Mary J. Blige Trivia | 85 facts about the RnB singer

Mary J. Blige is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She is mostly referred to as the “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul”.

Let’s find out some trivia and facts about the famous singer.

1. Mary Jane Blige was born in January 11, 1971
2. She is an American singer, songwriter and actress
3. Often referred to as the “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul”
4. Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, four American Music Awards, and ten Billboard Music Awards
5. She has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards
6. Including one for her supporting role in the film Mudbound (2017)
7. And another for its original song “Mighty River”
8. Becoming the first person nominated for acting and songwriting in the same year
9. Her career began in 1991 when she was signed to Uptown Records
10. In 1992, Blige released her debut album, What’s the 411?
11. The album is credited for introducing the mix of R&B and hip hop into mainstream pop culture
12. Its 1993 remix album became the first album by a singer to have a rapper on every song
13. Thus, popularizing rap as a featuring act
14. 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
15. The latter was also featured on Time magazine’s All-Time 100 Albums
16. Throughout her career, Blige went on to release 13 studio albums
17. All of which have reached the top ten on the Billboard 200 chart
18. Including four number-one albums
19. Her biggest hits include “Real Love”, “Not Gon’ Cry”, “Be Without You”
20. And the Billboard Hot 100 number-one single “Family Affair”
21. Blige has also made a successful transition to both the television and movie screens
22. With supporting roles in films such as Prison Song (2001), Rock of Ages (2012), Betty and Coretta (2013), Black Nativity (2013)
23. Her Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated breakthrough performance as Florence Jackson in Mudbound (2017)
24. She also starred in Trolls World Tour (2020), Body Cam (2020), The Violent Heart (2021)
25. More recently co-starring as jazz singer Dinah Washington in the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect (2021)
26. In 2019, Blige starred as Cha-Cha on the first season of the Netflix television series The Umbrella Academy
27. She currently stars as Monet Tejada in the spin-off of the highly rated TV drama Power in Power Book II: Ghost
28. She received a Legends Award at the World Music Awards in 2006, and the Voice of Music Award from ASCAP in 2007
29. Billboard ranked Blige as the most successful female R&B/Hip-Hop artist of the past 25 years
30. In 2017, Billboard magazine named her 2006 song “Be Without You” as the most successful R&B/Hip-Hop song of all time
31. The song spent an unparalleled 15 weeks atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and over 75 weeks on the chart
32. In 2011, VH1 ranked Blige as the 80th greatest artist of all time
33. In 2012, VH1 ranked Blige at number 9 in “The 100 Greatest Women in Music” list
34. In February 2021, Blige became a first-time nominee for the 2021 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
35. A documentary film about her musical career, titled Mary J. Blige’s My Life, was released on Amazon Prime Video later that year
36. In the 1990s, Blige spent six years in a relationship with singer Cedric “K-Ci” Hailey of the R&B group Jodeci
37. During a 1995 interview on the UK television show The Word, Blige confirmed the two were engaged
38. Hailey denied that they were going to get married
39. Their turbulent relationship inspired Blige’s album My Life
40. Blige married her manager, Martin “Kendu” Isaacs, on December 7, 2003
41. At the time, Isaacs had two children, Nas and Jordan, with his first wife, and an older daughter, Briana, from a teenage relationship
42. In July 2016, Blige filed for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences”
43. Blige and Isaacs’ divorce was finalized on June 21, 2018
44. A Democrat, Blige performed for Barack Obama at the 2012 Democratic National Convention
45. Blige has dealt with drug and alcohol addiction
46. She has been sober for several years
47. In 2004, Blige launched her own record label, Matriarch Records, distributed through Interscope
48. In mid-2012, discovered girl group Just’Us, making the group the first ladies of the label
49. In July 2010, Blige launched her first perfume, My Life (through Carol’s Daughter), exclusively on HSN
50. The fragrance’s success broke sales records in hours
51. It has been awarded two prestigious FIFI awards from the Fragrance Foundation
52. The newest fragrance, My Life Blossom launched in August 2011 exclusively to HSN
53. In October 2010, Blige released a line of sunglasses called “Melodies by MJB”
54. The first Melodies collection featured four styles with a total of 20 color options
55. Each style represented a specific facet of Blige’s life
56. Essence magazine reported that in the spring of 2011, “Melodies by MJB” extended their collection to offer more styles
57. Blige’s production company, along with William Morris Endeavor, is also working on several TV and film projects
58. In partnership with the Home Shopping Network (HSN) and Carol’s Daughter, Blige released her “My Life” perfume
59. The perfume broke HSN records by selling 65,000 bottles during its premiere
60. The scent went on to win two FiFi Awards, including the “Fragrance Sales Breakthrough” award
61. Blige has had endorsement contracts with Reebok, Air Jordan, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Gap, Target, American Express, AT&T Inc., M·A·C, Apple Inc., Burger King and Chevrolet
62. She has also been a spokesperson with Carol’s Daughter beauty products and Citibank’s with Nickelback program
63. Called the “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul”, Blige is credited with influencing the musical marriage of hip hop and R&B
64. Ethan Brown of The New Yorker says that albums “What’s the 411?” and “My Life”, in hindsight, invented “the sample-heavy sound that reinvigorated urban radio and became a blueprint for nineties hip-hop and R&B”
65. Tom Horan of The Daily Telegraph comments that Blige, being an immensely influential figure in popular music, “invented what is now called R&B by successfully combining female vocals with muscular hip hop rhythm tracks. All over the world, that recipe dominates today’s charts”
66. Her debut album is called one of the “most explosive, coming-out displays of pure singing prowess” and “one of the most important albums of the nineties”
67. It also saw Blige pioneer “the movement that would later become neo soul, generating gripping songs that were also massive radio hits”
68. African American scholars have noted the implications of Blige’s presentation and representation of black womanhood and femininity in the typically male-dominated and centric sphere of hip hop
69. Blending the vocal techniques of rapping in hip hop with aspirational messages in R&B
70. Blige is credited with articulating black women’s experiences in a “more factual and objective” manner than typical stereotypes and tropes of black women in the media
71. Using her personal experiences and struggles with her family as source material for her songs
72. Blige refutes notions of black female hypersexuality by “imploring women to love and empower themselves through both autonomy and intimacy”
73. This desire for love does more than connect to her audience members
74. With particular attention on her single “Real Love”
75. Critics note how the song is “a performative text, declaratively demand[ing] recognition of Blige’s full humanity and, more broadly, that of hip-hop-generation women”
76. Blige has received notable awards and achievements
77. In 2010, she was ranked 80th on VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Artist of All Time
78. Blige was listed as one of the 50 most influential R&B singers by Essence
79. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked My Life at number 279 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
80. The album was also included on Time’s list of the 100 Greatest albums of All Time
81. In 2020, both What’s the 411? and My Life were featured in a rebooted list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, at 271 and 126 respectively
82. lternately called the “Queen of R&B” for her success in the realm of R&B, Blige has amassed ten number one albums on the R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart
83. Blige is also the only artist to have won Grammys in the R&B, hip hop, pop, and gospel fields
84. Blige and her work have influenced several recording artists, including Beyoncé, Adele, Taylor Swift, Monica, Layton Greene, Keyshia Cole, Bryson Tiller, Cheryl, Teyana Taylor, Keke Palmer, Jess Glynne, Sam Smith and Alexandra Burke
85. As an actress, Blige received the Breakthrough Performance Award at the 2018 Palm Springs International Film Festival for her role in Mudbound