Muni Long underwent a double lung transplant last year after doctors warned her that she had just “one week to live”.
During an appearance on Good Morning America on Tuesday, the Grammy Award-winning R&B singer-songwriter recalled how she knew something was seriously wrong with her health after she was forced to cancel her gig as a support act for Brandy and Monica’s The Boy Is Mine tour in November 2025.
“I should have never taken that tour, but there was so much going on in my life that I had to do it,” she began. “I got really sick, I got pneumonia, (and) I had to step away for a few dates. But I’m like, ‘This is not it, I got to go back.’ I went back, and I think maybe about five or six dates in, I was like, ‘This is not (right).’ I couldn’t even get out of bed to make my call time for the stage. And the last show, I just barely made it, I was only able to do two songs.”
But shortly after she arrived home to rest at Thanksgiving, Muni – real name Priscilla Hamilton – woke up in the hospital, with doctors quickly advising her that she needed surgery.
“(The doctors) were all like, you need a transplant,” the 37-year-old, who has autoimmune disease lupus, recounted. “I’m like, ‘It sounds like you have a time. How long do I have to live?’ And they go, ‘A week. One week.’ And my jaw dropped literally. I was like, ‘That’s rude.’ But they just wanted me to (see), ‘Hey, this is not a joke, you need to make a choice. You can either go to hospice, or you can get these lungs.'”
Following the surgery, Muni is doing “fabulous” and receiving regular checkups.
However, it will be some time before the Hrs and Hrs star can perform again.
“The ego and the vanity was like, ‘What about my voice? What’s going to happen?'” she added. “But I look at my son, and I think about how much more life that I have to live. And I think just quality of life was first. I can’t sing if I’m not here.”
Muni’s new single, Richest, is out now.
