THE Victoria Monét is one of our SOUND OF NOW cover stars and we are wowed by her insane talent! A pile of Grammy nominations? Check. Being a badass working mom? Check. Getting recognition for her incredible work as a singer AND songwriter? In this industry?! CHECK. In this episode of The Breakdown, she tells Cosmo about her dreams of working with Beyoncé, what her Grammy nominations mean to her, and what music videos were hardest to shoot. Read Victoria’s cover interview here: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a46491356/victoria-monet-interview-2024/
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00:00 I got a little breeze going through my wig,
00:03 which was really nice.
00:04 What's up you guys, it's Victoria Monet
00:06 and I'm doing the breakdown for Cosmopolitan.
00:09 I definitely don't like watching my work
00:12 in front of other people.
00:13 Like if I were at a party or something
00:15 and someone put on my music video,
00:16 I'm usually the one to be like, "Eh, cringe."
00:18 I do like to watch my work to make edits
00:21 and like take notes and see what I could do better.
00:23 Alone, though.
00:24 I'm definitely a tough critic.
00:25 I feel like somewhere in my chart,
00:27 there's a bit of a perfectionism
00:29 and sometimes it does self-sabotage, maybe.
00:32 But I do feel like if anybody's hard on me, it's me.
00:36 I'm not a Virgo.
00:38 I am a Taurus, but we're kind of aligned in a lot of ways.
00:42 I love a Virgo.
00:43 My favorite Virgo is Beyonce.
00:45 ♪ Lie, lie, lie ♪
00:47 ♪ I put that on my own mama ♪
00:49 ♪ On my hood ♪
00:51 ♪ I look fly ♪
00:52 ♪ I look good ♪
00:54 ♪ You can't touch my back ♪
00:55 We were just watching my On My Mama music video.
00:58 My mom was in the video.
01:00 My daughter's in this section of the video.
01:03 It feels like a really core family memory
01:05 that we'll have forever.
01:06 And I also really like this part of the video
01:08 because it puts me in a more masculine style.
01:12 Also throwing some real retro tall T vibes.
01:15 It was before I had to pay bills,
01:17 when we were doing the tall T thing and the jabot jeans.
01:20 It was like high school or early high school, junior high.
01:24 So it just feels really cool to tap back into that.
01:26 I had this idea that I wanted to switch jackets somehow.
01:31 We only had one take to do this
01:33 because it was the last shot of the night.
01:35 And you know, at the end of set,
01:37 you can't go overtime 'cause that costs money, right?
01:39 We got it done and that's why I feel like
01:40 the celebration of us doing the next part is so fun
01:43 because we were like, we nailed it.
01:45 - Don't be fine, aight, aight.
01:48 That's what you said.
01:49 - I'm wearing the same scarf right now.
01:53 - The On My Mama choreography tutorial
01:56 with Sean Bankhead, the choreographer.
01:58 I thought it was super important for us
02:00 to demonstrate the moves because I know how hard
02:05 it can be looking at your phone and trying to learn
02:08 because it's like flipped backwards, you're like mirroring.
02:10 And he got sick of y'all messing it up.
02:12 And it's another way for people to spend time together.
02:15 I saw a lot of videos of people doing it with their friends,
02:17 doing it with other dancers.
02:19 I do truly value dance.
02:21 It's actually my first love.
02:23 [upbeat music]
02:25 ♪ Two fireworks that light up for me ♪
02:30 ♪ In moving the tips I burn my voice ♪
02:34 That was my music video for my song Smoke
02:37 featuring Lucky Day.
02:38 It was shot in a desert and I got a little breeze going
02:43 through my wig.
02:44 ♪ Been a notation, this is celebration every time ♪
02:47 Which was really nice, but shortly after the shot,
02:50 the wind picked up and it was like a wind storm.
02:53 Got a little sand in my mouth.
02:55 We're sitting out there just baking,
02:56 no trees to create any shade,
02:58 cooking on a grill out there.
03:01 I have a lot of dream collaborations,
03:03 but at the top of the list,
03:05 I would love to work with Sade.
03:07 I think she is just like a dream.
03:09 I also am a Drake fan for sure.
03:13 I love Beyonce, she's the queen.
03:16 My list is pretty like legendary.
03:19 These are some of my favorite artists ever,
03:21 so I would be silly not to dream a bit.
03:24 [upbeat music]
03:26 Really, really amazing time.
03:35 This was on a rooftop of like a casino hotel,
03:39 kind of guerrilla style.
03:41 She let me wear her jacket and she got the sauce.
03:43 So she happened to have a brown jacket, which was perfect.
03:47 I write my own music,
03:48 but I also really do enjoy writing for other people.
