The Long Game
There’s something deeply satisfying about a full-circle moment in music. Victoria Monét is about to experience one in June 2026, when she takes the stage as support for Bruno Mars on the European leg of The Romantic stadium tour. But here’s the thing: it didn’t happen overnight, and it certainly didn’t happen by accident.
Back in 2013, when Monét signed her first solo deal with Atlantic Records, she was hungry but uncertain. She’d already experienced rejection – Purple Reign, the girl band assembled by legendary producer Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins (known for work with Destiny’s Child and Michael Jackson), was dropped before releasing a single track. Most artists might have wavered. Monét studied the room instead.
She noticed something crucial: Bruno Mars had featured on B.o.B’s “Nothin’ On You” in 2009, and that collaboration became a springboard for his explosive solo career. She made a decision that would shape her trajectory for the next decade. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna be like Bruno,'” she recalls. The strategy was straightforward but demanding – become indispensable as a collaborator first.
The Architecture of Collaboration
What followed was a masterclass in strategic creativity. Monét positioned herself as a “hook girl,” lending her silky, sophisticated vocal tone to rappers including Nas, Meek Mill, and B.o.B himself. But this wasn’t just session work – it was an education in musicality, production, and what makes a record stick.
Simultaneously, she was building something deeper with Ariana Grande. The two collaborated on songwriting for multiple Grande albums, crafting two massive pop-R&B moments: “Thank U, Next” (2017) and “7 Rings” (2018). These weren’t features – they were architectural contributions to some of the decade’s most important pop records. When “Monopoly” arrived in 2019, a witty trap collaboration between the two women, it marked Monét’s breakthrough as a lead artist. The track has since accumulated over 200 million Spotify streams and became her first Billboard Hot 100 entry under her own name.
Finding Her Own Voice
The most interesting part of Monét’s ascent isn’t just that she succeeded – it’s that she never stopped watching and learning. When she released the live performance video for “Jaguar,” the title track of her 2020 breakthrough EP, she did something cheeky and entirely in character: she billed it as an “audition” to open for Silk Sonic, the retro-soul collaboration between Mars and Anderson .Paak.
It wasn’t audacious overreach; it was calculated confidence based on genuine creative alignment. The producer D’Mile had worked on both her project and Silk Sonic’s album. Musically, Monét understood she occupied the same sonic space. “If there was a female in the group, I could be the Fergie,” she noted – and honestly, it’s hard to argue with that assessment when you listen to her work. She has that same ability to bring contemporary sophistication to retro aesthetics.
The Manifest Moment
Now, in June 2026, she’s opening for Mars at massive venues including London’s iconic Wembley Stadium, with Anderson .Paak (performing under his DJ Pee .Wee pseudonym) also on the bill. For Monét, it feels like a “sacred” moment – the kind she “manifested” through years of meticulous work, strategic collaboration, and refusing to accept her initial rejection as her final answer.
What makes her rise particularly interesting is that she never abandoned the collaborative model that got her here. Even as her solo career has flourished, she’s maintained those relationships with Grande and other major artists. She’s proven something increasingly rare in modern pop: that being a great collaborator doesn’t diminish your artistry as a solo performer. In fact, it amplifies it.
The Victoria Monét who steps on stage at Wembley in a few weeks isn’t a different person than the hook girl from 2013 – she’s the same artist who learned her craft in the trenches, studied the masters, and refused to be defined by early setbacks. Once a hustler, always a hustler. The difference now is that everyone knows her name.
