It also featured a brilliant collaboration with U2, covering their 1992 hit One. It generated R&B hits Be Without You, Enough Cryin' and Take Me As I Am.

However, the situation immensely improved with the release of The Breakthrough. It became the greatest commercial and critical disappointment during the whole artist's career. The next studio effort, Love & Life, was the re-union attempt by Blige and the producer of her first two albums Sean Combs. Dre Family Affair, the first single from the album No More Drama, became a big popular hit in the USA, while the song He Think I Don't Know brought her the first Grammy award. In a duet with George Michael she also sang a cover on Stevie Wonder's winding hit As.

It was more soul-oriented and featured Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Eric Clapton and Lauryn Hill. A year later the Mary disc hit the shelves. got he first big prize вЂ“ American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Album. It rocketed four hits - Love Is All We Need (featuring Nas), I Can Love You (featuring Lil' Kim), Everything and Seven Days. In 1997, the third album Share My World was released. The same time she started taking part in side projects вЂ“ recording duets with other singers and contributing to soundtracks. Her autobiographical sophomore attempt My Life was released in 1994, being darker and less up-tempo then its predecessor. She immediately got down to her follow-up, while the remix album What's The 411? Remix spawned the interest to her debut work. In 1993, Blige was already christened as the Queen of hip-hop soul. However, in 1991, the Uptown Records started working over her debut album titled What's The 411? and next year the lead-single You Remind Me saw light. She became the first female artist at the studio and mostly worked on back vocals for her mates, as the label mostly focused on the famous performers. Their representative met Mary and signed her to the label. Her mother's boyfriend took his attention to the cassette and though his hands it came to the Uptown Records. In 1988, she made a cover on Anita Baker's Rapture in a recording booth in the local shopping mall. remains a model R&B diva who paved the way for myriad successors, including BeyoncГ© and Ariana Grande.Mary Jane Blige was born on Januand grew up in New-York, the USA. Even as sheвЂ™s gone Hollywood (earning an Academy Award nomination for 2017вЂ™s Mudbound), Mary J. Mary (1999) saw her move toward a more classic sound, though 2001вЂ™s smash вЂњFamily AffairвЂќ swung back toward hip-hop that fertile tension has remained in her music since.

BligeвЂ™s life was never separate from her art, and fans have followed her through addiction, marriage, divorce, and therapy, connecting with songs like вЂњNot GonвЂ™ CryвЂќ and вЂњNo More DramaвЂќ out of deep identification: Here was an artist who sang womenвЂ™s realities as they were almost never presented in popular music-and who always came out stronger.

She and Sean Combs crafted her 1992 debut, WhatвЂ™s the 411?, which spawned the ubiquitous and beloved jam вЂњReal LoveвЂќ and helped set the template for R&BвЂ™s marriage to hip-hop. Her voice is elastic, scrappy, and versatile, with more than a hint of world-weary grit, and when a chance recording of Anita BakerвЂ™s вЂњCaught Up in the RaptureвЂќ came before Uptown Records execs in 1988, the label immediately snapped her up as its youngest (and first female) signee. Born Mary Jane Blige in the Bronx in 1971, Blige was raised mainly in Yonkers, NY, where she grew up listening to the greats: Aretha, Chaka, and Gladys Knight. Dubbed the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul in the вЂ™90s, Blige came off as tough and streetwise (unlike many of her contemporaries), and she could go toe to toe with rappers, including JAY Z, Method Man, and more recently Kendrick Lamar. Blige is that rare singer who can channel your pain-and then drag you onto the dance floor to sweat it away.

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