03:51 I feel like music is another language.
03:54 So it's almost like you can communicate with your friends
03:57 in another language.
03:58 As long as I'm an artist, I'll be a songwriter.
04:01 And even beyond probably when I'm 70, 80,
04:04 still be trying to get placements
04:05 on some 25 year old superstar.
04:08 - So you're two way.
04:09 [audience cheering]
04:12 You're 24, 25.
04:15 [audience cheering]
04:18 [audience cheering]
04:21 - We just watched the reaction video,
04:30 the Grammy nomination ceremony.
04:33 It was one of the best moments of my entire life,
04:36 literally caught on film.
04:38 We did have champagne, we did have balloons,
04:40 and we had a cake ready because we were also celebrating
04:43 the fact that my mama had just went number one
04:45 on Urban Radio.
04:46 So regardless of the nomination news,
04:50 we were going to celebrate something.
04:52 We just didn't have an idea
04:54 to what extent we would be celebrating.
04:56 So every time they announced my name and the song again
05:01 for another nomination was just like another level of like,
05:04 oh my God, I feel above the ground.
05:08 Like I'm not here.
05:10 Like we were just so surprised.
05:12 I just wanted to hug everybody in the room.
05:14 There were so many tears.
05:16 And my daughter being the youngest ever nominee
05:21 for a Grammy was another crazy thing to happen.
05:24 So I was trying to like congratulate her
05:26 and explain it to her, but she is two.
05:28 So I don't think she completely grasped.
05:30 She started hearing the word Grammy.
05:33 By the end of the day, she was singing "Grammy Shark."
05:36 Do do do do.
05:37 So she made a song about it.
05:38 [drumming]
05:40 ♪ Oh ♪
05:45 His reaction was like, oh damn.
05:52 [laughing]
05:54 ♪ I feel like I just gave measure ♪
06:00 ♪ Baby nothing ♪
06:03 Aw, she's so little.
06:04 ♪ Nothing feels better than loving you ♪
06:08 ♪ You ♪
06:10 Aw, that's so cute.
06:14 But we were just watching a video I made
06:17 to celebrate my daughter's first birthday,
06:19 paired with a song that I wrote for her.
06:22 Some of my favorite moments,
06:23 but I have probably at least 2,000 other videos in my phone.
06:28 When you first learn that you are creating a life,
06:31 you wanna film everything.
06:33 So I'm definitely that mom.
06:35 I'm so thankful that I live in an era
06:36 where I have a cell phone that has a camera on it
06:38 because I'm whipping it out.
06:40 For a lot of these moments, it's like just home video.
06:43 Our version of the VHS camera.
06:45 Just super sweet.
06:46 It makes me emotional to think about and watch
06:48 because I don't even know how you can summarize
06:52 how much you love someone.
06:54 One reason why I share it with the world
06:56 is because I feel like a lot of moms can relate
06:58 to the duality of a career and love for your baby.
07:03 So it's a really sweet message from mommy and family
07:09 to my baby girl, Hazel.
07:11 ♪ Hear it in my tone ♪
07:13 ♪ See it in my eyes ♪
07:15 ♪ Feel it in my bones ♪
07:17 ♪ We were by design ♪
07:20 My very first live performance of "How Does It Make You Feel"
07:23 really, really beautiful moment.
07:24 I got to perform it with a band.
07:26 And in the future, I really see it being performed
07:31 with the Philharmonic or a big orchestra
07:35 and making it really dramatic in this really long dress.
07:38 Hopefully for the Grammys, I don't know yet.
07:41 It is Grammy nominated now, which is super exciting.
07:44 I had the feeling in my heart
07:46 that it was worthy of that type of recognition.
07:51 It's a song about love.
07:52 It's a song about someone you're gonna love for all time.
07:56 For me, it was about my boyfriend.
07:58 Depending on how you're listening to it,
07:59 it could be about your child, your parent,
08:02 like whoever you feel like there's an endless amount
08:06 of love for, you could sing this song to them.
08:08 I dream of it being people's wedding song
08:11 and a timeless soundtrack to the way you love somebody.
08:14 Thank you guys so much for watching.
08:16 If you want to see more clips like the ones we just watched,
08:20 I have a whole YouTube page full of stuff
08:23 and an Instagram and a TikTok.
08:25 And if you like to read, I got a Twitter too.
08:28 Actually, it's X now.
08:29 I got an X too.
08:31 And I ain't talking about boyfriends.
08:33 (upbeat music)
08:35 (upbeat music)
08:38 (upbeat music)
08:41 (upbeat music)
08:44 (upbeat music)
08:46 (upbeat music)