The singer said she was seriously smitten with the person since childhood — and even got to work with her.
Janelle Monáe has had the rare pleasure of meeting her celebrity crush in person.
The “Electric Lady” singer not only named the A-lister in question, but confirmed that she has already worked with her professionally. The 38-year-old was nonetheless staggered during their first encounter.
“When I first got into the industry, Nia Long was one of the first actors who had come and see me perform, and I just remember hugging her,” Monáe said on “The Jennifer Hudson Show” Thursday. “I don’t think I was comfortable telling her how in love I was with her growing up, just like everybody else.”
“She definitely was my crush,” the singer concluded.
Long established herself as an actor in the early 1990s and starred in the acclaimed John Singleton film “Boyz n the Hood” (1991) and “Friday” (1995) before her beloved recurring guest role on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and continued Hollywood career.
She most recently made headlines for the alleged infidelities of her now-ex-fiancé.
Monáe, who identifies as nonbinary and pansexual, saw her dreams come true in the last year. The singer not only approached Long about potentially collaborating, but managed to include her in the Grammy-nominated album “The Age of Pleasure” (2023).
“When I had the song ‘The Rush,’ there was this voice that I heard, and it was just percent for her because of her poetic voice on ‘Love Jones’ — which is a classic,” Monáe said Wednesday about a 1997 rom-com drama Long starred in opposite Larenz Tate.
“And so, if you listen to the song, she’s talking at the end,” she continued. “I demoed it up, and I think I sounded really sultry and sexy, but I was like, ‘Nia Long, we need this energy.’”
Monáe is an actor in her own right, having starred in acclaimed films including “Moonlight” (2016), “Hidden Figures” (2016) and “Glass Onion” (2022).
Long, who split with NBA coach Ime Udoka in December 2022, is now single.
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