Behind the Scenes - Monica: The Single
Bryan Michael cox, Monica and Ludacris at Luda’s restaurant Straits. Photos by Freddy O Exclusively for Sandrarose.com
MONICA’S BACK!
Peachtree TV’s Sarah Schmitz invited Sandrarose.com out last night (6/20) to capture behind-the-scenes shots of Monica and friends filming her new reality TV show “Monica: The Single”.
My photographer, Freddy O got the chance to hear the new single and he was literally floored! “Sandra, that’s the ONE!”, he said.
According to Freddy O, Monica broke down in tears while recording the ballad at a Buckhead studio last night. I know the name of The Single but I can’t reveal it yet. “Monica: The Single” premieres on Peachtree TV on August 5, 2008, in select markets!
Posted in Celeb Candids, Celeb Style, Monica, TV/radio . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed or Trackback from your own site. This site is Gravatar enabled. Sign up to upload your own avatar.
32 Responses to “Behind the Scenes - Monica: The Single”
Leave a Reply
Notice: If this is your first time posting, your first comment must be approved.You must be logged in to post a comment.
Good for her.
Can’t wait to hear the new single.
I never really was a Monica fan but congrats! =) Sandra loves her some Monica!
Since i wont be able to watch the show, hope to hear the new single.
I am happy for Monica and hope this comeback is Big!
I read on Wikipedia that the new single is a ballad entitled “Comfortable” featuring Lil Wayne & Pharrell…. I guess we will see if its right
She looks nice..I hope the album’s fire
BET should pick up Monica’s show so evrrybody can see it. I cannot wait to hear her single.
Sandra you have made my day!! I promise you have all the latest info on Monica for the fans….we appreciate that! Now on to the single. Im so glad they chose a ballad. Every ballad Monica releases becomes a hit! They always fair better than her mid/uptempo. Smart move Monica! She better bring it on this song too!! Now since they have the first single picked, they need to focus on finding a second single. J Records, Melinda, and Monica always manage to drop the ball with the second single. They either chose the wrong follow up or wait to late to release the video (sometimes they do both) We do not want another Knock, Knock or Dozen Roses situation. Or more recently, Mary J. Blige fiasco. They didnt know what to do after Just Fine and all the momentum for the album went out the door. Monica should also focus on a great video. I know people do not spend allot of money on videos and thats cool. Just make sure its a quality video. I was watching some old Monica videos and they were def on point back in the day. One hot video director of today is Melina. Ive never known Monica to work with Hype Williams. Paul Hunter is great. I like Chris Robinson, but he is hit and miss. Oh an oldie but goodie, Billie Woodruff. He directs great ballad videos..(Toni Braxton videos) Monica needs to make sure she is on magazine COVERS and not just FEATURES. I understand some people may not think your relevant and thats cool, but hell, You have been the game for about 15 years. Vibe OWES you a cover story. Please dont let them focus on the negative. I hate the way Vibe twisted your words about your father teaching u how to shoot a gun. Or how Torrey started your Blue Print off with, so you collect guns (or whatever he said). You are a working mother with two beautiful boys. Thats your story. Youve weathered many storms. Thats what people wanna hear. The fans have been dying to see you on MTV Cribs. Speaking of, where was MTV the last couple albums? The played a major part in your success during The Boy Is Mine era…They def need to be on bored this time around. Larry Jackson and all them at J need to choose singles that have crossover potential. Sideline Ho was great, but its didnt push units and everybody cant relate to it. If you look back at your past success, all of your songs were pretty much crossover. Thats what your fan base is. True fans always knew u were hood, cuz when we bought the album, we got songs like, Ring Da Bell, Angel(Miss Thang), Too Hood, What Part of The Game e.t.c. Promo Monica! Promo! Tour! I know you can do House of Blues tour dates. People will come pay to see at least at House of Blues. Hell Keyshia did it before her album dropped and her cd was a hit. Something that I was thinking was maybe after the House of Blues, hook up with Brandy. She got a cd coming out soon. Between the both of you, I know yall can cell tickets to theaters and amphitheaters. The fans would LOVE it. Especially since yall both tryin to reclaim ur spot. You, J Records and Melinda cant drop the ball this time. Yeah the market was bad, Beat Drop wasnt a fair representation of what the album was, but allot of that was lack of promo and very bad single choices. I still dont know why Raw wasnt released. It was such a refreshing sound for you. Not to mention u sang the hell out of that record! Or Why Her wasnt released. That song was an obvious smash! All across the board. Cross over Mo! Cross over! All of your fans are not from the hood! Im still a lil disapointed Turner Networks couldnt put the reality show on TBS, but hey its all good. Atlanta is a major market, so some promo is better than none. Maybe after the show premieres, Turner Networks will allow you put the show on Myspace and Youtube so it can reach a much broader audience. I am a firm believer that you can come back and be successful and compete with the big dawgs, Beyonce, Rhianna, Christina, Mariah and Mary. Yall just gotta get ur shh together! Monica rulled in 98,99,2000 and can rule again!! We (the fans) love you Mo and cant wait to see u back on top…Shout out to Marilyn Best, M.C. Arnold, Aunt Laura, Montez, Rev Best, BAM, and everybody thats been holding Mo down! She about to do it big in 08! RIP Jarvis and Troy Weems
