(that one finger she’s holding up is for the one dollar she has left to her name)
Mary J Blige’s financial problems have worsened after she was hit with a tax lien after allegedly failing to pay $901,769.65 in back taxes.
The 42-year-old singer - who was sued earlier this month for allegedly defaulting on a $500,000 bank loan - owes $901,769.65 to the State of New Jersey.
Granted, that’s a step up from her childhood upbringing of being poor. Poor is when you have nothing. Broke is when you have a whole lot of stuff you can no longer pay for. But both of them mean you don’t have any money.
True Confessions: If somebody can get in there and make sure Justin Bieber doesn’t turn into a complete little asshole, he’s going to be a star for a really long time. His voice is actually really decent. (A de-RachelMaddowing makeover couldn’t hurt either.)
…and just got platinum, waist-length synthetic extensions that will undoubtedly look like straw, yellow cotton candy, and matted Barbie hair by this time next week:
I made this little graphic to help you out. Click it for the fullsize version.
I’ll explain it later, but first the backstory.
I was hanging out with this guy who was trying to argue me up down and sideways that Adele is an amazing singer. I’ma tell you why she’s so popular: she has a great big black lady voice and she’s white. The End. Everything she’s doing is done a million times over every Sunday by the church ladies at New Bethel AME Zion Church of Christ Under an Elm Tree By The River. Still, she has a great tone to her voice that you can’t teach. She’s just born with that and she has a great voice. That doesn’t make her a great singer.
A great singer has great ears. All of the runs and melisma are possible because they have a great sense of pitch. They can hear the chords and sing all around, inside, and through them. Those interesting vocal runs just come out because they have great ears. On top of that, with vocal coaching and/or practice they can really hone their craft and do some amazing things.
A great voice is born, not made. You’re either born with a beautiful sound coming out of your mouth, or you’re not.
So I got bored watching the Walking Dead and made a little graphic. Left to right ranks great singing ability with the best being on the right. Bottom to top ranks great voices with the best being near the top. I graded everyone by Whitney Houston who, hands-down, had the best combination of natural-born-tone and exception singing ability.
Anytime all five Spices are together, you have to have a Spice Girls marathon.
I’m so ready for the musical, you don’t even understand. It’s supposed to be “loosely based” on the Spice Girls, so maybe they’ll throw in some interesting twists. Maybe they’ll have an Asian in there or something and call her Allspice. Or a really southern black girl and call her Lowry’s Seasoned Salt spice. Or maybe Madonna can be in it and they call her Old Spice…
Mary J. Blige “Someone To Love You” (Later with Jools Holland)
This is one of my favorite Mary performances this year. She looks beautiful, the song is probably the best on her new album, and she just sang it. You guys, she didn’t even scream at me. She just made beautiful music.
Mary is going to be a gorgeous older woman. Her bone structure is ridiculous.
Another day, another black celebrity lost all their money: Mary J. Blige.
(that one finger she’s holding up is for the one dollar she has left to her name)
