Mary Jane Blige (born January 11, 1971) is an American R&B, soul, and hip hop soul singer, songwriter, occasional rapper, record producer, actress, and hip hop icon who has sold more than 40 million records and over 10 million singles worldwide. She is widely known as the "Queen of Hip Hop Soul", and has also received over 26 Grammy Award nominations for her work, winning eight. Early in her career, Blige's highly personal songs and gritty voice earned her comparisons to soul singers who preceded her, including Patti LaBelle and Aretha Franklin; however her artistic evolution and commercial success throughout the years have allowed her to exert her own influence over a new generation of artists.
2007-present: Growing Pains
Blige was featured with Aretha Franklin on the soundtrack to the 2006 motion picture Bobby, on the lead track "Never Gonna Break My Faith". The song was nominated for a Golden Globe, which was lost to Prince for "Song of the Heart." It has now been nominated for a Grammy Award at the 2008 ceremony.
Blige was featured on Ludacris' song and music video "Runaway Love". The song reached the top five on both the Hot 100 and the Hip-Hop/R&B chart.
On December 7, 2006, Blige became the artist with the most Grammy Award nominations for the year, eight, winning three for "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" and "Best R&B Song" for "Be Without You" and "Best R&B Album" for The Breakthrough. On February 11, 2007, Blige completed a season sweep of the "big three" major music awards, having won the American Music Award in November 2006, the Billboard Music Awards in December 2006, and the Grammy Awards in February 2007.
Blige's new album, Growing Pains, was released on December 18, 2007 and sold 629,000 copies in it's first week. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 and at #1 on the Billboard R&B album chart , behind Josh Groban's Noel with over 730,000. This is the third time since Nielsen SoundScan began collecting data in 1991 that two albums sold more than 600,000 copies in a week in the United States. The first occurrence was in 1991, when Guns N' Roses released Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, selling 685,000 and 770,000 copies, respectively. However, in its second week it climbed to #1 on the Billboard Top 200 after selling a further 204,000 copies, making it her fourth #1 album to date. The lead single "Just Fine", peaked at #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #3 on the Billboard Hot R&B chart. Mary appears in an iTunes commercial featuring the second single from the new album, "Work That."
Blige was featured on 50 Cent's new album Curtis, in the song "All of Me". It is rumored that Blige will do a song with gospel superstar Yolanda Adams on Adams' 2008 duets album.[citation needed]
On December 6, 2007, the nominations for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards were announced and Blige was nominated for "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance", for Just Fine; for "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals", for the duet Disrespectful, with Chaka Khan; and for Best Gospel Performance, for the duet Never Gonna Break My Faith, with Aretha Franklin, featuring The Harlem Boys Choir. She won the latter two.
In March 2008, She will be touring with Jay-Z.
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
- 2006: Reflections - A Retrospective
- 2007: Growing Pains
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