Mary J. Blige

Short Biography
ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET FOR R&B ROYALTY, MARY J BLIGE WILL TOUR AUSTRALIA

FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS JUNE

"As a singer, Mary really is the heir to Aretha Franklin" - Sting

"The most important soul singer of our time" - The Independent (2006)

"She's the premier RnB vocalist of her generation" - Rolling Stone (2006)

"This generation's most distinctive singer" - USA Today (2003)

Ladies and Gentlemen, please w...

Short Biography
ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET FOR R&B ROYALTY, MARY J BLIGE WILL TOUR AUSTRALIA

FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS JUNE

"As a singer, Mary really is the heir to Aretha Franklin" - Sting

"The most important soul singer of our time" - The Independent (2006)

"She's the premier RnB vocalist of her generation" - Rolling Stone (2006)

"This generation's most distinctive singer" - USA Today (2003)

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the Queen of hip-hop soul. The Icon. The Diva. The Voice. The one and only, Mary J Blige.
Promoter Chugg Entertainment is thrilled to announce that Mary J Blige will perform four one-night-only concerts in her first ever tour of Australia next month.
The supremely stylish and exceedingly beautiful Mary J Blige is also without doubt one of the greatest singers of our time. The proof is in the consistent worldwide #1 albums and singles, her 23 Grammy nominations and 8 Grammy wins, seven multi-platinum records and over 15-years of equal parts respect and adoration from the public, critics and fellow artists. 

Mary J. Blige has helped to redefine RnB and inspired a generation of artists who have followed her lead.  She has secured her place as one of the worlds top pop diva's by appealing to older fans with her soul sensibility and maintaining youthful credibility with her hip-hop savvy.

Michael Chugg, Executive Chairman of Chugg Entertainment is as excited as any fan about bringing the Diva down under. "Mary J Blige is a superstar in anyone's language... she is sexy, stylish, sassy and what a voice! She's one of the greatest live acts I've ever seen and I'm thrilled to bring her to Australia for the first time. I had goose bumps when I saw her perform with Sting at the VH1 Awards and so did Sting! I can't wait to see her blow Australian music lovers away," said Chugg.

Mary J Blige was born in the Bronx and spent the first few years of her childhood in Georgia before returning to New York with her mother and older sister, settling in the housing projects of Yonkers.

She endured a rough life in Yonkers, NY, one which left her with her fair share of physical and emotional scars but set the foundations in her adult life for her strength of character and savvy disposition, and the type of music which lift spirits, touches lives and bring her heart, soul and truth to all of those who listen.
Mary's 8th studio album, "Growing Pains" shows Mary pushing herself in ways she never has: especially vocally. There are jazzy inflections, girl group coquettishness, nuanced phrasing: a full range of tones and textures.

"Growing Pains" comes on the heels of her best-selling anthology "Reflections".  It's also her first album of new material since "The Breakthrough" debuted at #1 on the US charts and the album's first single, "Be Without You," made chart history by holding down the #1 spot on the Billboard "Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums" chart for a record breaking sixteen straight weeks.

On September 9, 2005, Mary J. Blige performed the anthem "One" with U2 for "Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast" and again at the 2006 Grammy Awards. The collaboration brought Mary J Bilge back into the spotlight, won her new fans in the world of rock music and re-confirmed her versatility as a performer and her status as an all round outstanding artist.

Mary J Blige is the One. Don't miss this unprecedented concert event.

