The legendary singer, honored with the Icon Award that night, was caught on camera giving what many perceived as a skeptical glance during Long’s rendition of her classic hit.

The brief moment ignited online chatter, with fans dissecting Carey’s expression and labeling it “shady” and “unimpressed.” However, she wasted no time addressing the narrative.

On March 19, she posted a photo to her Instagram Stories alongside Long and fellow performer Tori Kelly, celebrating both artists.

“So beyond grateful for these two gorgeous, uber-talented, kind, incredible musicians who made my heart so full of joy with their tribute performances at the @iheartradio awards. I love and appreciate you so much!!!” she wrote, making it clear she had nothing but admiration for their efforts.

Muni Long also spoke out, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the tribute performance. She revealed that Carey had personally chosen her for the honor, a gesture she accepted with deep appreciation.

“Nobody can sing Mariah’s songs like Mariah. Nobody,” Long acknowledged.

She also shared that Mariah Carey privately praised her performance. Though she recorded the moment, she decided against posting the footage, choosing instead to respect the intimacy of their exchange.

Adding humor to the conversation, Long joked that even if Carey had “pushed her down the stairs or said she hated it,” she still would have felt honored. Despite the initial buzz, Carey’s public and private responses made one thing clear—she truly valued the tribute.

“It’s only ever Black women that say they don’t like my personality. I’m being myself, I’m acting just like your raggedly mommy and your aunties,” Long said. “With them ashy cankles. This is how they act, but something wrong with my personality? Take a look in the mirror h*e, you don’t like you.”

Following her viral remarks, Long stood by her comments before another TikTok user named NeverStopWithShari reminded her that Black women are the reason she became a successful artist.

“Muni Long was on her live today and let it be known that it’s only Black women that don’t like her,” the user said. “I think it was only Black women that supported you too. Nobody liked ‘Hours and Hours’ and all these songs until we liked it.” She also warned Long to “watch what she says” when speaking on Black women.”

Long was quick to repsond with another video. 

“The first question that I have for you, Ms. Shari, is … you said ‘you better watch what you say’ or what?” Long asked. “I know I look young because I drink water and mind my business, but I’m 36 years old. I’ll be 37 in September. I’ve been grown and taking care of myself for a long time. Nobody will talk to me like that.”

“Black women it is okay to speak your mind and take up space, for you to assert yourself, for you to be kind instead of nice, for you not to keep taking the shirt off your back and giving it to the next man. You ain’t mammy. We don’t have to raise the world,” she concluded.

Some accused her of missing the meaning behind the user’s message.

“Did she…. completely miss the point of what the TikToker was saying? Like completely??” one user said. “I personally think she should address the ppl hating on her and NOT “black women” as a whole.”

The Florida native has racked up numerous accolades since her 2020 breakthrough hit “Hrs and Hrs’. Most recently she won R&B Song of the Year at the 2025, iHeartRadio Music Awards for her single, “Made For Me”. Last year, her fourth solo album, Revenge received four Grammy nominations, with “Made For Me” winning Best R&B performance. Billboard also presented her with the Rising Star Award for her breakthrough efforts.

In 2023, Long’s breakthrough hit “Hrs and Hrs” saw much success receiving a Grammy Award, platinum certification and over a billion streams.

From Grinding To Grammys

The aforementioned is only the icing of accomplishments for Long. If anyone knows the power of staying the course, it’s Long. She’s been pushing the pen since middle school. When she was a teenager, she would sing the dictionary, “turning random words and definitions into improvised melismatic gold.” This same creativity yielded a songwriting career, co-writing hit songs for established stars — Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Pitbull and even Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert.

In an interview with Billboard, Long discussed how her parents played role in her passion for music arts. “My whole life has been music. I didn’t know that everyone didn’t make music. My father played trumpet and my mom and grandmother sang. So from a young age, I knew I wanted to sing. I wrote my first song when I was eight years old; the first lyric: “walking down the highway looking at the skyway.” I sang it for my mom and she bought me a notebook. But I didn’t realize it was real until 15-16, when I was discovered on YouTube with ‘I Apologize.’”

By 2018, Long had written more than 2000 songs, a fusion of R&B, pop, and country. But it was in 2020, when she really found her groove, as an R&B singer chronicling the heartbreak and ecstasy of sex and romance. “I knew I wanted to focus on me. I’ve been serving others for the last 12 years, and I started to feel unappreciated and captive,” Long shared with Vogue.

The talented singer-songwriter will be bringing her top-charting hits to the Summer Jam stage on June 20. Check out all of Muni Long’s latest hits in advance of the hottest show in the tristate!

“Made For Me” at the 67th GRAMMY Awards

“Superpowers”

“Baby Boo” Muni Long, Saweetie

Speaking with The New York Times Style Magazine, Muni Long reflected on how R&B honors its past while shaping its future. “Let’s make some wedding songs. Some party songs would be fun—things they’d play in the club,” she said.

Her Grammy-winning hit Hrs & Hrs perfectly illustrates that vision. She recalled hearing it alongside hip-hop tracks from Sexyy Red and XXL Freshman pick BossMan Dlow.

“Everybody, including the men—thugged out, chains, gold teeth, all that. Everyone was singing my song,” she shared.

R&B remains deeply tied to Black culture, yet it often gets boxed in. When artists experiment, their work is either pushed into “alternative” and “pop” or unexpectedly categorized as R&B, as if the genre cannot evolve. Long challenged that notion. “R&B is pop music,” Muni Long stated. “They took the sounds, they took the swag, and they made it mainstream.”

