Victoria Monét: Photos From the Billboard Women In Music Shoot

When Victoria Monét looked in the mirror five years ago, she saw a successful songwriter whose growing list of estimable credits included co-writes on two of Ariana Grande’s biggest hits, “Thank U, Next” and “7 Rings.” What Monét, then 30, didn’t see was a successful solo artist — a goal she had been tirelessly pursuing since 2009.

“It was a very difficult, uphill battle trying to get people to understand there’s a duality to me, that my relevance wasn’t only based on my proximity to somebody else,” Monét recalls. “Interview after interview, questions were snuck in about the artists I worked with. I just wanted to be a stand-alone artist with my own reputation.”

Monét’s long-held dream finally became reality with the 2023 release of her RCA debut studio album, Jaguar II. Her breakthrough single, “On My Mama,” and two earlier album singles, “Smoke” (with Lucky Daye) and “Party Girls” (with Buju Banton), created what she calls a “snowball effect” — and validated her solo artistry, not only in terms of chart position, different interview questions and her first headlining tour, but also in the form of golden hardware.

At the Grammys in February, Monét — who entered with seven nominations, including record of the year and best R&B song — won best new artist, as well as the statuettes for best R&B album and best engineered album, non-classical. Her best traditional R&B performance nod — for “Hollywood,” featuring Earth, Wind & Fire and her toddler daughter, Hazel Monét — was record-breaking in its own right, making Hazel the youngest-ever Grammy nominee.