Money Long is ready to return to the spotlight.
Six months after undergoing a life-saving double lung transplant, the two-time Grammy winner returns with “Richest,” an intimate new song that marks her first solo release since recovering from a health crisis that nearly took her life.
Long, who was diagnosed with lupus in 2014, came down with pneumonia during Brandy and Monica’s Northeast leg. Mine boy tourWhich forced her to withdraw from the show’s final dates.
After returning home, she woke up in a hospital bed to horrific news: doctors told her she had only a week to live unless she underwent an organ transplant.
“My jaw dropped. Literally. I was like, ‘That’s rude.’ But they kind of said, ‘This is not a joke.’ You need to make a choice. You can either go to a nursing home or you can have these lungs.” Good morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts earlier this week.
It’s been six months since the procedure, Long says Hollywood Reporter She wanted to make sure she was fully prepared before jumping back into the difficult cycle of releasing music.
“I really want to make sure I’m prepared because this job is very demanding. You have to keep going when you start to dip. It’s a constant call and response, and that can be very stressful sometimes,” Long says.
Long took half a year away, doing more than just letting her body heal. She found a perspective on what kind of artist she wants to be in her next season.
“This season, I’m in the mood,” she says with a laugh. “Seriously, it’s all about feelings. How do I want the audience to feel? How does the image make me feel? How does my caption or commentary make the reader feel?”
Throughout her career, Long has built her music around connection, from “Hrs & Hrs” to “Made For Me” and “Time Machine.” But with “The Richest,” she wanted to focus more on the themes of love, softness, and vulnerability.
“I love Love, and this song is really about that moment when you realize I’m on the edge, about to fall in love with this person. She says. “We have enough bad things going on in the world, it needs some balance. I just want to put love in it.”
That sentiment extends to the song’s newly released music video, which stars rapper Akim Ali opposite Long. The photo follows the couple through a series of intimate moments, from cooking spaghetti together in the kitchen to competing in the arcade and a date in the sunset garden and cozy living room.
“I definitely think new music is more sensual, intimate and vulnerable,” she says. “This is the first time I’ve been soft and hugged. But there’s still strength in that. I need to be loved and you need to love me right.”
As a two-time Grammy winner returning after a brief hiatus, Long says she’s not concerned about any outside expectations.
“This might be a really strange analogy. Do bubbles really care about the wind?” She says. “No, they just float.”
“My only job is to live life, and translate what I see and feel into sounds and stories that people can relate to. Of course I want everyone to like it, but my job is to make it happen. I got my validation through the journey and executing our vision the way we wanted to.”
With “Richest” now available, Long says she wants listeners to walk away with more than just a favorite lyric or a catchy melody, adding that she hopes it will inspire listeners in some way.
“Inspiration is how you change the world,” she says. “Whether it’s an artist creating, or a guy with a girl, I want them to feel motivated to act. Because that’s how you change the world, and it has a ripple effect.”
