Monica raised the roof with her powerful pipes during a performance for The BoomBox as part of AOL Sessions. The 31-year-old singer ran through new material off her seventh album New Life including a solo version of her Brandy duet “It All Belongs to Me,” the Missy Elliott-produced “Anything (To Find You),” and Rico Love-helmed “Man Who Has Everything.” She also took it back with her R&B classics “Angel of Mine” and “So Gone.”

“This album New Life is really a continuation of my 2008 LP Still Standing,” explained Monica. “I don’t live in yesterday anymore, so New Life is just my way of saying to every person that listens, embrace all that can come into your life.”

Monica is plotting a joint tour with Brandy this summer. “We’ve sat down and talked about the way that it would go and us co-headlining and being able to take walks through the past and go through both of our first albums,” she said. “Something very special so that the audience can feel like they’re having a full experience of both of us as individual artists, but also us in this newfound group we’ve become after reuniting after 14 years.”

The church-raised singer plans to return to her gospel roots in the future. “I realized that I’m kinda transitioning. It hasn’t happened quite yet because I still have a lot of self-work I should do before I cross over into that genre. But I definitely would do that. That will definitely be how my story probably ends.”

“It All Belongs to Me”

“Anything (To Find You)”

“Man Who Has Everything”

“Angel of Mine” / “So Gone”

Interview