Muni Long isn’t “acting shy” about sharing the origins of Fifth Harmony’s “Worth It,” the group’s hit song that just marked its 10th anniversary.
The two-time Grammy winner, 36, exclusively told PEOPLE while discussing her new single, “Slow Grind” how she had a hand in co-writing “Worth It” — and the surprising way she found out the song was released in 2015.
Asked if she had Fifth Harmony in mind when writing the song, Long says, “No, I wrote that song in the studio by myself,” before explaining what happened next. “And then Stargate took it and just kind of reproduced it.”
“They took the hook off of the song I wrote, a verse from another song I had written, they took the Kid Ink verse from a song that he had did with them and reproduced it,” Long explains. “And they basically made, like they engineered this song. It was like three different songs put together.”
Fifth Harmony released the track on March 2, 2015.
“By the time I found out that it was out, it was already No. 10 on iTunes. I got a text like, ‘Congratulations!’ I was like, ‘For what?’ ” Long recalls with a laugh.
The song peaked at No. 12 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. Long is credited as a writer on “Worth It” under the name Priscilla Renea, the birth name she used in the music industry until debuting her Muni Long transformation with a new look and sound in 2020.
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“I’m not complaining! It is what it is,” Long says of being surprised by the release of “Worth It” 10 years ago. “There’s nothing I can do about it. What I’m trying to do is give [others] some insight that it happens to the best of us. So if it happened to me, it can happen to you too, sweetie.”
At the time “Worth It” came out, Fifth Harmony was composed of Ally Brooke, Normani, Dinah Jane, Lauren Jauregui and Camila Cabello.
“Worth It” now has more than 2.3 billion views on YouTube alone.
Since then, Long has won two Grammys in the R&B performance category for “Hrs & Hrs” in 2023 and “Made for Me (Live on BET)” in 2025.
After this year’s Grammy win, Long declared in her acceptance speech, “Please stop calling me Priscilla — it’s Muni Long now.”
Looking ahead, Long will make her debut Coachella performance in April.
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