This past Friday night I had the fortunate opportunity to attend Mary J. Blige’s My Life tour stop at the Tabernable in the ATL and let me just say my experience was surreal. Being the Mary fan that I am, it was nothing like catching her in her element live. Needless to say, she hit the stage jamming, opening the show with ‘Mary Jane (All Night Long)’. She continued wooing the crowd and kept us on a high while performing other hits from her first “My Life” album such as ‘Be Happy’, ‘You Gotta Believe’, ‘I Never Wanna Live Without You’ and ‘Be With You’,
After taking a quick break, the Queen of Hip Hop & Soul came back and continued the journey on to My Life II, singing her first two hit singles from the album, ‘25/8’, followed by “Mr Wrong”. The journey ended with Mary, her back-up dancers, and all who were in attendance jamming to ‘Family Affair’ from her “No More Drama” album. Overall the night was a blast and Mary gets an A+ in my book. As for highlights of the show, here’s the good, the better and the best parts.

The Good

     The show was scheduled to start at 8 pm and a little after it did. Right at 8pm someone came on the loud speaker announcing that Mary would hit the stage in 10 minutes. Five minutes later I ran across her tweet “Showtime ATL”. Fourteen minutes into the hour the crowd began to chant “Mary, Mary, Mary” and as if to answer our call, she appeared in the spotlight at 8:15 getting her groove on as her fans then chanted “Go Mary, Go Mary, Go Mary”.

 

The Better

     After taking a moment to briefly speak about her struggles and what a blessing it’s been to give another young lady the same opportunity she’s been afforded, Mary brought out her recently signed artist, 13-year-old Katlyn Nichol, to join her in singing ‘I’m Going Down’. Shortly after the song started with Mary singing the first few lines, she turned it over to Katlyn who after belting out the next few lines, got her props and a bow from Mary and was left to take the stage by herself. To our delightful surprise and just as Mary had warned us…she blew us away. Her charisma and performance power was amazing. It was almost as if Mary never left the stage. (Vid Below)

The Best

     Being that this was her My Life concert, it goes without saying that she would perform one of her biggest hits to this day which shares the same name as the album. However her fans including myself unknowingly had a different plan. From the moment the first note drop, the crowd went wild. Mary managed to belt out the oohs, aahhs, and la-la la las, during the song’s opening chorus which the crowd softly sung. But from there the song was ours! From the first word of the first verse, the crowd raised their voices, put their all into it and without missing a beat, sung every single word leaving Mary no choice but to remove the mic from its stand and turn it toward the crowd. She did manage to get in a line or two during the following chorus but verse 2 was no different…we owned that one too. It was as if we all individually as well as collectively for that moment became Mary!

Mary J. Blige feat. Katlyn Nichol “I’m Going Down” @ The Tabernacle

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     The following day, Bels got the chance to attend the event A Conversation with Mary J. Blige which was held at the W Hotel (Midtown) and sponsored by V-103 and State Farm. During the interview session, which was conducted by V-103’s Frank Ski, Mary discussed several songs off her new album ‘My Life II: The Journey Continues (Act I)’… and took questions from the audience. She also spoke about doing music for her fans, the importance of loving yourself first and her favorite southern food being fried chicken livers. Aside from the music, Mary also let it be known that she’s expanding her brand to the film industry and is currently working on some scripts and taking more acting classes with plans to release some projects in 2012.

     While it wasn’t open to everyone, a pre-selected group of people did get the chance to actually meet and greet Mary. Check out part of Mary’s interview below.

 

If you haven’t already, please go purchase a copy of Mary’s new album ‘My Life II’. It will be well worth the dollars. 🙂