All hail the Queen of Hip Hop/Soul

From the vulnerable young lady rocking baseball jerseys and baggy jeans, to the confident established woman, that stands before me in a black all in one jumpsuit and sexy thigh high boots – Mary J. Blige has come along way.

With a career that spans 15 years, nine Grammy Awards under her belt and 50 million album sales to her name, her title the ‘Queen of Hip Hop Soul’ is well deserved.

Mary J. Blige started out in the 90’s with her debut album Whats The 411? – receiving much critical acclaim when released in 1992. The New York native is currently working on her tenth studio album, which is rumoured to be out in 2011.

Growing up in a rough neighbourhood and having suffered sexual abuse at the hand of a family friend and then domestic abuse in relationships, unlike many artists who banish their skeletons to the back of the closet, Blige faces them head on and explores them through her music. However it’s not all doom and gloom because the 40 year old also explores how you can move on from such challenges and turn your life around.

The honesty of Mary J. Blige’s music is something I had the pleasure of witnessing first hand at her concert today in London, which was part of her Music Saved My Life tour (which she later explained was named this because there’s a song out there that has helped us all and for her music in general helped save her life).

After having cocktails and tapas with my two friends, Aimee and Heather, the girls and I headed to the O2 arena clutching our tickets with excitement and anticipation.

We made our way to our seats to catch what was left of UK singer, Lemar’s set, who was the supporting act and entertained us with his sweet honeydew vocals.

After Lemar the sounds of Drake, Young Money and Trey Songz played in the background. My friends and I chatted amongst ourselves and made friends with three ladies who sat behind us, one being a heavily pregnant woman who I recall was named Michelle.

The arena was buzzing with expectation as we all waited patiently for Mary J. Blige. Moments passed then abruptly the lights faded, there was uproar in the arena as the back drop vanished and there she was standing before us, as beautiful as ever.

A quick yet polite introduction from the songstress welcoming us to the concert, then the band came in, the beat dropped, and before I knew it the whole arena was lifted out of their seats and were singing and dancing along to ‘Real Love’.

I was instantly transformed back to the 90’s with this performance and Blige continued the flashback when ‘Real Love’ faded and transformed into the ‘You Remind Remix’. Other songs she performed as an ode to her earlier career were ‘Mary Jane’, ‘7 Days’, ‘Sweet Thing’ and ‘I’m Goin’ Down’.

Whilst Mary went to change into her second outfit of the night her amazing band kept us company, shout outs to Omar on the keys, Sean the guitarist and the rest of the band members.

The 39 year old then returned in a trilby hat, shimmering gold blouse, skinny jeans and boots combo and treated us to more recent tracks like ‘Just Fine,’ ‘Family Affair’ and ‘I Am’- which like all her performances tonight kept us on our toes.

The crowd refused to accept that ‘Family Affair’ would be her final performance for the night, as we all chanted ‘Mary, Mary Mary’ and beckoned the performer to return to the stage. She gladly returned to end the show with ‘Be Without You’ and thanked us for our support over the years, told us she loved us, blew us a kiss and bided us all goodnight.

Particularly her renditions of ‘Not Gon’ Cry’ (which ironically had me in tears), ‘No More Drama’ and ‘Your Child’ were my favourite performances of the night,

I’ve often said that listening to Mary J. Blige is an experience; you connect with her powerful vocals and raw emotions, I now take that back, the true experience is to be able to witness this in the flesh. Each performance had the audience mesmerised and hooked on her every vocal. To watch the way she approaches every song with such immense passion and doesn’t hold back is something that touched me and I will cherish forever.

I left the arena tonight feeling elated and proud of Mary J. Blige, its evident her past issues have been dealt with and she is now in a good place. May the years continue to be kind to our beloved Queen of Hip Hop Soul.