walking upstream…
Victoria Monét
photo: emma (flickr) · cc by-sa 2.0 ↗Victoria Monét
sourcesClash · GRAMMY.com · Wikipedia
Victoria Monét McCants grew up between Atlanta and Sacramento, singing in her church choir and absorbing her grandmother's diet of Southern gospel, seventies soul, and Motown before landing her first professional songwriting credit on Diddy-Dirty Money's 'Last Train to Paris' in 2010. She spent the next decade as one of pop and R&B's most in-demand pens, co-writing across every Ariana Grande album from 'Yours Truly' through 'Positions' and picking up three Grammy nominations for 'Thank U, Next' along the way. Her own recording career, quietly building since the 2014 EP 'Nightmares & Lullabies,' broke wide with 2020's 'Jaguar' and crested on 2023's 'Jaguar II' — a lush, choreography-driven throwback to turn-of-the-millennium R&B that won her three Grammys, including Best New Artist, a decade after her first hit for someone else.
the sound in question
2020
JaguarVictoria Monét
walk the tributaries ↓
Janet Jackson1980s · R&B / Pop / Dance-pop / New jack swing
"I heard Janet growing up," Monét has said of the '90s stars she gravitated toward, adding, "people are like, 'You sound like Janet, you speak like Janet.' I'm really not thinking about the mathematics of how to put stuff together, it just flows out that way because it's what made me." She's also cited Jackson's sharp, staccato choreography as a performance touchstone. It surfaced most literally in the 2024 video for her own song 'Alright,' where Monét wore a black-and-white fedora and zoot suit modeled on Jackson's 1990 'Alright' video, with Sean Bankhead choreography built from the same clipped, percussive movement vocabulary.
listen: upstream & heresource: Entertainment Tonight ↗
1990
AlrightJanet Jackson
2023
AlrightVictoria Monét
listen forWatch Janet Jackson's 'Alright' next to Victoria Monét's own 'Alright' — both are brassy, horn-driven dance-pop cuts led by tight unison choreography, and Monét's video restages Jackson's styling and staccato steps almost beat for beat.
Brandy1990s · Contemporary R&B / Pop / Soul
Monét has said she cared enough as a kid to look up who produced the Brandy and Destiny's Child songs she loved — a curiosity that helped pull her toward songwriting in the first place. Years later she co-wrote Brandy's 'Rather Be,' recording a demo at home before joining Brandy in the studio, an experience she called "a really beautiful full-circle experience," adding, "I'm so thankful because she has one of my favorite voices." Brandy's studio-pioneered trick of layering her own voice into a dense harmonic choir — 'The Vocal Bible' turning herself into a background section — echoes directly in the thickly stacked harmonies of Monét's own biggest hit.
listen: upstream & heresource: GRAMMY.com ↗
2002
Full MoonBrandy
2023
On My MamaVictoria Monét
listen forCompare Brandy's self-vocal-produced 'Full Moon' with Monét's 'On My Mama' — both build their hook out of multiple takes of the lead singer's own voice piled into lush, close-harmony stacks rather than leaning on outside backing vocalists.
Sade1980s · Sophisti-pop / Soul / Quiet storm / Smooth jazz
"Sade's still my favourite," Monét told Clash in 2023. "She's the perfect mix of class and sensuality." She's traced that admiration to a VHS tape of Sade commanding a packed American stadium in a bejeweled two-piece, and to how completely Sade's stage persona stayed separate from her private life — composure and mystique over spectacle. That patience shows up whenever Monét lets a song sit at a hush before it opens up.
listen: upstream & here
1984
Smooth OperatorSade
2023
Party GirlsVictoria Monét
listen forSet 'Smooth Operator' beside the opening minute of Monét's 'Party Girls' — both ride an unhurried, purring bassline under a vocal that undersells its own seduction rather than oversinging it, before Monét's track eventually breaks into dancehall energy for Buju Banton's verse.