Muni Long

A singer and songwriter who has enjoyed success in the public eye and behind the scenes, Muni Long went from making videos in her bedroom to becoming an accomplished songwriter and solo recording artist. The native Floridian developed a sizeable online following with videos showcasing her work. This led to a record deal and the release of her first album, a dance-pop effort titled Jukebox (2009), and success as a co-writer of hits for Rihanna (“California King Bed”), Fifth Harmony (“Worth It”), and Kesha (“Timber”), among others. Long paused her solo career until she returned with Coloured (2018), dominated by strong, emotionally mature R&B with hints of country and gospel. Since then, she has emphasized contemporary R&B with a batch of EPs and the Def Jam-supported Public Displays of Affection: The Album (2022), featuring the platinum Grammy-winning single “Hrs & Hrs.” Muni Long was born in Vero Beach, Florida, on September 14, 1988. Her father was in the Navy, and the family moved frequently while she was growing up. She began singing when she was two years old, and in school she enjoyed participating in choir and student theater. When she was a senior in high school, her father gave her a guitar, and as she learned to play, she began writing songs. Eager to share her talent with the world, she started making videos of herself singing her songs in her bedroom and posting them online. Long’s audience grew to the point where she had 30,000 subscribers for her video channel with her performances viewed over 1.2 million times. Other singers recorded videos of themselves singing her material. In 2007, Long stepped out of cyberspace with an appearance on the MTV show Say What? Karaoke, where she generated enough buzz to draw the attention of Power Entertainment and Capitol Records, which signed her to a joint record deal. In March 2009, she released a digital EP, Hello My Apple, and her first full-length album, Jukebox, an upbeat dance-pop effort, appeared the following December. While the set was well reviewed, sales were modest, and she put her recording career on hold. However, not long before releasing Hello My Apple, a tune Long co-wrote, “Here I Am,” appeared on the debut album by Girlicious, and soon she was writing songs recorded by Cheryl Cole and Rihanna. Between 2011 and 2017, her compositions were cut by Madonna, Mary J. Blige, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Mariah Carey, Pitbull, Train, and many more. As Long’s songwriting career took off, she also struggled to extricate herself from her management contract. In April 2018, now calling her own shots, she returned to the spotlight, releasing a pair of new tracks, “Gentle Hands” and “Heavenly.” They were the first salvos from her second album, Coloured, a mature and personal R&B session that was issued by Thirty Tigers in June 2018. However, she soon launched her own label, Supergiant. From 2020 through 2022, she released an abundance of refined contemporary R&B: the EPs Black Like This, Nobody Knows, Public Displays of Affection, and Public Displays of Affection Too, plus a handful of singles, with a Def Jam licensing deal struck during the process. “Hrs & Hrs,” a steamy slow jam, became Long’s biggest hit as a headliner — it was certified platinum in April 2022. That September, Long bundled and expanded the Public Displays EPs for the full-length Public Displays of Affection: The Album. “Hrs & Hrs” was named Best R&B Performance at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in 2023. Later that year, Long issued the Top 20 single “Made for Me.” ~ Mark Deming & Andy Kellman