In the fast-moving world of R&B, three years feels like 20 – kind of like dog years. Monica, the Atlanta-base singer whose star shined brightest in the late 1990s, has stayed under the radar the past four years raising her two kids. So what better way to get back on the scene than a reality show?
“Monica: Still Standing” debuts Oct. 27th on BET at 10 p.m. after the BET Hip Hop Awards.
“I think it gives people an in-depth look how hard it is to stay relevant in the music business and balancing family life,” she said in a phone interview last week. “A lot of people aren’t comfortable baring their souls. I am. I’m a work in progress. I’m going through things every day just like everybody else.”’
Monica has ridden a roller coaster of a life, packed with highs and lows. Highs include breaking it big with a quintuple platinum debut album at the age of 15 and taking home a Grammy three years later.
But life took a left turn in 2000 when she saw her boyfriend commit suicide in front of her. She followed that with a rocky relationship with rapper C-Murder. And she didn’t meet eye to eye with her label over her last album in 2006, her least successful to date.
“I’ve learned to rely on faith,” she said, “how to depend on things within and stop looking at worldly possessions as real success and find out who Monica really is. That’s what the show reflects. “Still Standing” is executive produced by James DuBose, who has also done a string of other Atlanta-based BET shows, including “Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is,” the spinoff “Frankie & Neffe” and “Tiny & Toya. Monica, in fact, is friends with Cole and said her experience with DuBose through Cole’s show convinced her to do her own. Unlike many other reality shows, she said nothing was staged. There is no manufactured drama, as often is the case on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta. I respect ‘Housewives,’ “ she said. “But my show is the complete opposite. It really is. It’s about love and God.” She said she may have a chance to talk to 100 kids at a group home. A TV show allows her to reach hundreds of thousands.
