State Champ Radio Women in Music
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The 2024 Billboard Women in Music brought together today’s brightest female stars for a night of celebration at Los Angeles’ YouTube Theater on Wednesday night (March 6). The ceremony featured jaw-dropping performances as well as heartfelt speeches as the evening’s honorees accepted their awards. “I’m super happy,” this year’s Woman of the Year, Karol G, […]
In addition to the many female artists and executives honored at the Billboard Women in Music Awards this year, several women have been selected by Billboard outlets around the world to receive recognition as Global Forces in the industry. Spanning Argentina, Brazil, China, Georgia, Italy and the Philippines, these visionaries are singers, songwriters, instrumentalists and producers […]
NewJeans brought the fun to Billboard’s Women in Music event on Wednesday night (March 6), where they took the stage to perform a high-energy mash-up of “OMG” and their viral hit, “Super Shy,” before accepting the Group of the Year award. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]
The 2024 Billboard Women in Music Awards took over YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, Calif., Wednesday (March 6), with some of today’s biggest female superstars bringing the girl power to the red carpet, from Katy Perry to Ice Spice, Victoria Monét, Kylie Minogue and many others.Hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross, this year’s event featured performances from honorees Karol G (Woman of the Year), Charli XCX (Powerhouse), Maren Morris (Visionary), NewJeans (Group of the Year, presented by Coke Studio), Tems (Breakthrough), Victoria Monét (Rising Star, presented by Honda), Young Miko (Impact, presented by American Express) and Luísa Sonza (Global Force).
Non-performing honorees include Ice Spice (Hitmaker), Kylie Minogue (Icon), Michelle Jubelirer (Executive of the Year), PinkPantheress (Producer of the Year, presented by Bose), Sarah Geronimo (Global Force) and Annalisa (Global Force).
Andra Day, Sky Ferreira, Nelly Furtado, GloRilla, Ellie Goulding, JoJo, Coco Jones, Bebe Rexha, Saweetie and Lainey Wilson were also among this year’s star-studded attendees, taking the stage as this year’s presenters after hitting the red carpet.
“We could not be more excited to celebrate these inspiring and dynamic artists from around the world, as they move our culture forward and inspire women everywhere to push boundaries and pursue their own dreams,” Billboard’s editorial director, Hannah Karp, previously said in a press statement. “With the talented Tracee Ellis Ross as our host, this year’s Billboard Women in Music Awards will be an unforgettable evening.”
For fans who weren’t at the show in person, you can watch a full stream of the 2024 Billboard Women in Music Awards on Thursday, March 7, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on billboardwomeninmusic.com. In the meantime, check out our full gallery of photos from the red carpet below.
Since PinkPantheress started uploading her music to TikTok three years ago, her songs have gone from locked away on her hard drive to the Billboard charts — but the singer, songwriter and producer’s recording essentials remain the same: microphone, GarageBand-outfitted laptop and a killer ear for finding niche samples primed for her to mold into the next dance-pop earworm.
The 22-year-old from Bath, England, may have started enlisting fellow producers to help polish her work, as on her recent album Heaven Knows, but make no mistake: From her early viral single “Pain” to her 2023 hit “Boy’s a liar, Pt. 2” with Ice Spice, PinkPantheress has been the creative mastermind. In fact, the self-described perfectionist — whose team lovingly refers to her as “Pink” in lieu of divulging her real name — admits that she often finds herself seizing control of her studio sessions with collaborators.
“As soon as I’m at a point where I can’t do anything else, that’s where I go, ‘OK, now can you do the rest?’ ” she says of her process, laughing. “It ends up being a collaborative thing. I just like to get what I can do out of the way first.” When she comes across another artist’s track that she can’t stop obsessing over, that usually means it’s about to become the skeleton of her next project. “I’m just like, ‘I need to somehow make this my song,’ ” she says.
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She can recall only one time that she had to ax a track because she couldn’t get a sample — the original producer’s royalties demands were simply too high. But Billboard’s 2024 Women in Music Producer of the Year knew that what she brought to the table on her own was valuable — something that might inspire young girls who also want to make music — so she walked away.
“For whatever reason, I’ve always felt strongly about that,” she says of her sense of self-worth. “Obviously, it’s a good thing.”
Billboard’s last Producer of the Year honoree, Rosalía, gave you a shoutout during her Women in Music interview. Which female producers inspire you?