In-depth Biography
When her debut album, What's the 411?, hit the street in 1992, critics and fans alike were floored by its powerful combination of modern R&B with an edgy rap sound that glanced off of the pain and grit of Mary J. Blige's Yonkers, NY, childhood. Called alternately the new Chaka Khan or new Aretha Franklin, Blige had little in common stylistically with either of those artists, but like them, she helped adorn soul music with new textures and flavors that inspired a whole generation of musicians. With her blonde hair, self-preserving slouch, and combat boots, Blige was street-tough and beautiful all at once, and the record company execs who profited off of her early releases did little to dispel the bad-girl image that she earned as she stumbled through the dizzying first days of her career. As she exorcised her personal demons and softened her style to include sleek designer clothes, she remained a hero to thousands of girls growing up in the same kinds of rough places she came from. Blige reinvented her career again and again by shedding the bad habits and bad influences that kept her down; by the time her fourth album, Mary, was released in 1999, she had matured into an expressive singer able to put the full power of her voice behind her music, while still reflecting a strong urban style. With her fifth album, No More Drama, it wasn't just Blige's style that shone through the structures set up for her by songwriters and producers, it was her own vision -- spiritual, emotional, personal, and full of wisdom, it reflected an artist who was comfortable with who she was and how far she had come.

Born in the Bronx on January 11, 1971, Blige spent the first few years of her life in Savannah, GA, before moving with her mother and older sister to the Schlobam housing projects in Yonkers, NY. Her rough life there produced more than a few scars, physical and otherwise, and Blige dropped out of high school her junior year, instead spending time doing her friends' hair in her mother's apartment and hanging out. When she was at a local mall in White Plains, NY, she recorded herself singing Anita Baker's "Caught Up in the Rapture" into a karaoke machine. The resulting tape was passed by Blige's stepfather to Uptown Records CEO Andre Harrell. Harrell was impressed with Blige's voice and signed her to sing backup for local acts like Father MC. In 1991, however, Sean "Puffy" Combs took Blige under his wing and began working with her on What's the 411?, her debut album. Combs had a heavy hand in What's the 411?, along with producers Dave Hall, Mark Morales, and Mark Rooney, and the stylish touches that they added to Blige's unique vocal style created a stunning album that bridged the gap between R&B and rap in a way that no female singer had before. Uptown tried to capitalize on the success of What's the 411? by issuing a remixed version of it a year later, but it was only a modest success creatively and commercially.

Her 1995 follow-up, My Life, again featured Combs' handiwork, and if it stepped back stylistically from its urban roots by featuring less of a rap sound, it made up for it with its subject matter. My Life was full of ghetto pathos and Blige's own personal pain shone through like a beacon. Her rocky relationship with fellow Uptown artist K-Ci Hailey likely contributed to the raw emotions on the album. The period following the recording of My Life was also a difficult time professionally for Blige, as she severed her ties with Combs and Uptown, hired Suge Knight as a financial advisor, and signed with MCA.

Released in 1997, Share My World marked the beginning of Blige's creative partnerships with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The album was another hit for Blige and debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. Critics soured somewhat on its more conventional soul sound, but Blige's fans seemed undaunted. By the time her next studio album, Mary, came out in 1999, the fullness and elegance of her new sound seemed more developed, as Blige exuded a classic soul style aided by material from Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Stevie Wonder, and Lauryn Hill. Mary made it obvious that the ghetto fabulous style and more confrontational aspects of her music were gone, while the emotive power still remained.

That power also helped carry the more modern-sounding 2001 release No More Drama, a deeply personal album that remained a collective effort musically yet reflected more of Blige's songwriting than any of her previous efforts. The Mary J. Blige on No More Drama seemed miles away from the flashy kid on What's the 411?, yet it was still possible to see the path through her music that produced an older, wiser, but still expressive artist. In 2003 she was reunited with P. Diddy, who produced the majority of that year's patchy Love and Life album. The Breakthrough followed two years later and was a tremendous success, spawning a handful of major singles. By the December 2006 release of Reflections (A Retrospective), The Breakthrough's lead single, "Be Without You," had spent nearly a year on the R&B chart, while the album's fifth single, "Take Me as I Am," had been on the same chart for over four months. A year later Blige came out with her eighth studio album, Growing Pains. It was her third consecutive studio album to top both the Billboard 200 and the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. While on tour with Robin Thicke during 2008, Blige began working on Stronger, which was released the November of the following year. ~ Stacia Proefrock, All Music Guide