She’s the kind of artist who isn’t necessarily going to convey that gale-force intensity in the context of a three-minute pop song that’s been built for airplay. Instead, she’s focused her power on emotional catharsis, on making people feel things. Blige has a good handful of genuine crossover hits to her name, but she’s never been a singles artist. At that same show, Mary didn’t even have to sing “I’m Goin’ Down.” She just had to stand there, bathing in adoration, while the whole room sang the song to her instead. That fierce, unbridled emotion is the reason that people love Mary. One night in Madison Square Garden, I saw Mary break down in tears, or at least in a convincing simulation of tears, while singing “ Your Child,” and it was almost more than I could stand. If you’ve ever seen Mary live, then you know the sheer power that she brings to every performance. She could always make you feel something.
It was whether she could make you feel something. With Mary, though, the whole point was never whether she could sing notes perfectly.
Blige’s singing voice, which was never as clean or virtuosic as some. Other R&B singers have made sideways statements about Mary J.
Blige had a hard childhood, a hard adolescence, and a hard adulthood. People knew Mary’s backstory, but if you didn’t, you could still hear the drama every time she opened her throat and howled. If you didn’t know anything else about Mary, you still knew that. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.
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