That’s really sweet. I didn’t know she knew who I was. Since she’s a [female] producer as well, it’s really cool. There’s obviously not many of us. I’m always going to say WondaGurl, just because she’s who I looked up to when I was starting. Obviously, Imogen Heap, but these are all veterans. I need to tap into more up-and-coming ones.
Sampling has been your bread and butter from the start. How has your process changed over time?
At the beginning, I wasn’t really adding anything to my samples. I was basically just singing over instrumentals. I didn’t mind sampling, but I didn’t like how people… I think people thought it was lazy, and part of me understood what they meant. I’m chopping them, speeding them up or slowing them down way more. I’m adding more instrumentation so it’s more hidden, whereas before it would kind of just be the actual track itself.
Lia Clay Miller
You’ve said before that some of your songs are “crap.” Do you really think that?
I’m one of those people who, in my whole life, nothing is ever good enough. For better or worse, this is just how I am. I’ll put out a song and think at the time, “This is 100% amazing.” It’s only when I’ve put it out that I doubt myself. Does that mean I think the song’s actually bad? No. Because at the end of the day, I know it’s still a bop.
What advice do you have for other female producers trying to hold their own in the industry?
It’s the vibe you go in with that people judge to see if they can get away with stuff. If you know what you want to make as soon as you step into the room, there should be nothing stopping you from actually doing it. What I’m saying is, if there’s a MIDI keyboard there, ask to use the MIDI keyboard. If [other producers] say no, then that’s wild and definitely leave. But chances are, they’ll say yes.
This story originally appeared in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Maren Morris wrote her first song as a preteen and says she knew, from that point on, that she wanted to be a singer. She long envisioned an equitable industry, particularly in country music, where she launched her career. But recently — after a particularly trying year in which headlines declared (not entirely accurately) that she was leaving country behind — the 33-year-old says she discovered something important: what she doesn’t want to do.
“What I’ve learned is that it’s not my job to inform everybody all the time about what I’m feeling,” Morris says, speaking from her Nashville home. “I want to talk and explain less and let the music speak for me, which was the whole point of getting into this in the first place.”
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Morris released her major-label debut, Hero, in 2016, featuring the breakout single “My Church,” for which she won her first Grammy (for best country solo performance). In 2018, she scored a crossover dance-pop smash with Zedd and Grey on “The Middle” — her first and only Billboard Hot 100 top 10 — and in 2019 released her acclaimed second album, Girl, which spawned her first Hot Country Songs No. 1, “The Bones.” That same year, she formed supergroup The Highwomen with Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires. And while Morris earned her first best country album Grammy nod with 2022’s Humble Quest, she’s most proud of last year’s two-song EP The Bridge.
Both EP tracks — the chilling “The Tree” and rallying “Get the Hell Out of Here” — connect her past of passionately speaking up for underrepresented voices in country music to her future of quietly speaking up for herself. “They were conceived in a moment of great reflection and heartbreak and loss and a little bit of grief and PTSD — all the things,” Morris says. (She finalized her divorce from singer-songwriter Ryan Hurd, with whom she has a young son, in February.) “They’re definitely a part of an important conversation that I was having with myself and my existence here in Nashville. They sonically sum up my last decade. I think it was a nice chapter close.”
Now Billboard‘s 2024 Women in Music Visionary feels lighter — and more excited — than ever as she embarks upon writing her next chapter, which she’ll do under Columbia New York rather than the label’s Nashville outpost she has long called home. “I’m just compulsively being creative right now,” she says. “This weighted blanket of burden has been lifted.”
Munachi Osegbu
You recently teased new music on Instagram, writing that you’re “barfing up [your] heart.”
Yes. That’s the new album title: Heart Barf.
If not that, what phrase defines 2023 for you?
I’m going to sound so Pinterest, but I think just letting go. Or changeover. I feel like I’m on this precipice of massive, massive change. And the music’s certainly reflecting that. In 2024, not that I’ve got an album done yet, but by the week [it’s] getting clearer and clearer what the theme and the sonics are. I’m not overthinking. I’m not trying to be micromanage-y like I typically am.
How does The Bridge represent that shift?
They are two of my proudest songs as a writer because as real and gritty and personal as I have gotten in past years, I don’t know if I’ve ever been quite as vulnerable as I had with those two. And it wasn’t comfortable to write them or to even release them or do any of the creative. Everything in that was a good green light that I was on the road to whatever is next.
You worked with Jack Antonoff on “Get the Hell Out of Here.” How did you two get together?