Another idea, how about getting together another Ladies First Tour…I remember you thought of it first and said it on 106 and Park, then Beyonce came along and stole the idea!!! But that would be hot…J Hud is dropping, Ashanti has dropped, Ciara is coming, I think Fantasia coming…just an idea. But make sure you Headline or at least co headline!! Cuz ur worth it. Also, endorsements! Endorse something. Soap, toothpaste, make up, lotion, something thats gonna get ur face out there. Leave the hair weaves to Brandy and Salt N Peppa..lol… You are too beautiful not to have ur face on a product!
Nina Says:
I read on Wikipedia that the new single is a ballad entitled “Comfortable” featuring Lil Wayne & Pharrell….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That’s incorrect information.
Ooooh my reply was filled with a million mispellings and typos…proof ur replies people. im not that dumb, trust me. lol.
Lol, know you know Wiki is like 1% right, but I actually can’t wait to hear it.I wasn’t really impressed with Making Of Me because I wasn’t sure where she was going with “Everytime The Beat Drop” but I listen to the other songs I was like she should had put out at least one of the others excluding Sideline Ho.
Oh and I agree with Tallie.
I love her haircut!!!
**cough**dontsaygoodbye**cough**
I love Monica. She always looks so nice and clean
I can’t wait to hear the single. What about the one with her and Keyshia Cole will that be on the albunm as well?
YES YES YES. I can’t wait to see the show and get the album.
Monica has yet to REALLY establish herself and her identity, if you want to say that, in more of a monumental way. So, I do see in some ways why people are always bashing and doubting her. It doesn’t help the fact that she has the gaps in between her each album release. In order to establish yourself within the industry, an artist needs to keep it coming with releases for atleast 3-5 years. Not only that, the material has to be great and inventive, thematic/expressive of what an artist wants to say overall during that particular period. Basically, Monica’s material comes across as uneven (”The Boy is Mine” and “After the Storm” albums for the most part). For example, “Control” helped in establishing Janet Jackson. I’m not talking about just releasing JUST to release. Looking at some of her great “Miss Thang” era performances, if she kept all of that rolling, while remaining true to her personal growth as a young women heading in to adulthood, Monica would be a legend right now. She took a 3 year break in between “Miss Thang” and “The Boy is Mine,” but her career reached new heights, yet the more pop sounding “The Boy is Mine” left SOME of Monica’s fans yearning for the more urban/soul sounding Monica. If they had released “Ring the Bell” with a video right after “The First Night” that song would have definately spoke more to what most Monica fans knew her for.
After “The Boy is Mine” era we didn’t get a new Monica album until 5 YEARS LATER although she did a few uneventful things here and there in between (MTV’s “Love Song,” “Just Another Girl,” Micheal Jackson’s 30th Anniversary performances, and the horribly uneven and spotty “All Eyez on Me” album, which just through everyone off including Monica because the AEOM single wasn’t what people knew her for and the album was bootlegged heavily). Ideally, Monica should have released another album in 2000 or 2001, but as a lot of people know her boyfriend committed suicide, her grandmother died, as did one of her cousins which helped prolong her absence form the industy. Basically, Monica is an urban-hip-pop-soul singer and she must not EVER forget that. She has to always go back to that in order to regain some type of success because she always leaves her audience.
For example, “So Gone” was what people wanted to hear and that was the biggest R&B song out that year according to airplay. “U Should’ve Known” was a semi-popular, top 10 R&B hit in 2004, notice the trend? Monica has what it takes to do pop music in the vein of Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, but she needs to learn who her base is and remain in touch with them and evolve from there over a 3-5 year period before she can experiment with a pop or inspirational album. Like it or not, Monica has Ms. Brandy beat by quite a few margins as far as what she possesses naturally, she just seems to need to learn to take direction from somebody. There is so much more that makes a star a star than how many records an artist sells or how many number ones an artist has…because a great amount of that has to do with people behind the scenes that you can’t see.
