Monica Recalls Giving $1,000 Talent Show Prize Money To Her Mother

Monica is a rider for her family and has been that way since childhood. Long before she gave her son $18K to launch a business, she gave her talent show prize money to fund her mother’s wedding.

The “So Gone” singer was a guest during the Atlanta stop of UNITERRUPTED’s “The Shop” live tour, where she explained her “family first” mindset that started with a talent show she won at the age of 9 and happily gave her earnings over to her mother.

“Our family’s from Newnan, Georgia, by way of the Southside. I was born here. I was 9 years old singing the ‘Greatest Love Of All,’ and my motivation at the time was my mother was getting married and we got in my cousin’s 280Z Datsun in the dead of the heat in the summertime with no air conditioning,” Monica shared, as captured by Afro Tech.

“Oh, my mother was getting married I just wanted to give it to her, we just wanted to give it to her, and we did.”

The Grammy Award-winning singer notes the experience as the beginning of her commitment to giving back to those who have supported her along the way.

“Then, just everything I’ve always done, I’ve always looked at it as it was my job to take care of those who took care of me, and that was my mama,” she shared.

“So I got the thousand dollars. That was the goal. But what I learned in those moments is that there’s a plan for all of our lives, and it’s orchestrated by somebody bigger than every person in this room. And, what was meant to happen was for my life to change that day, and I was able to really enjoy my career because I didn’t have any expectations. I was not looking at stats; I was not worried about the noise.”

Monica made media headlines in May with the $18,000 she gifted her eldest son on his 18th birthday. It was money to help give him a headstart on investing in his future. The additional $1,800 was to be spent at his leisure.