We met a year or two ago, and we were just fans of each other’s artistry and, obviously, on my end, his production of all my favorite artists. We’ve been writing a lot this year.
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Given his work with The Chicks and Taylor Swift — women who have had similar experiences in country music — what common ground did that create?
I think the background of what those women had gone through before me was … he was the perfect guy to feel trusting and safe with that sort of song. And then with “The Tree,” Greg Kurstin, whom I’ve worked with on my last two records, we have such a familiarity with one another. I love both of those guys so much. I feel like both of their résumés are so musically unbound — I’ve been pretty all over the map with songs of my own, but when you choose a producer, you’re hoping that they have the same melting pot of influences and don’t care about genre.
What artists do you admire for seamlessly navigating different genres?
Miley Cyrus comes to mind first. She’s got one of those voices, and her creative influences are clearly so vast. I mean, just look at the diversity of her albums — it’s almost Madonna-esque, where every album is a new genre or era, because she can do pop, she can do country, and then the Dead Petz record. And then obviously, my heroes: Dolly Parton really broke down barriers of genre with “Islands in the Stream” and “Here You Come Again” and was criticized for doing so at the time because it was like, “She’s leaving country. Dolly goes pop.” Taylor [Swift is a] huge chameleon. And then Sheryl Crow as well.
What genre do you see as the closest to getting it right in terms of inclusivity and representation?
They all have room to grow. [But] just in terms of worldwide reach and really being dominated by women, pop music. It’s kind of a cool Wild West because pop music can be anything: It can be Ariana Grande, it can be Taylor, it could be Noah Kahan. So I do like the freedom of that. Music is headed in a very interesting direction. The album of the year nominees for the Grammys, women dominated. I would hope that country music eventually does the same. Because when you have everyone’s stories, the music is better, and it ushers in younger artists and songwriters and musicians to want to move to Nashville, to want to make music here. It’s interesting to see people go to pop or pop labels [who came] through country.
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You said recently you got sick of being a “yes” person. What have you joyfully said “no” to?
In the beginning, I felt this massive sense of pride when I would send an email back and just be like, “No. Pass.” But now I’ve gotten so much better at setting a boundary that it doesn’t feel like a win or a loss. And the threat of that is always, “Well, she’s a diva.” But I hope I lead by example: You don’t ever have to be a b-tch, but you can absolutely put your foot down. Bending over backward is not a thing that I’m willing to do anymore to sacrifice sleep or time with my son. I have to take care of myself.
What’s something that previously felt out of reach but now feels like it’s yours for the taking?
I think just finding joy and inner peace … I wish it wasn’t such a struggle for me. Not that I think so highly of myself, but I wish I didn’t have such a throbbing heartbeat for world suffering. I sometimes wish I could just put my head in the sand and enjoy my privilege, but I don’t want to do that. That’s not the life for me. But I think I’m letting go of having everyone around me put their feet to the fire. I can only focus on myself and align myself with people that have the same wants and morals. I want this year to be about my own happiness — becoming a better mom and boss and human and writer and all the things.
This story originally appeared in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Natascha Augustin, who was named managing director of Warner Chappell Music Germany in January, started at the company as a half-time intern, rotating among various departments. She didn’t yet know what she wanted to do, and when an executive asked her, “I said I wanted to be a bookkeeper,” she remembers with a laugh. “Because there were two old ladies there who every afternoon ate cake.”
“He said, ‘You are not a bookkeeper’ – he knew better.” So, she became an A&R assistant at Warner Chappell in Munich.
The way Augustin talks about music publishing in Germany – the only big country in which Warner Chappell is No. 1 by market share, with 27.8%, according to Official German Charts data – it’s actually hard to imagine her doing anything else. And aside from internships in New York at Matador Records and Beggars Group, and a short stint at Warner Chappell in LA., she really hasn’t.
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Augustin owes much of her success to the rise of German hip-hop – Deutschrap – now the country’s biggest genre by market share. Years ago, Augustin got a call from Farid Bang, a German rapper of Moroccan-Spanish descent, who asked her about a publishing deal. At the time, “German rap was the enfant terrible of the music industry,” remembers Augustin, sitting in the airy listening room of Warner Music Central Europe’s new Berlin headquarters, but “I met with him and his story was interesting – he had done it all himself.”
At a time when the genre was still dominated by imported American stars, indie labels and underground artists, Augustin went all in. “People would call him” – Bang – “and he’d send them to me,” Augustin says. “I just met them on an equal level.”
