Victoria Monet urged people to use her as an “example” to follow their dreams after she scooped the Best New Artist Grammy on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024.
The singer – who won best RnB album for her debut studio LP Jaguar II earlier in the evening – reflected on her long route to success as she accepted the prestigious accolade.
“Thank you guys so much. Thank you to the champagne servers of tonight. Thank you to the recording academy, voting members, you guys pressed that button. Thank you to my mom. A single mom raising this really bad girl, thank you so much. I just want to say to everybody who has a dream. I want you to look at this as an example. Thank you God.
“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, you can look at the music industry as soil and it can be looked at as dirty or 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 so I’d like to thank my team of visionaries who could see through that soil. Rochelle, thanks so much.
“I’d like to tell a small story, there was a binder I mad to take this really important meeting at a label and I thought I was going to be signed and I was an independent artist with no team but I thought my music would stand for itself but that binder was left collecting dust in an office. Rochelle found that binder and she decided to take a chance and leave that label and be my manager so thank you so much for seeing me.”
She then went on to pay tribute to her fellow nominees, Coco Jones, Gracie Abrams, Fred Again.., Ice Spice, Jelly Roll, Noah Kahan, and The War and Treaty.
“I’d like to thank all the other nominees in the category because best is subjective. We voted for it, I think we’re all the best but when you look at what best means introspectively, that is what rings true and we are all the best versions of [ourselves] tonight. Thank you,” she said before the music played her off.
