Her mother's boyfriend at the time later played the cassette for Jeff Redd, a recording artist and A&R runner for Uptown Records. She dropped out of Roosevelt High School in the eleventh grade.īlige recorded an impromptu cover of Anita Baker's "Caught Up In the Rapture" at a recording booth in the Galleria Mall in White Plains, New York. She later moved to Schlobohm Apartments in Yonkers, New York, where she lived with her mother, older sister, five cousins, and two aunts. At the age of five, Blige was molested by a family friend.īlige spent her early years in Richmond Hill, Georgia, where she sang in a Pentecostal church.
Blige was taught to sing by her father, who later abandoned Blige and sister LaTonya following his divorce from Cora Blige in 1980. These artists had a profound impact on Blige at a very young age. Blige's mother was an avid fan of R&B/Soul music and constantly spun Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Patti Labelle, Chaka Khan, and Jean Carne records when Blige was a child. She is the second of four children born to parents Cora, a nurse, and Thomas Blige, a jazz musician. The scent went on to win two FiFi Awards, including the prestigious "Fragrance Sales Breakthrough" award.īlige was born in The Bronx, New York. The perfume broke HSN records by selling 65,000 bottles during its premiere. In partnership with the Home Shopping Network (HSN) and Carol's Daughter, Blige released her "My Life" perfume. She is named to play music icon Nina Simone in the upcoming biopic Nina. She is a recipient of two Golden Globe Awards nominations for her musical contributions to the films Bobby and The Help.
She starred in the 2009 Tyler Perry box-office hit I Can Do Bad All By Myself and will play a lead role in the film Rock of Ages, which is set to be released to theaters in 2012. In 2012, VH1 ranked Blige at number 9 in "The 100 Greatest Woman in Music."īlige also earned high remarks for her work in film and fragrance. Moreover, she is ranked number 100 on the list of "100 greatest singers of all time" by Rolling Stone magazine. In 2011, Vh1 ranked Blige as the 80th greatest artist of all time. The magazine also lists her 2006 song "Be Without You" as the top R&B song of the 2000s, as it spent an unparalleled 15 weeks atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Billboard Magazine ranked Blige as the most successful female R&B artist of the past 25 years. In other words she has Synesthesia.Īs of 2011, Blige has sold over 50 million albums and 15 million singles worldwide. Blige said that when she hears music, she sees colors. In a documentary by BET television, Mary J. ASCAP official Jeanie Weems stated that "Blige's music has been the voice of inspiration to women worldwide in both struggle and triumph." That same year, Time included her in its "Time 100" list, a collection of the year's 100 most influential individuals around the world. In 2007 the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awarded her its "Voice of Music" Award. For her part in combining hip hop and soul in the early 1990s and its subsequent commercial success, Blige received the World Music Awards "Legends Award". My Life, in particular, is considered among the greatest albums ever recorded according to Rolling Stone (279/500), Time, and Vibe. Blige's work has defined the course of R&B/Hip-Hop music. The Journey Continues (Act 1) (2011), she had ten consecutive albums debut in the top 10 on the Billboard 200. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B.īlige started her musical career in 1992, releasing her debut album, What's the 411? on MCA Records and Uptown. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. Mary J Blige Biography: Mary Jane Blige (born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and occasional rapper and actress.