In 2010, Augustin was named head of A&R. (She was subsequently promoted to Senior Creative Director and then vice president.) Within a decade, Warner Chappell had the No. 1 market share in Germany. This implies an even more impressive record of success with German songwriters given that the company is No. 3 globally and gets less market share in Germany from global music than its competitors.
In some cases, Augustin says, she became “the main point of contact in the industry” for rappers that had independent label or distribution deals. But she also signed a number of major label stars, including Capital Bra, Luciano and Apache 207 – who, with iconic singer Udo Lindenberg had the No. 1 single of 2023, “Komet.” (The song was written in part by Apache 207 and the producer Sira, another Augustin signing.) In 2023, she signed the superstar Shirin David, who might be thought of as a Made-in-Germany Nicki Minaj. “Shirin was very influential,” says Augustin, who still lives in Munich but also spends considerable time in Warner Music Central Europe’s offices in Hamburg and Berlin. “She brought the American rap idea here for women.”
In 2021, Augustin also played a key role in launching Atlantic Records in Berlin as a label focused on German hip-hop – an unusual joint role in recorded music for a publishing executive. She leveraged her connections in hip-hop to sign Yung Hurn, DJ Stickle, and Lil Zey, among others, but with the hiring of an executive to lead Atlantic and Augustin’s promotion, she’s now free to focus exclusively on publishing. One priority for the year ahead is Ayliva, a young rap star who writes her own songs and was the second-most-streamed artist last year after Taylor Swift.
When “Munch,” an unbothered slice of New York drill by rapper Ice Spice, exploded on social media and into the pop culture lexicon in late summer 2022, few listeners had heard of the talent behind it. But over the next year, the Bronx MC with the trademark ginger Annie ’fro (which she sometimes also wears in a buss down) leveled up — and raised her profile — with each single she released, all powered by her quippy, unfussy lyrics and the Jersey club-inflected beats of her longtime collaborator, RIOTUSA.
Her early singles, even if they missed the Billboard Hot 100, still resonated culturally, laying the groundwork for commercial wins. In February 2023, Ice earned her first solo Hot 100 entry with “In Ha Mood,” which has collected over 166 million official U.S. on-demand streams, according to Luminate. By the close of 2023, she had scored four Hot 100 top 10s, an achievement that tied Nicki Minaj (2012) and Cardi B (2018) for the most by a female rapper in a calendar year.
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Ice has earned over 1.7 billion official U.S. on-demand streams. Her Like…? EP, which yielded the Hot 100 No. 4 hit “Princess Diana” with Minaj, peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200. In 2023, Ice also collected two top 10s on the Radio Songs chart — “Barbie World” (with Minaj and AQUA, No. 5) and “Boy’s a liar, Pt. 2” (with PinkPantheress, No. 8) — as well as her highest-peaking Hot 100 entry yet, for her appearance on Taylor Swift’s “Karma” remix (No. 2). With that momentum, she scored four Grammy nominations (including best new artist), an opening slot on Doja Cat’s Scarlet tour and prominent billing at Coachella this spring.
Now Ice — who was recently all over social media after accompanying Swift to the Super Bowl — is focused on prepping her forthcoming debut studio album, Y2K. “I think this is some of my best work,” she says, hinting that “it’s not going to be too long — it’s going to be sweet and to the point.” In the meantime, Billboard’s 2024 Women in Music Hitmaker honoree can’t stop putting out smashes: Her latest single, the new jazz-tinged “Think U the Sh-t (Fart),” has already garnered 11.8 million official U.S. on-demand streams in less than a month.
What defines a hit for you?
There’s so many different types of hits. But my favorite is the one that’s just, like, culturally important. Fans know the lyrics and care about it. They just love the song. Growing up, so many songs that I thought were hits and statistically weren’t really, like numberswise, if you care about that. But in my heart, it’s a hit and I know all the lyrics.
You scored four Billboard Hot 100 top 10s in 2023. Which is your favorite?
“Princess Diana” with Nicki [Minaj] because I felt like “Princess Diana” was already my best song on [Like…?], but then it didn’t chart or anything until Nicki got on it. I was just so happy to have both of those worlds where I felt like it was culturally a great song, but also it charted. And then I had my dream collab fulfilled at the same time.
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Did Nicki or Taylor give you any songwriting advice?
When I was in the studio with Taylor, like, I’ll never forget that. She told me, “No matter what, just keep making music and everything’s going to be fine.”
