Mary J. Blige’s one-night-only Apple Music Live performance at New York City’s historic United Palace, the Grammy award-winning and Academy award-nominated artist, actress, producer, and entrepreneur joins Nadeska on Apple Music to discuss what fans can expect from the performance and her approach to crafting a career-spanning setlist with plenty of classic fan favorites.
Blige also discusses how performing today differs from at the start of her career, why she’s proud of her career, being a north start for a new generation of female R&B artists, how her song “You Remind Me” changed her life, battling depression and insecurity between the release of her first two albums, her most recent album ‘Good Morning, Gorgeous’, early Diddy memories, collaboration, and more.
How performing today differs from the start of her career 30 years ago…
“100% different from 30 years ago because I was nervous and scared and crazy 30 years ago. Now I just get a little bit of nerves and that’s it. It’s easier now, it’s way easier than being young and not knowing what to expect. Now you’re just like, “Okay, whatever happens happens, but I’m just going to give my best. I’m going to give 100% to the audience, no matter what.”
Why she’s proud of herself and her career…
“I’m super proud of myself and I’ve never thought I’d ever be able to say that in my lifetime, I am super proud of myself because I did a lot of work to get here. And I’m proud of my heart, I’m proud of my soul, my spirit, my work ethic, the people that I choose to be around me, the energy that I give to people, I’m proud. I’m super proud of how far I came because I come a long way.”
Blige shares about being a North Star for a new generation of female R&B singers…
“It’s a blessing. When I got the icon award, it all just started to register like, “Wow, I really did something, I really did something,” but it’s not like I did something because I was great all the time, I did something because I was going through all types of hell all the time. And I didn’t have a choice. I had to walk through that hell. I had to watch all my business on the news. I had to listen to people laughing at me. I had to hear all this negative stuff. I had to go through all that hell in front of everybody for them to have what they have and they have great music and great songs and a lot of women are being more transparent because I tripped and fell a million times and got up. It’s not like everything was great, a lot of things wasn’t but now things are better than what they were and I’m acknowledging and embracing the good now. Although there’s still bad stuff happening, I have to embrace the good to get out to keep from falling back into that. So I birthed a whole lot of beautiful, amazing female R&B singers because of the trials and tribulations that I’ve gone through and the lyrics in my songs.”
Make sure to tune in to see Mary J. Blige’s Apple Music Live Performance and full interview with Nadeska tonight, July 27th at 7:00PST.
Check out a sneak peek below.
