Spotify has enlisted Muni Long for its Spotify Singles to celebrate six of ten Best New Artist nominees at the 65th Grammy Awards.
As part of the campaign, Long shares an intricate rendition of “Superstar,” a song made known by The Carpenters in 1971 and later by Luther Vandross in 1983.
Long also unveils a new version of her platinum-selling single “Hrs & Hrs,” in which she sings in Spanish.
“Hrs & Hrs” spent an eight-week run at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and reached No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The love anthem led to a pair of 2023 Grammy nominations in the R&B field, Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song.
Speaking on “Hrs & Hrs,” Long told Rated R&B, “This one is just a vibe. I was washing dishes, and it was just a very monotonous task. I hate cleaning up. So I decided to listen to some tracks while I was washing dishes. This one came up, and I just started freestyling. I would every now and then use my elbow to start it over from the top. I think I wrote the song in maybe 20 minutes. I went in the studio a couple of days later and recorded it. It’s probably my favorite song to sing live. It’s just so beautiful.”
As mentioned earlier, Long is among the Best New Artist nominees this year. Hosted by Trevor Noah, the 65th Grammy Awards will broadcast live Sunday, Feb. 5, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on CBS and stream live and be on demand on Paramount+.
Moving to Long’s debut album, Public Displays of Affection: The Album, the LP surfaced in September 2022 via her imprint Supergiant Records in partnership with Def Jam.
The album, which comprised multiple previously released songs, included five new tracks, including “Lemons” and “Plot Twist.”
Long performed the latter at the 2022 Soul Train Awards, where she won The Ashford and Simpson Songwriter’s Award for “Hrs & Hrs.”
Public Displays of Affection: The Album was featured on Rated R&B’s 30 Best R&B Albums of 2022 list.
Also, in late 2022, Long campaigned for Recording Academy voters with a performance at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She performed a choreographed take of “Time Machine.”
On Feb. 14, Long will perform a special Valentine’s Day concert at Echoplex in Los Angeles, California. Tickets are available now at livenation.com.
Listen to Muni Long’s Spotify Singles below.