As you craft your debut album, what are you listening for?
First, a really hard beat. If the beat doesn’t instantly move me — like if I don’t physically feel the beat of the speakers — then I’m just going to keep moving on to the next one. But as soon as I know, I know I have that beat. It’s up from there.
Some past winners of this award include Charli XCX and Dolly Parton. Who are some of your favorite hit-makers of all time?
Well, first, shout out to them; they’re iconic, each in their own way. I would say Lana Del Rey — I’m obsessed with her, and I feel like all of her songs are hits, even the ones that aren’t as big as the others. Rihanna, too. I have both [her and Del Rey’s] vinyls. Taylor Swift. Of course, Nicki Minaj. Drake. The list is long!
Is there a hit of yours that you were surprised people latched on to — or one you thought would be bigger?
I thought that “Actin a Smoochie” would be a bigger song. Every time I hear it, I’m just gagged that it’s not bigger. [But] “Boy’s a liar, Pt. 2,” I never thought that song would be as big as it is. I knew it would be a big moment, but I didn’t think it would be triple-platinum.
For what it’s worth, when I was in college, the streets was definitely running up “Smoochie.”
Oh, see! Thank you! That’s what I care about.
This story originally appeared in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.
In just a few years, Tems went from working a digital marketing job to becoming a globally known hit-maker who rubs shoulders with stars like Beyoncé, Rihanna and Drake — all without losing her cool or confidence. “When I make music, I don’t really think about where it’s going to end up,” she explains nonchalantly. “I just leave it all in the studio.”
To a certain extent, she doesn’t even have time to think about where her songs will end up — since once she releases them, they tend to immediately spread everywhere. Ever since she was featured on Wizkid’s 2020 smash, “Essence,” which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 a year later (with the help of a Justin Bieber remix) and earned a Grammy nod for best global music performance, the 28-year-old Nigerian artist’s rich, velvety voice has traveled far beyond the African continent and become a mesmerizing fixture in popular music. Drake put up billboards in Tems’ hometown of Lagos to announce she would be featured on his 2021 album, Certified Lover Boy; a year later, they appeared together again on Future’s Hot 100 No. 1 “Wait for U,” which samples “Higher” from Tems’ 2020 debut EP, For Broken Ears. She was one of only three featured artists on Beyoncé’s 2022 Renaissance album. And she earned Golden Globe, Academy Award and Grammy nominations for co-writing Rihanna’s 2022 comeback single, “Lift Me Up,” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
But she hasn’t needed others’ star power to shine, establishing herself as a solo hit-maker as well. With “Essence” leading a major crossover movement for Afrobeats in the United States, Tems emerged as one of the first big African acts here of the last few years. For Broken Ears produced another sleeper hit with “Free Mind,” which set a record for most weeks (17) at No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart for a song by a female lead artist the following May. (SZA’s “Snooze” later surpassed it.) And even though Tems only released two singles last year — “Me & U” in October and “Not an Angel” in December — she was responsible for or featured on eight of the top 40 Afrobeats songs in the United States in 2023, according to Luminate.
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It’s a remarkable career trajectory for someone who has yet to release her debut album — which Tems assures “is 1,000% coming out this year,” though she matter-of-factly adds that she’s “not thinking too much about outcomes.”
Such self-assuredness comes naturally to the artist born Témìládè Openiyi, whose Nigerian mother broke with Yoruba tradition by choosing her daughter’s name — a role typically reserved for the father’s side of the family — because “God told me,” Tems’ mother explained on For Broken Ears’ “Témìládè Interlude.” Growing up, “everybody just called me Temi. Nobody really called me by my full name. It wasn’t something that was on my mind,” Tems says. “It’s only now, as an adult, that I started realizing that it meant ‘The crown is mine.’ I think that’s really powerful. It feels manifested, based on how my life has gone.”
Cameron Hancock top, My Wardrobe HQ skirt, Rick Owens boots, 4element jewelry and Dinosaur Designs bracelets.
Zoe McConnell
FEBEN dress, Hugo Kreit earrings, Dover Street Market sunglasses.
Zoe McConnell
And it’s fitting for Billboard’s 2024 Women in Music Breakthrough honoree, who is smashing boundaries for African artists and crossing over to the U.S. market without compromising her own sound. When Tems started making music in her early 20s, the producers she met with often told her that if she wanted to be popular in Nigeria, she should make Afrobeats music. But for someone who grew up enamored by the sentimental melodies of Céline Dion, Destiny’s Child and Mariah Carey, Tems yearned to make soul-stirring songs that sent people deep into their feelings rather than joyful dance records that anyone could catch a vibe to. “Is it possible to make this type of music even though I’m Nigerian? Is there a limit to what I can make?” Tems recalls asking herself. “I wanted to find out.”
