6 Years Ago I Tried to Interview Victoria Monet and My Editor Turned it Down
Recently, I was working on a blog post about country music singers I’ve interviewed. Looking for more information from my interview with Maren Morris, I went searching in my email for any drafts of our convo I had emailed to my boss or snippets that didn’t end up making it into the published print version. And I came across something that I had completely forgotten about: my attempt to interview Victoria Monet for the Spring/Summer 2019 issue of Chloe.
Even back then, I felt like Ms. Monet deserved all of her flowers and then some. She was cool, talented, gorgeous, and her lyrics meandered into my mind with the ease of slipping into my favourite thrifted outfit. Back then, she was writing more songs for other people than she was performing and releasing her own music. Nevertheless, her aesthetic was evident in everything she did.
At the time I was trying to interview her, she’d written songs for Ariana Grande, Chris Brown, Fifth Harmony, Jhené Aiko, Chloe x Halle, and more. Plus, she had two EPs of her own out.
Here’s a snippet of the email I sent to Victoria’s publicist:
“I'm producing a feature article for their SS19 print issue and would love to speak with Victoria Monet about her iconic year so far, upcoming projects and everything in between. The woman behind the lyrics of some of 2019’s biggest songs needs to be seen & heard.”
I first discovered Victoria’s music in 2018 when I stumbled upon Life After Love, Pt. 1. The moment I heard Freak for the first time, I knew I’d be a fan for life. No joke, I got everyone I could to listen to that song. It was on repeat in my apartment, in my headphones on my commute to my 9-to-5 job, and I even included it on the playlist I made for my friend’s bachelorette party.
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Her vibe, her confidence. Everything about her was pulling me in. I’ve probably listened to both part one and two of Life After Love a million times. And then along came Jaguar. Phew! Victoria Monet’s music is fierce. Fabulous! Ferociously of the moment yet nostalgic at the same time. It’s everything.
But now back to the story of how I tried to interview Victoria Monet.
Three days went by and I didn’t hear anything back from Victoria’s team. Of course, not wanting to let this potential opportunity go, I emailed them again to follow up. “Did you get a chance to read my previous email? I’d really love to interview Victoria for the spring/summer 2019 issue of Chloe Magazine. Looking forward to hearing back from you!” Boom. Nine hours later, I got a response. They were on board. All they wanted to know was a bit about the magazine’s stats.
I emailed back letting them know that I’d asked my editor for that info. In part, this is what I said to my editor: “I just got an email back from Victoria Monet's PR rep—she’s one of the songwriters behind Ariana Grande’s latest album and a singer on her own as well. She’s really cool and I think could be a great interview for Chloe!”
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Then, the PR rep got back to me and asked if it would require a photo shoot. I told her I was based in Toronto and so the interview would have to take place over the phone. And if they had high-res photos of Victoria that we could use, that would be excellent. Being a Canadian magazine, this was how a lot of interviews worked: photos taken by the celebrity and their team would be emailed to us and I would chat with the talent over the phone.
Even for interviews with Canadian celebs like Amanda Brugel, we did phone interviews. As a freelance writer, I didn’t have any control over how the conversations took place. After all, I had bills to pay. Interviews were done how the magazine wanted and that was that. It felt a bit outrageous for me to ask them to fly me to Los Angeles to sit down with someone in person. Although, I would’ve loved that.
Everything was going so well. I was brimming with anticipation and excitement. I mean, this was one of my favourite singers in the world and I might be interviewing her?! It felt too good to be true. And unfortunately, it was. After 13 days of emails and going back and forth with Victoria’s team, I had to send them this email:
“So, I spoke to my editor and she asked me to put this on hold for the moment. She’s working on organizing the other articles. Sorry for the delay! Didn't want to leave you hanging.”
Ugh. I was crushed. I remember the sinking feeling of this interview going away. Without the backing of a print magazine behind me, I didn’t think that Victoria would want to talk to just me for my blog or something. So, I let it go. Looking back, I should have tried harder. Or pitched the idea to more magazines. However, when I tried to pitch other celebrity interviews to different magazines, especially ones in Toronto, they told me that their “in-house writers” would be the ones to do articles like that. After all, I was freelance and not really part of a team anywhere.
Although no one could have predicted it at the time, this feels like such a missed moment. Not unlike the VMAs saying that it was “too early” in Victoria’s musical journey to have her at the show. (Such a regrettable statement.) And that was in 2023. I was trying to interview her four years before that happened. Flash forward: I now live in LA and went to Victoria’s meet & greet at Fonda Theatre in 2023. I should have mentioned to her that I’d been this close to interviewing her way back when. Oh well. Missed opportunity or not, maybe my mother fuckin’ moment is just around the corner.
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