Priscilla Renea

A singer and songwriter who has enjoyed success in the public eye and behind the scenes, Priscilla Renea Hamilton -- known first as Priscilla Renea, and then as Muni Long -- went from making videos in her bedroom to becoming an accomplished songwriter and solo recording artist. The native Floridian developed a sizeable online following with videos showcasing her work. This led to a record deal and the release of her first album, a dance-pop effort titled Jukebox (2009), and then success as a co-writer of hits for Rihanna ("California King Bed"), Fifth Harmony ("Worth It"), and Kesha ("Timber"), among others. Hamilton paused her solo career until she returned with Coloured (2018), dominated by strong, emotionally mature R&B with hints of country and gospel. Shifting gears under the name Muni Long, she has emphasized contemporary R&B with a batch of EPs including the Def Jam-supported Public Displays of Affection (2022), featuring the platinum single "Hrs & Hrs." Priscilla Renea Hamilton was born in Vero Beach, Florida, on September 14, 1988. Her father was in the Navy, and the family moved frequently while she was growing up. She began singing when she was two years old, and in school she enjoyed participating in choir and student theater. When Hamilton was a senior in high school, her father gave her a guitar, and as she learned to play, she began writing songs. Eager to share her talent with the world, she started making videos of herself singing her songs in her bedroom and posting them online. Hamilton's audience grew to the point where she had 30,000 subscribers for her video channel, with her performances viewed over 1.2 million times. Hamilton's following grew to the point where other singers were making homemade videos of themselves singing her material. In 2007, she stepped out of cyberspace with an appearance on the MTV show Say What? Karaoke, where she generated enough buzz to draw the attention of Power Entertainment and Capitol Records, which signed her to a joint record deal. In March 2009, she released a digital EP, Hello My Apple, and her first full-length album, Jukebox, an upbeat dance-pop effort, appeared the following December. While the set was well reviewed, sales were modest, and she put her recording career on hold. However, not long before releasing Hello My Apple, a tune Hamilton co-wrote, "Here I Am," appeared on the debut album by Girlicious, and soon she was writing songs recorded by Cheryl Cole and Rihanna. Between 2011 and 2017, Renea's compositions were cut by Madonna, Mary J. Blige, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Mariah Carey, Pitbull, Train, and many more. As Hamilton's songwriting career took off, she also struggled to extricate herself from her management contract. In April 2018, now calling her own shots, she returned to the spotlight, releasing a pair of new tracks, "Gentle Hands" and "Heavenly." They were the first salvos from her second album, Coloured, a mature and personal R&B session that was issued by Thirty Tigers in June 2018. However, she soon launched her own label, Supergiant, and reappeared under the alias Muni Long. From 2020 through 2022, she released an abundance of refined contemporary R&B: the EPs Black Like This, Nobody Knows, and Public Displays of Affection, plus a handful of singles, with a Def Jam licensing deal struck during the process. "Hrs & Hrs," a steamy slow jam recorded for the last of the EPs, became Hamilton's biggest hit as a headliner, certified platinum in April 2022.
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