Mary J. Blige
was born in The Bronx, NYC, on 11 Jan 1971 and is therefore 52 today.
She spent her early childhood in Georgia where she sang in church
before moving back to New York. She had a troubled childhood with her
Vietnam veteran father suffering from PTSD and alcoholism who
left the family. At the age of 5 she was molested and endured sexual
harassment as a teenager and turned to drugs, alcohol and
promiscuous sex and dropped out of high school.
Her break in music came from a cover of Anita Baker's "Caught
Up In The Rapture" which she recorded in a recording booth that her
mother's boyfriend played for the A&R man at Uptown Records which
resulted in her being signed to the label as a backing singer in 1989.
By 1992 she had completed her debut album "What's The 411?" produced by
Sean 'Puff Daddy' Coombes. It topped the R&B chart and reached #6
on the pop album chart and is now a triple platinum selling album
(i.e. selling over 3m copies) and won her two Soul Train Music Awards
in 1993 for Best New R&B Artist and Best R&B Album.
Since then she has released fourteen studio albums all of which have
reached the top 10 in the Billboard 200 Chart except her last "Good
Morning Gorgeous" which peaked at #14. Four reached #1 and her first
nine were all #1 R&B with her twelfth also hitting #1, of the
remaining four, three reached #2 and her last got to #9.
From 2001 she has also featured in several movies being nominated for
an Oscar and Golden Globe for her role as Florence Jackson in Mudbound
in 2017. She most recently featured as Dinah Washington in the Aretha
Franklin biopic ' Respect' in 2021.
Her most acclaimed album is probably "The Breakthrough" which
received eight Grammy nominations winning three for "Best Female
R&B Vocal Performance", "Best R&B Song" (both for "Be Without
You"), and "Best R&B Album". The single "Be Without You" was also
nominated for "Record of the Year" and "Song of the
Year".
Blige has won 9 Grammys:
2009 - Best Contemporary R&B Album - Growing Pains
2008 - Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals -
Disrespectful
2008 - Best Gospel Performance - Never Gonna Break My Faith
2005 - Best Female R&B Vocal Performance - Be Without You
2005 - Best R&B Song - Be Without You
2005 - Best R&B Album - The Breakthrough
2004 - Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals - Whenever I Say Your
Name
2003 - Best Female R&B Vocal Performance - He Think I Don't
Know
1996 - Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group - I'll Be There For
You/You're All I Need To Get By
and has four nominations for 2023
Best R&B Performance - "Here With Me" – Mary J. Blige featuring
Anderson .Paak
Best Traditional R&B Performance - "Good Morning Gorgeous"
Best R&B Song - "Good Morning Gorgeous"
Best R&B Album - Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe) – Mary J.
Blige
Album Discography
1992 - What's the 411?
1994 - My Life
1997 - Share My World
1999 - Mary
2001 - No More Drama
2003 - Love & Life
2005 - The Breakthrough
2007 - Growing Pains
2009 - Stronger with Each Tear
2011 - My Life II... The Journey Continues (Act 1)
2013 - A Mary Christmas
2014 - The London Sessions
2017 - Strength of a Woman
2022 - Good Morning Gorgeous
With an artist as high profile as Mary J. Blige her material is
pretty well know, so by way of a change here's a playlist of 32 collaborations, covers or samples. Many of which haven't appeared on
her solo albums but rather on soundtracks or compilations or on other
artists albums so some may not be that well known other than to die
hard fans of her music.
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