A small room at the top of Hollywood’s historic Paramount Recording Studios is serving as a salon for Victoria Monét as she and a stylist put the finishing touches on her hair. She’s preparing to sit down with Kelly Rowland, and she’s pretty nervous. Meeting a role model can do that to a person.
When Destiny’s Child released The Writing’s on the Wall in 1997, Monét was about 10 years old, and Rowland about 18. Like many Black girls at the turn of the century (and today), Victoria loved Destiny’s Child. She says when she saw Rowland on that album cover - brown-skinned like her, in a gleaming halter top, standing proudly with her bandmates Beyoncé, LeToya Luckett, and LaTavia Roberson - she saw someone she could look up to.
Back then, Destiny’s Child often worked out of this very studio. Rowland, 42, makes herself at home when she arrives, and Monét, 34, goes over to deliver some roses that she brought. Rowland receives her with a warm embrace and offers Monét a chance to get in on the salad order she’s placing, in the love language of food.
Monét’s butterflies seem to float away as the two take photos together. They listen to each other keenly as they talk about their kids. Rowland has two sons, Titan, nine, and Noah, two; Monét’s daughter, Hazel, is a month younger than Noah. At one point, Rowland reveals that she and Noah shared a special moment to “We Might Even Be Falling in Love,” a soulful interlude from Monét’s 2020 EP, Jaguar, that became part of a popular social media challenge.
The two artists find other points of connection in their conversation, some unexpected and emotional. Soon, both of them are dabbing away tears as they reflect on music and family.
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26 окт 2023
