Mary J. Blige Didn't Listen To Own Songs Until Quarantine, Was Amazed By Her Lyrics

With three decades of hits under her belt, there are plenty of Mary J. Blige’s own songs that she could listen to for eternity. The recently-turned 50-year-old performer has been ruling the airwaves, as well as the large and small screens, for longer than some of the younger generations of artists have been alive, but according to Blige, it was only recently that she decided to sit back and listen to her catalog. According to the singer, she was never really a fan of adding her tracks to her playlists.

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Blige spoke with Ellen DeGeneres today (February 23) about listening to her older songs for the first time while under quarantine. “I really don’t like to listen to even the sound of my speaking voice, let alone listen back to Mary J. Blige,” she said. “But I’ve grown so much, you know, in confidence that during the quarantine, I don’t know, just something just said, ‘Listen to some Mary J. Blige.’ And I did. I felt like an outside person doing it.”