The other woman I rate a lot at the moment is Mary J Blige. She is one of my favourite singers of all time.
Mary’s like this raw talent who was discovered, becomes this international RnB/Soul superstar and kind of loses the plot somewhat. She used to be a nightmare in interviews, was struggling with all kinds of addictions, got dumped on live TV by some joker of a bloke and then asked about it on live TV by some joker of an interviewer. She was once described as ‘the woman most in need of a hug’.
But when she sang, its like you knew she was a woman in pain. And frankly that’s what made her so phenomenally successful. Pain is no respecter of class, creed or status, the whole globe knew what she was on about and they were glad she ached for them all.

In my opnion RnB is like a singles genre, so I kind of buy albums for the anthemic song (think Destiny’s Child’s Say My Name, Independent Women, Survivor, Alicia Keys’ Fallin’) that makes everything else worthwhile. And Mary knows how to do anthems.

On TOTP one night, Mary J sang No More Drama. And she tore up the stage and ripped its heart out. It was like her soul sreamed out ENOUGH. Every song before and after were insipid boy bands, soulless rock ballads, languid pop songs, pointless remixes - or at least it seemed that way in the shadow of Mary J. Even the show’s presenter was stunned into silence for a few moments and then could only manage to take a slow deep breath and say “Wow”.

Since then Mary’s life has got happier and healed up. She found God and the love of a good man.
And I’ve got to say I rate her. This is a girl from the projects who was destined to go nowhere very quickly, who takes the one thing she knows she has - raw talent and gets a record deal.That, frankly, is a major feat in itself. And then after spending years in freefall, she turns her life around, starts making healthy choices and cleans her life up. She gets rid of the people who take her for granted and drag her down. She even apologises to the people who interviewed her back in the day. She moves forward and she moves on. Its as though she discovered that her talent may have got her there, but she was going to need something more fundamental, more sustainable to keep her there and keep her sane and whole. And she searched it out and got it. You’ve got to love that kind of wisdom.

Some have wondered if Mary can keep her raw edge with all this happiness. Now she’s got nothing to cry about, can she still scream our pain for us? Is the woman most in need of a hug now hugging everybody instead? What’s the 411? And some may have prepared themselves for disappointment.

They needn’t have worried. Mary J Blige isn’t a diva; she’s the real deal. One of a kind.