experiences, the wins had to be left in the past, too.
“I just instinctively felt that if I made this announcement and if I tried to use, like, all of the things that I had done in my past as a platform or a foundation or a base for this artistry, that it would just get written off,” Long explains. “Nobody would take it serious, right? Because the songwriter to artist pipeline is frowned upon in the music business.”
Following that first Muni Long release – the Jacob Latimore-assisted “Midnight Snack” – the Grammy winner began to pick up steady traction with each new offering. In the fall of 2021, Long released the sleek and sensual “Hrs & Hrs,” which exploded in the early months of 2022 thanks to a boost from content-sharing platform TikTok.
It was around this time that Long’s industry peers, collaborators and executives put the pieces together of her original iteration as Priscilla Renea. And even though she had proven her detractors wrong, they continued to prove her right.
“As soon as people found out that Muni Long was the former Priscilla Renea, exactly what I said started to happen,” she reveals. “[I remember hearing] ‘Oh, she needs to stay a songwriter. She’s not an artist. She’s not a performer. She’s not this. She’s not that.’ And I just think it’s so dehumanizing to tell someone that they should stay in any place.”
Muni Long had become a formidable R&B act in a matter of months, but with great success came even greater reflection. In typical industry fashion, those who once disrespected and mistreated her as a songwriter were looking to collaborate with after the organic ascent of the Grammy-winning “Hrs & Hrs.”
Long finally had all the resources, leverage and ammunition at her disposal. And yet, firing that loaded gun didn’t seem all that gratifying.
“I have people that want to work with me now that treated me so horribly in the past,” Long says. “One of my friends [that] corrected me actually was like, ‘Well, they didn’t treat Muni Long like that. They treated Priscilla like that. And there are certain things that Muni Long would not even tolerate.’”
Long discovered that her artistic reinvention came with an elevated mindset. Even if she was done wrong in the past, she wasn’t the same woman anymore and couldn’t carry those same sentiments into the new artistic life she created for herself. Her ultimate responsibility is herself, and she refused for her upward trajectory to be fueled by spite.
“That’s actually really hard to walk away from,” Long admits. “The opportunity to be like, ‘You know what you did.’ It’s so hard to do that. ‘Cause you want the apology. You want someone to tell you, ‘I was wrong.’ But at the same time that doesn’t do anything for you. That doesn’t actually advance you.”
“That doesn’t help you accomplish your goals. It’s just an ego thing. I mean, it says that in the Bible. Like you have to renew your mind, you have to die to self. It’s really hard to do, though, in practice and so, I applaud anybody who can do it.”
Fast forward to 2025, and Long has only seen higher heights: another viral hit (the slow-burning “Made For Me”), its critically acclaimed parent album Revenge and, now, a debut Coachella performance on the horizon. After winning her second best R&B performance Grammy for “Made For Me,” Muni Long ended her acceptance speech with a funnily-delivered, yet firmly-said declaration: “Please stop calling me Priscilla – it’s Muni Long now.”
And Muni Long it shall be.
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