In 2018, she quit her job and independently wrote, produced, recorded and released her debut single, “Mr. Rebel,” which showcased her arresting vocals over a buoyant, introspective beat (and established her fan base as the “Rebel Gang”). “It wasn’t an overnight thing,” Tems says of transitioning to making music full time. But as she struggled to establish herself, she had the freeing realization that “I was selling myself short by not pursuing my passion and worrying about what people think.”
That extended to the ways others tried to categorize her music. “Afrobeats” has become a catch-all term for popular music emerging from West Africa, but Tems says her music, which encompasses neo-soul, R&B, reggae, hip-hop and Afrobeats, “doesn’t perfectly fit into one genre.” And she has been touted as a leader in the subcultural alté movement, which emerged in the mid-2010s among young Nigerian creatives who found nontraditional ways of expressing themselves through music and fashion.
“I believe not every Nigerian needs to do the generic sound because we’re talented in general, and whatever we decide to do, we’ll just do it really well,” says Tems’ co-manager Muyiwa Awoniyi, who first met the musician in 2019 during a studio session she attended. When one of the producers present complained that Tems kept rejecting the music they were playing and she stood her ground, her fortitude impressed Awoniyi, who started managing her four months later.
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Zoe McConnell
Ever since, Awoniyi and co-manager Wale Davies have prioritized helping Tems make “amazing music that attracts the maximum amount of people possible,” says Awoniyi, who views her career milestones as her music’s “ripple effect,” but says such accomplishments don’t drive her or her team. (They do, he admits, “keep [Tems’] name in the conversation,” especially when she’s not actively releasing music.)
While Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade led the charge for African female artists in the 2010s, in this decade, Tems has paved the way for a new generation that also includes Ayra Starr and Tyla, the latter of whom recently scored a Hot 100 top 10 with her pop-infused amapiano smash, “Water.” Tems and Tyla are among a handful of African acts performing at Coachella this spring — further proof that African music, in its many styles, continues to take over the world’s biggest stages.
“I’m not sure if I would ever really be aware of whatever impact my story has, but it feels inspiring to know that I’ve inspired others because I’m inspired by other people as well,” Tems says. “It just encourages me to keep going.”
FEBEN dress, Hugo Kreit earrings, Steven Ma heels, Dover Street Market sunglasses.
Zoe McConnell
Cameron Hancock top, My Wardrobe HQ skirt, Rick Owens boots, 4element jewelry and Dinosaur Designs bracelets.
Zoe McConnell
This story originally appeared in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.
When a star rises as slowly and as steadily as Victoria Monét‘s, you know they’ll be around for the long haul. After making a name for herself as one of the most in-demand songwriters in contemporary pop music, Monét has built an impressive career for herself as a recording artist. From sexy tracks such as “Freak” and “Ass Like That” to culture-shifting anthems such as “On My Mama,” Monét’s lush takes on the vast expanse of R&B subgenres have earned her not just three Grammys, but also the 2024 Billboard Women in Music Rising Star honor
Joining an illustrious list of Rising Star honorees that includes Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj and Chloe x Halle, here’s a brief overview of the major waves Monét has made as she continues to level up throughout her career.
Monét first made her Billboard Hot 100 debut back in 2019 with “Monopoly” (No. 69), a bubbly duet with Ariana Grande, who was named Billboard Women in Music‘s Rising Star in 2014. Four years after her first appearance on the Hot 100, Monét landed her first unaccompanied hit on the chart, the Grammy-nominated “On My Mama,” which peaked at No. 33 and spawned an acclaimed music video featuring original choreography by Sean Bankhead. Before “On My Mama,” however, Monét placed 22 tracks on the Hot 100 as a songwriter, including two No. 1 hits performed by Grande, “Thank U, Next” and “7 Rings.”
At the top of 2024, Monét earned her first career Grammy wins: best new artist, best R&B album and best engineered album, non-classical. She picked up the latter two awards for Jaguar II, which peaked at No. 60 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 22 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
Already beginning 2024 with honors from music’s biggest awards shows, Victoria Monét is sure to continue her evolution from rising star to superstar.
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