Monica ‘Shocked’ by Grammy Nomination

After the 'Grammy Nominations Concert Live!' at Los Angeles' Club Nokia last night, some of the nominees gathered in the back to meet with the press and discuss their nods. One of those was Best R&B Album and Best R&B Female Vocal Performance nominee Monica, who admitted to the gathered throng she was in disbelief at the honor. "I'm still in shock. You know they don't tell you until you come up from the back so I really was here in support of a lot of other people. I'm a part of the Grammy board, and I was not expecting anything," she said of her surprise nomination for 'Still Standing.'

For the one-time teen star, now a mother of two, she has a whole different perspective on what recognition like this means. "I have not been a part of the Grammys as far as being nominated since 1999, so at 16 years old I didn't understand what it means," she said. "Now, at 30, I'm just in shock that I'm even being considered and being nominated with some of the people that are in the category as well. So it's just an honor, but I can't lie, it's still sinking in. I haven't really digested any of it just yet."

The honor is especially satisfying to her as well because of what the album means. "Still Standing,' to me, is something I used to always say to myself: Stand on your own two feet, don't allow things to just overtake you and consume you because things at one point were just that bad," she said. "But after taking some time off from the industry, giving birth to both my children, who are now five and three, I just look at life as a confirmation that you can make it through anything. So 'Still Standing' was just that and I wanted other girls, especially younger ones, to feel empowered by it."

She confesses that trying to put a positive message out there she didn't know how it would be received. "I never expected to be here at this point with that type of album that was more about inspiration and pulling through. I just didn't know exactly where I would fit," she says. "But I knew those were the types of messages I wanted to send."