Mary J. Blige

Mary J. Blige cut her demo in a karaoke booth at a mall in White Plains, New York. The tape, a rendition of Anita Baker's "Caught Up In The Rapture," was then passed to Uptown Records president Andre Harrell by a friend of Mary's mother's boyfriend, James Dillard. Harrell immediately signed her to a record deal.

Her personal life has had lots of peaks and valleys, but Mary J's music career has been remarkably consistent. Her first eight albums each sold over a million copies in America, and she's never released one that wasn't well received by fans.

Mary J. Blige is a high school dropout. She dropped out of the 11th grade at Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, New York. She would, however, go on to get her GED in 2010. One of Mary's regrets is that she didn't finish high school when she had the chance.