How postpartum depression led Victoria Monet to Grammy gold
Best New Artist winner Victoria Monet looked fly and looked good after taking that honor along with Best R&B Album and Best Engineered Album at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
Monet was the second-most nominated artist of the year with seven nods for her breakout album, “Jaguar II,” and her hit single “On My Mama.” But the singer says the self-love anthem was actually written during a very difficult time in her life.
“I wrote it at a time when I didn’t feel good,” Monet told Daily News at the 66th annual Grammy Awards. “I was dealing with postpartum, and it was a really hard time for me, so I started using the song as affirmations. And I was like, ‘This is something I should teach (my daughter).’ I was like, she should do it in the mirror, and this should be some of her first words.”
She continued, “With social media, I was just always scared that she would hear too many outside opinions that aren’t from her so I want to ground her and make sure that she knows very young, ‘I’m beautiful, I’m smart, I can conquer anything.’”
Hazel, 2, is featured on the award-winning song, making her the youngest Grammy winner ever. Monet credits her recent success to her belief in consistently speaking positive words to herself after pregnancy.
“I really started believing in it after I had my daughter, Hazel,” Monet told the News. “She was about 8 weeks old when I wrote ‘On My Mama’ and the song is about affirmations.”
After spending years operating behind the scenes as a hit songwriter for artists like Ariana Grande, Kanye West, Chris Brown and Kendrick Lamar, little did she know an emotional low-point would lead to one of the biggest moments of her career. She now attributes her skyrocketing career to how being a mother to Hazel has transformed her life.
“It’s just like a life-changing, most beautiful, beautifully difficult thing that I’ve ever ever done. I’m just so blessed to have her.”
As the three-time Grammy winner tearfully took the stage to accept the award for Best New Artist, Monet opened up about her 15-year journey to that moment in an emotional acceptance speech.
“This award was a 15-year pursuit. I moved to L.A. in 2009, and I like to liken myself to a plant who was planted. And you can look at the music industry as soil, and it can be looked at as dirty, or it can be looked at as a source of nutrients and water. My roots have been growing underneath ground, unseen for so long. And I feel like today, I’m sprouting finally above ground.”
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