Mary J Blige bares her soul

Singer Mary J Blige. Photo / Getty Images

Singer Mary J. Blige tells Lydia Jenkin about her latest re-invention, one that reveals her innermost feelings.

There's no doubt that with more than two decades in the music business, 12 albums and nine Grammy Awards under her belt, Mary J. Blige deserves to be called all sorts of royal-sounding words. She really is the queen of hip-hop-soul-R'n'B, but what makes her still cool, still relevant, and still worthy of a festival headlining spot, is that she just keeps re-inventing herself.

If you were a fan of Empire, you would've caught her in a very sassy cameo as an ex-girlfriend of music mogul Lucious (Terrence Howard), and you might've seen the news that she's also set to star in The Wiz, NBC's live, one-off adaptation of the 1970s musical soul version of The Wizard of Oz.

But it's her musical reinvention which has seen her booked for festivals as diverse as Glastonbury and the Montreux Jazz Festival, with the Guardian calling her set "slick and commanding" and "breathtakingly intense".

Despite the accolades, she ain't no diva - when she calls in from her home in The Bronx, she's warm, laid-back and unfailingly polite, expressing her delight to be returning to New Zealand (she played at Raggamuffin Festival in 2011) and enthusiastically explaining her fandom for acts like Disclosure and Sam Smith, with whom she created her latest album, The London Sessions. It seems like Ms Blige has entered a whole new chapter in her career.

"It's almost a whole new book," she laughs. "It's definitely another chapter, it's definitely something else, and it's going very well."

It seems this chapter started when she discovered Disclosure, and decided she wanted to work with them.

"When I discovered how amazing they were, I wanted to do a song with them. That was something that I'd never done before, working with an act like them, but we got in touch and I did the remix of F For You with them, and it all kind of went from there. They're from London, and the UK went really crazy for the remix, and so the idea initially was to go over there and do an EP with them, and then the label said, 'Well, why don't we just make it a bigger idea, and you can go to London and work not only with Disclosure, but get Sam Smith involved and you know all these different talented producers and acts in London, and work there for a month, and call the album the London Sessions.' So that's how we ended up in London."

It wasn't just Smith and Disclosure she worked with, but also Emile Sande and Naughty Boy, among others, collaborating from scratch on each track with these young up-and-comers over the course of a month.

"They're all younger, sure. Disclosure are really young, but they're all musical geniuses, and the music that they're releasing, this EDM and club music reminds me of the music that I grew up with, the music I was listening to in New York, so that's what made me want to work with them. There's something nostalgic about what they're doing, and that drew me in."

They also clearly had enough respect for Blige's artistry to keep her voice front and centre, and really strip away any unnecessary trappings, as well as giving her a new electro-soul palette to work with - a reflection of how her musical philosophy and musical language has changed since she started out.

"In 91, when I first came out, it was all about hip-hop, and by the time I got to 1996, I was doing all R'n'B music and R'n'B tracks, and then when I got to the Mary album, I started experimenting, and then it's grown and evolved again. By the time I got to The London Sessions I think everyone was ready to hear me singing over a live band, and doing it with all live music, and creating everything from scratch right there, and songs being created with just a guitar or just a piano.

"I remember I played the album for Elton John, who I'm lucky enough to call a friend, and he just said, 'Wow at last,' and I was like 'What do you mean?' and he said, 'It's just refreshing to hear your voice this raw, the world is waiting to hear you like this.' So I think I've discovered the more organic side of my music, getting back to the soul."

It's an album full of emotional, vulnerable songs, about getting over fears and doubts, about standing up, and surviving all that life throws at you. It feels deeply personal, but Blige is loving the response she's had, and the experience of sharing them with large crowds.

"The response from the audience is more than anything I could ask for. You can't buy it, it's amazing, to be able to get up there, to stand in front of rivers of people and sing a song like Therapy or Doubt, that feels incredible. To show them what you were really feeling, and to let it all out - that's wonderful."

Blige has lived through some tough times as an artist - battles with drugs, alcohol, and a troubled upbringing - but she sounds like she's reconciled herself with the struggle, and embraced her ability to let it out in her music.

"It's so hard to live sometimes, it feels like one big trial, so you've gotta fight to live, and not just exist," she says with a wry laugh. "You have to find a way to survive, and at some point you have to find it in yourself to love yourself enough to get through all that stuff, you have to realise your worth, you've made it this far, you're here, and you have to keep fighting."

Who: Mary J. Blige
Where and when: Headlining Soulfest along with Lauren Hill, Jill Scott, Miguel, De La Soul, Black Star, and many more, on Monday, October 26 at Western Springs in Auckland.
Listen to: The London Sessions (2014)

- TimeOut