Her latest album, Revenge, landed on Rap-Up’s Best R&B Albums of 2024 list. The 14-track project showcased her versatility. She traded bars with GloRilla on Leave My Baby Tonight, championed self-worth on The Baddest, and even rapped on the high-energy Bessie.

With fresh talent emerging, 2025 promises to be another dynamic year for R&B. Jordan Adetunji gained traction with KEHLANI, 4Batz introduced his enigmatic persona, and a wave of new voices left their mark. If the momentum continues, R&B’s resurgence is far from over.

Taking to Instagram, she posted a hilarious response to the president of Atlantic Records, who asked for her services.

“Me to the President of Atlantic asking me to write “soulful” songs for non-melanated artists,” she said on video to a Lil Boosie voiceover.

In the caption of the video, she further explained her stance.

“And when I said NO one of em gone say “You can reach in that Priscilla Renea vault and see what you have in there,” Long said.

“Boy do you know what a VAULT is? That’s where you keep the valuables. If you don’t get somewhere and sit down,” she continued. I wanted to cuss them out so bad ya’ll.”

Although she didn’t release the names of the executives, a Warner Music Group revealed that Elliot Grainge and Craig Kallman are the new CEOs for Atlantic Music Group and its subsidiary Atlantic Records.

While Long may not be writing for non-Black artists, she has an impressive resume as a composer. She has written hits for Rihanna, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey, and Mary J. Blige. Some of Luni’s biggest hits include Ariana Grande’s “imagine” and Madonna’s “Gang Bang.”

In an interview with Rated R&B, Long spoke about her album Revenge and how she’s mature as a woman and an artist,

“I’m going through a lot in my personal life, relationship-wise, [and] career-wise. There are a lot of people that I would be justified in being angry with. [in] how they handled me,” Long said. “Instead, I’ve been doing personal growth. I’m realizing that anger, disgust, betrayal, [and] any of those emotions only tell me what I need to get away from. Other than that, they don’t serve me. They don’t help me reach my goals.”

During a recent interview, Long recalls that moment, “I remember one time, I had a moment in the studio where J. Cole was there, and I was just having a bad day that day, and I started just talking trash. I was talking to my other friend […] and Cole came in the room. And within two minutes, he sat down, he heard what we was talking about, and he got up and left.”

She continued: “and I just remember being like, ‘Damn, why did he do that?’ But then I realized, like, we weren’t on the same frequency. He’s not on that, complaining and, ‘Man, why these n****s always trying to play us? Who they think they is?’ That kind of conversation does not circulate in higher-level rooms. “

“He didn’t judge me, he didn’t say nothing bad. He sat there, he listened for like a minute, and then he got up and left. […] Because what happens is, when you’re high-vibrational like that, most likely, those people are going to bring you down. You’re not going to be able to bring them up, you know what I’m saying?”

“Brandy is a master at that [background singing]. Her ‘Full Moon’ album…I was obsessed,” she says. “Oh my god, I wore it out until it was skipping. I know every song, word-for-word.” Released in 2002, Brandy’s Full Moon album debuted at No.2 on the Billboard 200 chart. The project was a follow-up to her sophomore album, Never Say Never. Despite getting mixed reviews upon its release, the album has become a touchstone for many artists.

Muni Long Opens Up About Divorce

After nearly a decade of marriage, the “Hrs & Hrs” singer announced she and her husband were calling it quits. During recent interview on The Cruz Show, Long explained, “I always pull from real experiences because I’m writing from my unique perspective. I can only talk about what I know. But this is the first time I’m putting my real life in it. It’s no secret…I’ve been married for nine years…it just didn’t work out, you know?”

Long continued, “This is one of the most amazing times in my life, and if you can’t celebrate that with me, I’m so sorry, but I’m going to have to leave you behind. I cannot. You wake up every day mad, and there’s literally nothing to be upset about.” She adds, “I think it takes incredible strength to realize like this was the love of my life at one point – and he probbably could be really good for me if he got it together – but I’m not willing to put my life and my passion and my happiness on hold for you to catch up. Unfotunately, you might get it in a year…but I’m sorry I’m probably already over it.”

During recent interview on The Cruz Show, Long explained, “I always pull from real experiences because I’m writing from my unique perspective. I can only talk about what I know. But this is the first time I’m putting my real life in it. It’s no secret…I’ve been married for nine years…it just didn’t work out, you know?”

“I don’t have time for drama, I don’t have time for nonsense,” she added.

Long continued, “This is one of the most amazing times in my life, and if you can’t celebrate that with me, I’m so sorry, but I’m going to have to leave you behind. I cannot. You wake up every day mad, and there’s literally nothing to be upset about.”

“I think it takes incredible strength to realize like this was the love of my life at one point – and he probbably could be really good for me if he got it together – but I’m not willing to put my life and my passion and my happiness on hold for you to catch up. Unfotunately, you might get it in a year…but I’m sorry I’m probably already over it.”

Though the relationship didn’t work out, Long says the two are still in a good space. “We have a beautiful child. We’re good. We might owe some bills, but everybody has that.”

When discussing her new album Long says, “this whole album is like a page out of my diary. This is the first time I’m actually telling my business in the music. I always pull from real experiences. Because I’m writing from my unique perspective. I can only talk about what I know. This is the first time I’m putting my real life in it.”

A Boogie  ·  Gunna  ·  GloRilla
Muni Long  ·  Asake   ·  Ayra Starr
Ja Rule and Friends A Tribute to Irv Gotti
Kash Doll ·  Bobby Konders & Jabba featuring Masicka
Diamond Platnumz · Jim Jones & Friends
Cash Cobain · 41 (Kyle Rich, Jenn Carter, Tata)

Tickets Now On Sale at Ticketmaster.com