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 Early Life

Mary Jane Blige was born January 11th, 1971 in The Bronx, New York City, United States. Blige spent the first four years of her life in Savannah, GA, before moving with her mother, Cora, and older sister, Latonya, to the Schlobam housing projects in Yonkers, NY when her father left the family. She also has a younger half-sister named Jonquell, and a younger half-brother named Bruce Miller both by her mother. Blige dropped out of high school during her junior year and began cutting hair out of the family apartment. Her musical career began at the age of 18 when she recorded herself singing Anita Baker's "Caught Up in the Rapture" with a mall karaoke machine. Her mother's boyfriend at the time played the cassette for Jeff Redd, a recording artist and A&R runner for Uptown Records, one of the most popular Hip Hop and R&B labels of the early 1990s. Redd then sent it to the president and CEO of the label, Andre Harrell. Harrell met with Blige and, in 1989, signed her to Uptown as a backing singer. After impressing singing backing vocals for acts such as Redd and Father MC, Sean "Puffy" Combs, at the time a fledgling A&R executive at Uptown, took Blige under his wing and began working with her on her debut album.

In July, 1992, Uptown released What's the 411?. "You Remind Me", the album's lead off single, peaked at # 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and # 1on the R&B singles chart that summer. The second single, "Real Love", was released in the fall. It too topped the R&B singles chart, and became Blige’s first top ten Hot 100 single, peaking at # 7. More What's the 411? singles followed into 1993, including "Reminisce", a cover of Rufus's "Sweet Thing", and "Love No Limit". What's the 411? peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and topped the Hip Hop/R&B Albums chart and has sold just over 4 million copies worldwide.

Following the success of her debut album and a remixed version, Blige went into the recording studio in the fall of 1993 to record her second album, My Life. "Be Happy", the album's first single, peaked at # 29 on the Hot 100. In early 1995, it was followed up with a cover of Rose Royce's 1976 hit "I'm Goin' Down", which became her first top 20 hit in the UK, peaking at # 12. Other My Life singles included "You Bring Me Joy" and "I Love You." Album tracks "Mary Jane (All Night Long)" and "My Life" also received heavy radio play, despite never being officially released as singles apart from in the UK, where "Mary Jane (All Night Long)" became Blige's second top 20 hit reaching #17. In 1996, Blige earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Album, and won the Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need to Get By" with Method Man. In 2003, the album was ranked # 279 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, Blige's only album on the list.

In April, 1997, MCA Records, the parent company to Uptown Records, which was in the process of being dismantled, released Blige's third album, Share My World. Share My World debuted at # 1 on the Billboard 200 while remaining atop of the Billboard R&B Albums chart for four weeks. It was also Blige's first UK top 40 album, peaking inside the top 10. The album spawned four hit singles, Love Is All We Need, Everything and I Can Love You, and Seven Days, alongside Missing You, which was only released in the UK. The album earned Blige her fourth Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Album. The album became Blige's most commercially successful selling 3 million copies in the U.S alone and 5 million worldwide.

On August 17, 1999, Blige's fourth album, titled Mary, was released in the US. The album charted #2 on the Billboard 200 and #1 Billboard R&B Albums chart for 3 weeks. "All That I Can Say", "Deep Inside", "Your Child", and "Give Me You" were the albums commercial singles in the US. A cover version of Stevie Wonder's "As", a collaboration with George Michael, was released as the lead single throughout Europe the chart highlight being a top 5 spot in the UK. In 2000 Mary received three Grammy Awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance ("All That I Can Say"), Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group ("Don't Waste Your Time" with Aretha Franklin), and Best R&B Album.

In August, 2001, Blige released her fifth studio album, No More Drama. The album's first single, "Family Affair", produced by Dr. Dre, became her first # 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for six consecutive weeks. Two further hit singles "Dance for Me" (Europe Only) and the title track, "No More Drama" were both success in the UK reaching the top 20. MCA re-released No More Drama with four new tracks in January 2002. This produced a further single "Rainy Dayz" featuring rapper Ja Rule. The album sold 5.5 million copies worldwide and earned Blige two Grammy nominations. "Family Affair" was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and the album was nominated for Best R&B Album, although Blige lost to newcomer Alicia Keys in both categories.

