Mary J. Blige

**Mary J. Blige** (/blaɪʒ/ *BLYZHE*; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress.

## Biography

Often referred to as the "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and "Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Awards, twelve NAACP Image Awards, and twelve *Billboard* Music Awards, including the *Billboard* Icon Award. She has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, including one for her supporting role in the film *Mudbound* (2017) and another for its original song "Mighty River", becoming the first person nominated for acting and songwriting in the same year.

Her career began in 1988 when she was signed to Uptown Records by its founder Andre Harrell. Blige then began background vocal work for other artists on the label such as Father MC and Jeff Redd. In 1992, Blige released her debut album, *What's the 411?*, which is credited for introducing the mix of R&B and hip hop into mainstream pop culture. Its 1993 remix album became the first album by a singer to have a rapper on every song, popularizing rap as a featuring act. Both *What's the 411?* and her 1994 album *My Life* are featured on the *Rolling Stone*'s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, and the latter on *Time* magazine's All-Time 100 Albums. Throughout her career, Blige went on to release 14 studio albums, including four *Billboard* 200 number-one albums. Her biggest hits include "Real Love", "You Remind Me", "I'm Goin' Down", "Not Gon' Cry", "Be Without You", "Just Fine" and the *Billboard* Hot 100 number-one single "Family Affair".

Blige has also made a successful transition to both the television and movie screens, with supporting roles in films such as *Prison Song* (2001), *Rock of Ages* (2012), *Betty and Coretta* (2013), *Black Nativity* (2013), her Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated breakthrough performance as Florence Jackson in *Mudbound* (2017), *Trolls World Tour* (2020), *Body Cam* (2020), *The Violent Heart* (2021) and co-starring as jazz singer Dinah Washington in the Aretha Franklin biopic *Respect* (2021). In 2019, Blige starred as Cha-Cha on the first season of the Netflix television series *The Umbrella Academy*. She currently stars as Monet Tejada in the spin-off of the highly-rated TV show drama *Power* in *Power Book II: Ghost*.

She received a Legends Award at the , and the Voice of Music Award from ASCAP in 2007. *Billboard* ranked Blige as the most successful female R&B/Hip-Hop artist of the past 25 years. In 2017, *Billboard* magazine named her 2006 song "Be Without You" as the most successful R&B/Hip-Hop song of all time, as it spent an unparalleled 15 weeks atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and over 75 weeks on the chart. In 2011, VH1 ranked Blige as the 80th greatest artist of all time. In 2012, VH1 ranked Blige at number 9 in "The 100 Greatest Women in Music" list. Blige became a first-time nominee for the 2021 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2022, Blige was awarded with the Icon Award at the Billboard Music Awards.

## Advising

Mary J. Blige was a Battle advisor for team Thomas Hercules on fantasy voice Season 2.

She later returned to advise for team Brendon Urie during fantasy voice Season 26.

Then again as a battle advisor for team Taylor Swift during fantasy voice Season 27.

She also was a battle advisor during Fantasy Voice All Stars Season 1 this time for Team Taylor Swift.