Muni Long is putting love at the forefront.
"I think toxicity is what people respond to," says the R&B singer and songwriter. "So that's what people are making. But there's a movement of people responding to love. I honestly feel like that's why 'Hrs and Hrs' did so well."
Long, led by her breakthrough hit "Hrs and Hrs," is a top contender for a best new artist Grammy nomination in November, an unlikely "overnight" turn of events that the 34-year-old has been working toward since at least 2009, when, as Priscilla Renea, she released a blink-and-miss-it album on Capitol Records. (Her real name is Priscilla Renea Hamilton.) Throughout the 2010s, she would toggle between co-writing hit songs for established stars — Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Pitbull and even Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert — and recording her own country-tinged music.