On August 26, 2003, Blige's sixth album Love & Life, which saw a reunion with her former producer Combs, was released on Geffen Records. Despite the album debuting at # 1 on the Billboard 200 and becoming Blige's fourth consecutive UK top ten album, the singles sales were less positive and received mixed reviews. To date the album has sold about 960,000 copies in the US and over 2 million worldwide. Blige and Combs reportedly clashed during the making of the album, and again parted ways upon its completion.

Blige's seventh studio album, The Breakthrough, was released on December 20, 2005. It debuted at # 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts selling 727,000 copies in its first week, the fourth largest debut of 2005. The lead-off single, "Be Without You", peaked at # 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, while peaking at # 1 on the R&B chart for a record fifteen consecutive weeks. The album produced two more top five US R&B chart hits, "Enough Cryin'" and "Take Me as I Am", and gave Blige her biggest hit to date in the UK with her duet with U2 on the cover of their 1992 hit, "One", which peaked at # 2. The Breakthrough won Blige nine Billboard Music Awards and three Grammy Awards and sold over 7 million copies worldwide.

2006 saw the release of a greatest hits album, Reflections - A Retrospective, followed by Blige's eighth studio album, Growing Pains, which was released in December, 2007. The album debuted at # 2 on the Billboard 200 and at # 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Growing Pains produced three singles "Just Fine", "Work That" and "Stay Down" the most successful being "Just Fine" which reached # 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop singles chart. The album was ranked #29 on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007 and at the 51st Grammy Awards, in 2009, it won Best Contemporary R&B Album. To date it has sold just over 3 million copies worldwide.

1992 What's the 411?

1994 My Life

1997 Share My World

1999 Mary

2001 No More Drama

2003 Love & Life

2005 The Breakthrough

2007 Growing Pains

1992 "You Remind Me"

1992 "Real Love"

1992 "What's The 411?"

1993 "Reminisce"

1993 "Sweet Thing"

1993 "I Don't Want to Do Anything" (with K-Ci Hailey)

1993 "Love No Limit"

1994 "My Love"

1994 "You Don't Have to Worry"

1994 "Be Happy"

1995 "Mary Jane (All Night Long)"

1995 "My Life"

1995 "I'm Goin' Down"

1995 "You Bring Me Joy"

1995 "I Love You"

1995 "Everyday It Rains"

1996 "(You Make Me Feel like) a Natural Woman"

1996 "Not Gon' Cry"

1996 "Everlasting Love"

1997 "Love Is All We Need" (featuring Nas)

1997 "It's On" (featuring R. Kelly)

1997 "I Can Love You" (featuring Lil Kim)

1997 "Missing You"

1997 "Everything"

1998 "Seven Days"

1998 "A Dream"

1998 "Beautiful"

1999 "As" (with George Michael)

1999 "All That I Can Say"

1999 "Deep Inside"

1999 "Your Child"

2000 "Give Me You"

2001 "Family Affair"

2001 "Dance for Me"

2002 "No More Drama"

2002 "Rainy Dayz" (featuring Ja Rule)

2003 "Love @ 1st Sight" (featuring Method Man)

2003 "Ooh!"

2003 "Not Today" (featuring Eve)

2003 "Whenever I Say Your Name" (with Sting)

2004 "It's a Wrap"

2005 "Be Without You"

2006 "One" (with U2)

2006 "Enough Cryin"

2006 "Take Me As I Am"

2006 "MJB da MVP" (featuring 50 Cent)

2006 "We Ride (I See the Future)"

2007 "Just Fine"

2008 "Work That"

2008 "Stay Down"

• After the success of What's the 411, Sean "Puffy" Combs hailed Blige as "the queen of Hip Hop Soul", a title that she has retained throughout her career.
• In a 2006 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Blige said that she was molested at the age of five.
• In 2008 it was reported that Blige had bought a mansion complete with movie theatre and basketball court for $12.3 million.
• Mary J. Blige has had major endorsements with several companies including Reebok, Air Jordan, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Gap, Target, American Express, Apple Inc. and Chevrolet.
• She also has her own record label called Matriarch Records, which is distributed through Geffen.

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