Muni Long’s voice is BACK, and she’s shouting it from the digital rooftops! The Grammy winner just shared a triumphant update after a grueling battle with lupus flare-ups and vocal strain.
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter just opened up about a deeply personal battle that nearly silenced her voice for good. After years of dealing with vocal strain, chronic illness, and emotional stress, Muni’s finally back.
Taking to her Instagram Stories, the “Hrs & Hrs” hitmaker shared a raw update about what she’s been through. “I had no idea how much stress can strain your vocal cords,” she wrote. “When I focus on drama, I physically can’t sing.”
That statement hit hard. Especially coming from someone whose voice has been the foundation of platinum hits and late-night sing-alongs.
Muni revealed that the combination of a respiratory illness, vocal cord strain, and her autoimmune disease, lupus, all led to damage that forced her to relearn how to sing.
But here’s the twist: once she started distancing herself from negativity and leaning into joy, her voice came back. “When I say FTB and just focus on having fun with the people I love, I don’t have flare-ups and I can sing again,” she added. “I’m starting to have a lot more fun these days. I had to pull the garlic out on the vampires, man… So glad I got away from that.”
Muni Long, real name Priscilla Renea, was diagnosed with lupus in 2014. For those unfamiliar, lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own healthy tissue. It can cause inflammation, fatigue, and in Muni’s case, skin changes and pain that directly impacted her ability to perform.
In an interview with PEOPLE, she got honest about the uphill battle of navigating the healthcare system as a Black woman.
“They never listen,” she said. “They don’t believe you. So it’s hard to tell them, ‘Hey, I’m in a lot of pain.’ They’re like, ‘Okay, cool. Go get this blood work.”
The 36-year-old explained that her lupus symptoms show up in subtle yet alarming ways — her fingers turning blue, her skin becoming pale and ashy. “Which is hard to imagine because I’m brown-skinned,” she pointed out. “But literally, my skin will turn like a light, ashy color.”
That kind of constant physical shift, paired with emotional exhaustion, would knock anyone off their game. But for an artist whose instrument is literally her body? It’s devastating.
