The American actress, singer, and songwriter Mary Jane Blige was born on January 11, 1971. She has also been given titles like the “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul” and the “Queen of R&B.” Her awards and international recognition alone show how exceptional her range truly is. She currently has twelve NAACP Image Awards, four American Music Awards, nine Grammy Awards, the Billboard Icon Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and twelve Billboard Music Awards under her belt.
She garnered multiple nods from renowned critics for her supporting role in the 2017 film “Mudbound” and for the movie’s original song, “Mighty River,” making her the first individual to receive nominations in the same year for both acting and songwriting. Besides these impressive achievements, she has also been nominated for two Oscars and three Golden Globes.
And if you think this is impressive, just wait till you get to know about the Legends Award that she received from the World Music Awards in 2006. She was presented with the Voice of Music Award the next year. She is one of the most successful female R&B and hip-hop musicians who have made the most money in the last 25 years, according to Billboard’s expansive research. In 2017, Billboard ranked her 2006 hit “Be Without You” as the top R&B/Hip-Hop song of all time. The song stayed on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for more than 75 weeks, spending an unprecedented 15 weeks at the top.
Blige also made it to the ninth position on “The 100 Greatest Women in Music” list overall in 2012 and 80th overall released by VH1 in 2011. In 2021, her name was selected for candidacy for none other than the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of that year. In 2023, which is this current year, she was ranked by Rolling Stone as the 25th greatest singer of all time.
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Early Life and Childhood Struggles
Cora, a nurse, and Thomas Blige, a jazz pianist, welcomed Mary Jane Blige into the world on January 11, 1971, at Fordham Hospital in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City. As a result of her mother’s involvement with another man after divorcing her first husband, Blige has an elder sister named LaTonya Blige-DaCosta, a younger half-brother named Bruce Miller, and a younger half-sister named Jonquell.
She was raised in Richmond Hill, Georgia, where she performed in a Pentecostal church as a young child. Later, she and her family returned to New York, where they lived in the Yonkers neighborhood’s Schlobohm Housing Projects. Her father, an alcoholic Vietnam War veteran who also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, abandoned her and the rest of the family in the mid-1970s, after which they survived with the money that her mother earned while working as a nurse.
At just five years old, she was sexually assaulted by a family acquaintance. On top of this, she had to deal with years of peer sexual harassment as a teenager. Eventually, she would seek solace in drugs, drinking, and promiscuous sex. Blige later quit high school, and that too in her junior year.
Her Career in Music
Her career began in earnest when Uptown Records founder Andre Harrell signed her to the label in 1988. Blige supplied background vocals on the album for other well-known performers like Jeff Redd and Father MC. The R&B and hip-hop fusion is credited with entering the mainstream of popular culture with Mary J. Blige’s debut album, What’s the 411? Its 1993 remix album contributed to the mainstreaming of rap as a featured act because it was the first album by a vocalist to include a rapper in each song. Her 1994 albums My Life and What’s the 411? are both included in the 500 best albums of all time by Rolling Stone. The latter was also included in Time magazine’s list of the Top 100 Albums of All Time.
Throughout the course of her career, Blige released 14 studio albums, four of which peaked at number one on the Billboard 200. Her most popular songs are “Real Love,” “You Remind Me,” “I’m Going Down,” “Not Going to Cry,” “Be Without You,” and “Just Fine.” She had the number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, titled “Family Affair.”
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Her Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated breakthrough performance as Florence Jackson, along with supporting parts in films include Prison Song (2001), Rock of Ages (2012), Betty and Coretta (2013), and Black Nativity (2013) in Mudbound (2017), Trolls World Tour (2020), Body Cam (2020), The Violent Heart (2021), and The Aretha Franklin biopic, co-starring with the legendary jazz singer Dinah Washington, titled Respect (2002).
Mary J. Blige has also successfully transitioned to both the television and movie screens. In 2019, Blige played Cha-Cha in the first season of the Netflix original television series “The Umbrella Academy.” She now plays Monet Tejada in Power Book II: Ghost, a drama spinoff of the popular television program Power.
Personal Life
In the 1990s, R&B artist Mary J. Blige dated Jodeci member Cedric “K-Ci” Hailey for six years. Hailey denied suggestions that the two were arranging a wedding in a 1995 interview with Blige for the UK television show The Word. Their turbulent relationship served as the inspiration for Blige’s album My Life.
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On December 7, 2003, Blige got married to Martin “Kendu” Isaacs, her manager. In addition to his two children from his first marriage, Nas and Jordan, Isaacs also had a younger daughter, Briana, from a relationship she had while still a teenager. Citing “irreconcilable differences,” Blige filed for divorce in July 2016. The divorce between Blige and Isaacs was finalized on June 21, 2018.
Mary J. Blige, a Democrat, sang for Barack Obama during the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Blige has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction but has successfully been sober for several years now.
Blige’s Earnings
Blige’s music is still bringing in sizable wages, four American Music Awards, nine Grammy Awards, and twelve Billboard Music Awards later. Her revenues from albums like My Life and No More Drama are estimated to be $3.2 million and $7 million, respectively. Even without the income from her tours, she made more than $2.7 million in 2010. Overall, Blige has made well over $45 million (before taxes) from her singing career.
Blige’s Net Worth
As of 2023, Blige’s net worth is anticipated to be between $20-$22 million approximately. Her income from her music career as well as her current roles in cinema and television, play a significant role in this. Her monthly income is said to be over $1,50,000+.
Her allegedly high net worth is proof that she is, in fact, the queen of hip-hop’s very essence. Mary J. Blige is a sensational woman with astounding capabilities. She has accomplished practically everything that one could have thought to be humanly possible.
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