Mary J. Blige

Biography

Mary Jane Blige was born on January 11, 1971 and grew up in New-York, the USA. In 1988, she made a cover on Anita Baker's Rapture in a recording booth in the local shopping mall. Her mother's boyfriend took his attention to the cassette and though his hands it came to the Uptown Records. Their representative met Mary and signed her to the label. 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. 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. In 1993, Blige was already christened as the Queen of hip-hop soul. She immediately got down to her follow-up, while the remix album What's The 411? Remix spawned the interest to her debut work. Her autobiographical sophomore attempt My Life was released in 1994, being darker and less up-tempo then its predecessor. The same time she started taking part in side projects – recording duets with other singers and contributing to soundtracks.

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