In collaboration with Anderson Paak, Mary J. Blige is at her very best ★★★☆☆

A highlight of the immediately iconic intermission at the Super Bowl last Sunday night was the appearance of Mary J. Blige. There stood the 51-year-old R&B diva, among hip-hop stars such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar. Her short edits of Family Affair and No More Drama sounded as powerful as they were twenty years ago, when Dr. Dre produced album No More Drama made her one of the most popular R&B stars in the world.

Her short appearance also made her a bit melancholy. Mary J. Blige may still release music with a certain regularity, but her recent work no longer has the impact that her raw, intense mixture of hip-hop and soul had in the nineties and zero. her too fourteenth album Good Morning Gorgeous, released smartly the day before the TV performance watched by more than 100 million people, isn’t great. Blige picks up on Strength of a Womanthe album on which she dealt with her divorce. Good Morning Gorgeous are the three words she still has to sing herself with after five years. Fortunately for the listener, that is difficult, because a happy Mary J. Blige has never been the best.

It’s Anderson Paak (also present on Sunday, frantic behind his drum kit) with whom she No Idea immediately comes in. With a great bassline and a voice that doesn’t seem to have gone that deep in years, this is Mary J. Blige at her very best. If only she had recorded the rest with him, but as so often Blige surrounds herself with more producers and ‘features’ than is good for her. Very weak is the contribution of DJ Khaled in amazing and the rap of Fivio Foreign also remains flat. The contributions of Usher and Anderson Paak (again in Here With Me) are the strongest; thanks to them, Blige really knows how to burn.