From Wikipedia Free Online Encyclopedia Mary Jane Blige blaɪʒ born January 11 1971 is an American singer songwriter actress and philanthropist She started her career as a backing singer on Uptown Records in 1989 She has released 13 studio albums eight of which have achieved multiplatinum worldwide sales Blige has sold over 80 million records has won nine Grammy Awards four American Music Awards twelve Billboard Music Awards and has also received three Golden Globe Award nominations including one for her supporting role in the film Mudbound 2017 and another for its second original song Mighty River for Mudbound she also received a nomination for the Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song becoming the first person nominated for acting and songwriting in the same year In 1992 Blige released her first album Whats the 411 Her 1994 album My Life is among Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time4 and Time magazines AllTime 100 Albums She received a Legends Award at the World Music Awards in 2006 and the Voice of Music Award from ASCAP in 2007 As of 2018 Blige has sold 80 million records worldwide Billboard ranked Blige as the most successful female RBHipHop artist of the past 25 years In 2017 Billboard magazine named her 2006 song Be Without You as the most successful RBHipHop song of all time as it spent an unparalleled 15 weeks atop the Hot RBHipHop Songs chart and over 75 weeks on the chart In 2011 VH1 ranked Blige as the 80th greatest artist of all time ln 2012 VH1 ranked Blige at number 9 in The 100 Greatest Women in Music list