Rock: Ditch the shades, Mary, can't you see we love you?
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Your support makes all the difference.Mary J Blige
Wembley Arena
has a lot going for herself. She possesses a voice of emotional peak and pique few can match, credibility in both clubs and record company boardrooms, and style only a Chanel disciple can afford. But she has one accoutrement that is totally unnecessary, and that is dark glasses, behind which she hides in photos and on stage. It's outrageously stand-offish, and backs up the oft quoted opinion that she has a heavyweight attitude problem. Even after selling 10 million albums, she still feels uneasy with herself. It's a shame, because her voice draws on devotional, evangelical power rarely surpassed in the Nineties.
In the first half of her show there is much to irritate, as songs are disposed of in an almost medley-type fashion. Mary's hollerings are lost in the kerfuffle made by the band, and the paraphernalia of dancers leaping West Side Story-style through every number just distract. The pointless chopping and changing is endless. Mary has a chair, then the chair disappears. Mary leaves the stage for a costume change after every two songs; she's in blue, then white, then black, then pink and so on.
Then proceedings take a turn for the better two-thirds of the way in with "I'm Going Down", a swanky soul heart-tugger that's one of her finest recorded moments. Mary turns it into a super-charged melodrama. Better still, by now she's abandoned her dark glasses. And when, for the umpteenth time, she bellows thanks for our support over the years, she stumbles over the words, beating her chest to show the sentiment is genuine ("It means a lot to me.")
The highlight is "Not Gon Cry", about a woman abandoned after an 11-year relationship ("I was your lover and your secretary, working every day of the week") in which Mary's body is racked with convulsions, eliciting roars of approval from the crowd. She earnt it well. Mary's battle ahead seems to be with herself. If she shows a warmth of personality to match that voice, her reign as queen of hip-hop soul will be a long one.
Angela Lewis
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