Saturday, December 08, 2007

MARY J. BLIGE - GROWING PAINS

NEW YORK, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Geffen Records superstar andhit-making songwriter Mary J. Blige, is set to follow-up the mostsuccessful album of her career, the triple platinum "The Breakthrough,"with her eighth (8th) studio CD "Growing Pains" on Tuesday, December 18th,one week before Christmas. "Growing Pains" includes her top ten single "Just Fine" which hasbecome an instant favorite on radio enjoyed by over 20 million listeners."Just Fine" is in heavy rotation on MTV, BET and VH-1, and Mary recentlyshot the video for her second single, "Work That," which is currentlyfeatured in an Apple iPod commercial.

After selling over 40 million CDs and garnering six Grammy Awardsduring her phenomenal 15-year career, Mary is confident that her fans willnot be disappointed with "Growing Pains." "They're going to get a sense ofwhat my state of mind is and how I view the world," she says. "Andhopefully, most of all, they're going to hear just the sincere honesty andlove that I have for them." She adds, "'Growing Pains' represents acceptingthat there's pain that goes along with growing and change. No pain, nogain." "Growing Pains," with Mary co-writing most of the songs on the album,features guest appearances by Ludacris and Usher and production by TheNeptunes, Jazze Pha, Johnta Austin, Neyo, Stargate, Bryan-Michael Cox, Dreand Vidal, Tricky, Dream, and Sean Garrett.

Mary makes her message loud, clear and seriously funky on the firstrelease "Just Fine" produced by Jazze Pha and Tricky and co-written by Maryand Dream. A celebration of life, "Just Fine" gives you Mary fierce, and asthe video shows, glamorous. The song's vibe? "Sometimes it feels likeyou're having this miserable time, like all 365 days of the year are tough.But then, you get one of those days; maybe when your hair is great, oryou're not stuck in traffic; where it's a 'just fine' day. At some point,"Mary laughs, "You've got have one or two of those."

The party and positivity keeps on keeping on with the rump shakingsecond single "Work That." Mary comments, "When I meet a woman who doesn'tknow what to do about her weight or her hair I always say -- 'whatever itis that you have, make that work for you, Work what you got.'" After releasing her bestselling anthology "Reflections" last year,"Growing Pains" is Mary's first CD of new material since "The Breakthrough"debuted at #1 in 2005, selling over 700,000 copies its first week -- thebest opening week for a solo R&B female artist in SoundScan history. Thealbum's first single, "Be Without You," also made chart history by holdingdown the #1 spot on the Billboard R&B charts for a record breaking 16straight weeks; making it the longest-running No. 1 song on the R&B chartin over 40 years.

Mary led all artists with eight 2007 Grammy nominationsfor the landmark album, and she took home honors for Best Female R&B VocalPerformance, Best R&B Song (both for "Be Without You"), and Best R&B Album.After earning three Grammy Awards, she continued her award show dominationby winning nine Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, two BETAwards, two NAACP Image Awards, and a Soul Train Award.

"The Breakthrough"lived up to its name selling over seven million copies worldwide. You can witness the incredible magic of Mary J. Blige on televisionthis week as she performs on "CNN Heroes: All All-Star Tribute" on December6th and "Movies Rock!" on CBS on December 7th (both at 9 PM Eastern time).Mary will also bring in 2008 on New Year's Eve on MTV.

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