Muni Long’s “Made for Me” reached platinum status, hit the No. 1 spot on R&B/hip-hop radio and, much like her breakthrough groove “Hrs & Hrs,” went viral on TikTok — with users posting hilarious and playful videos to the lyric, “Twin, where have you been?” It was inevitable that the R&B song of the year would be showered with Grammy nominations.
But it didn’t qualify for the 2025 show, technically speaking. The song was released on Sept. 15, 2023, the last day of eligibility for the 2024 Grammys. It was submitted to that show — a risky move that didn’t pay off: The track was too new and didn’t garner any noms.
Long posted about the bad news on social media — a video of herself lying on the floor in distress with the caption: “When management tells you ‘Made for Me’ isn’t eligible for any Grammys.”
But her team regrouped and found a loophole used by artists who came before her: Submit a live version of the song. It wouldn’t qualify in all categories, like song of the year or best R&B song, but it would be eligible for record of the year and best R&B performance — where it indeed landed a nomination. And the Grammy love for the singer — a respected songwriter who has crafted hits for Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Madonna and Miranda Lambert — was powerful: She swept the R&B categories, also landing noms for best R&B album (Revenge), R&B song (“Ruined Me”) and traditional R&B performance (“Make Me Forget”).
“The biggest lesson [and] takeaway is you have to be very intentional about what you’re doing, and I think that was the mistake we made. Holistically, I think we weren’t focused. In particular, there were certain people who did not understand that I could have a bigger moment than ‘Hrs and Hrs,’” she says of her song that won the best R&B performance Grammy in 2023. “I will never let that happen to me again. I’ll always make sure we’re taking it seriously. ‘What’s the plan? What are we doing?’ And even if no one else has a plan, I have my own plan.”
Was it a relief when you found out there was a way to submit “Made for Me” for Grammys?
It’s like a fork in the road. I could be grateful that I’m even in the conversation this year. Then there’s the other path: If we weren’t so in disbelief at how massive the song was … I think that we could have had multiple nominations in multiple categories, song of the year possibly.
“Ruined Me” was inspired by your split from your husband of nine years and is nominated for best R&B song. What was it like writing that song?
Literally, it was the last song [I recorded]. I wrote the song in probably 20 minutes. That’s how it always is. If it takes me longer than that, I just need to move on.
Is it easy to write that quickly when you are being vulnerable?
It really doesn’t matter what the subject is — I remove myself from the process. To be honest, I’m not super vulnerable. I might take a piece from my real life, but the rest of it is theater. I want you to feel the emotion that I’m trying to evoke. That’s it. My actual feelings around my current situation is like Michael Myers, Chucky. I’m not going to write a song about that, obviously.
Have you tried?
No. I just wouldn’t because I know that it’s maniacal. You would probably call the police. “Wow. She’s lost it.”
The lyric that stuck out the most was, “You know I would’ve died for you/One night I almost did.” Did you write that?
Yes. That was stemming from several true events. I have a dark attitude toward the conversation around domestic violence. And being in an abusive relationship, you realize that there isn’t help, especially with the results of November 6th, it’s even worse now. There is no help for women and children. There really isn’t. There’s the appearance of [help], but when you’re really in that situation, it’s almost like you have to dig deep and dig yourself out of that hole or endure until you can get to a place where you are safe and you are protected, because the world isn’t going to do it.
My best revenge is continuing to be successful, making sure that my platform is so large that when I finally do speak up about certain things, you can’t silence me. You can’t make it seem like I’m crazy. It’s really sad, and it’s even worse now with some of these laws they’re trying to pass. We’re not our mothers. We’re not our grandmothers. We’re not putting up with that shit. So hopefully people are listening to my album and hearing the lyrics and feeling inspired — not feeling like they have to be like, “Oh, woe is me.” Nah, take your power back.
Did winning your first Grammy in 2023 change your life?
Yeah, it definitely makes life easier, but you’re only as good as your latest thing, right? At that time I was like, “Is this real? Is this a joke? I don’t know. Maybe I won because there was no one else better.”
No. Beyoncé was in the category, let’s not forget.
That’s true. Yeah, no, you’re right, I think it was Beyoncé, Jazmine Sullivan, Mary J. Blige, PJ Morton. It was actually insane.
People who have all won Grammys before …
I didn’t even think about that. It’s true. It helps when you’re able to show that it wasn’t a coincidence. It wasn’t a fluke. They thought I got lucky. Historically, whenever I do have success, it’s attributed to the men in my situation, which is annoying, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue to show my gift and that the one consistent thing throughout time is that I still have my gift. You can’t take that, so I’m going to continue being successful whether you’re here or not, which is great. Even under duress — I’m going through a lot personally right now, a lot.
If I started talking about it, people would be like, “No fucking way.” But to have something to look at and be like, “This is the reason why we don’t give up. This is the reason why we keep putting everything we have into the music.” Of course, I have my little one. That’s super-inspiring, being mommy to him and making sure that I leave something for him. It’s like, “Just keep going. Stay the course. Be consistent. Be grateful. Stay in your gratitude. Keep your frequency high and good things will happen. Even if there is the appearance of darkness, there’s always a little piece of light.”
It makes me think about how tough it must be for songwriters who aren’t also performers.
It’s hell. Why do you think I stopped? I said, “Oh, no, there has to be another way, honey, because this ain’t it.”
During the writers strike in TV and film, there were a lot of people who said streaming paid them in pennies. Was that the case for you?
Absolutely. Sometimes you look at your quarterly statement and you’re like, “Oh wow, $1,000 for 500 million streams. Great. That’s awesome.” The sheer volume that I have to write in order to make an income that makes sense [is insane]. What saved me is that I have quality and quantity, whereas some of these people, all they have is one or two records. And I had to take a lot of Ls. And I got taken advantage of and stolen from and all that.
You mean not getting credit for something?
Not getting credit, not getting paid, the producer running off with the money — anything you can think of, it happened to me. But my goal was to be where I am now, and those people who did those things to me are nowhere to be found.
This story appeared in the Nov. 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