Brandy has faded out of sight for a particular reason while Monica has continued to remain relevant and will, but Monica is pretty much JUST HERE and there is no excuse why Monica is not a legend by now. Monica has never seemed driven to WANT it and its just as plain and simple as that. Monica had had her baby when “The Makings of Me” came out, SHE chose to release the more like a mixtape, teaser song instead of an actual first single “Everytime the Beat Drops” and not Clive Davis. Even Hot97’s Ms. Jones went on a rampage about how Monica continues to try to lower herself as an artist and singer…I said nothing because I had said the same thing BEFORE Ms. Jones did and I was hoping the Ray Kay video would help get me amped for the song after I heard the song initially. Nobody can tell me that J Records put real money in to the whole ETTBD situation. Both the ETTBD and “A Dozen Roses” videos looked cheap as could be. By the time “A Dozen Roses” which didn’t really thrill me a lot either was released, I don’t think anybody cared. She needed a killer first single and it just wasn’t found on the album although the album is great and her most consistent feeling album since “Miss Thang.” I just really hope Monica gets it together this time around. Hopefully she is hungry enough make her mark.
@dallas214 Says:
OMG who are you???? You have alot to say! You scare me LOL
LOL LOL I knew that was coming….its all good. Trust me, Im not crazy. Ive just been a huge fan of hers since 95 and want to see her succeed. Another reason I’m so into her is, I would like to become an A & R for a record label one day and help guide artist’s careers. And Monica’s would be the first I try to salvage…lol.
Congrats Monica!!!
Can’t wait to watch the show!!!
wow…@dallas214 Says: keep the comments to a few lines boo..goodness.
Thank u brwnsugga… I knew it was a matter of time before we got our “Monica” fix. I wish her much success (Not tryin to go to time out this early!!)
brwnsugga4you Says:
wow…@dallas214 Says: keep the comments to a few lines boo..goodness.
No prob brwnsugga4you….after saying all that, I have nothing else to say, lol….
dallas214 Says: lol..it’s all love on here. i wish monica much success…hopefully this will give her a boost in her career that she desperately needs.
O..So the show is only going to be on in ATL? That makes sense to me now. I can’t imagine where else she would be relevant.
JustSayin
I’m sorry to see Monica working with Bryan Michael Cox. I don’t know if he ever had it, but he doesn’t seem to have it anymore. He contributed heavily to Day 26’s album and all of his songs are just mediocre. Hopefully he won’t be doing too many of Monica’s songs.
Bcox still got it. when the artist are lame (day 26, man change that name PLEASE), the song can’t help but be lame. real artist can breathe life into a song. I dont know if bcox just working for the checks or what, but i’d turn some of that work away. they’re a manufactured act with mediocre talent.
#8..dozen roses was the ish shawty. not sure if u mean the single or the video. the video needed a different treatment, but the song is fiyah. i still listen to it. Monica need to stay away from JD. he’s the one phuckin up her albums. i’d take a bcox track over JD any day, where monica’s concerned. I’M TOO HOOD, EVERYTIME THE BEAT DROP, etc etc. THE FIRST NIGHT is prolly the only decent track he did for her.
pointhimout Says:
Bcox still got it. when the artist are lame (day 26, man change that name PLEASE), the song can’t help but be lame. real artist can breathe life into a song. I dont know if bcox just working for the checks or what, but i’d turn some of that work away. they’re a manufactured act with mediocre talent.
************************************************************
Needless to say, I totally disagree with that assessment. While I question Day 26’s star power, their singing ability is far from mediocre. The boys can sang. If B. Cox can’t make a hit for a group that can carry their weight vocally then he doesn’t have it.
Ok Imma have to come to this post later………. DALLAS has just gave me a headache… honey what did you eat for breakfast?
pyt_504 Says:
Ok Imma have to come to this post later………. DALLAS has just gave me a headache… honey what did you eat for breakfast?
Actually nothing, im hungry tho, lol. Sorry for the headace…that was just my assessment of the situation. Im not saying its right or wrong. Just through my opinion out there seeing what people thought….
good gracious. I’ll have to print this out and read it over some coffee :)….tomorrow, after happy hour