Mary J. Blige may be an industry veteran with accolades for days, but it doesn’t mean she’s not willing to work for her wins.
The Queen of Hip-Hop/Soul is treading the promo trail in support of new album ‘Strength Of A Woman’ and stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for a spirited performance.
MJB belted out ‘Love Yourself,’ which was produced by Kanye West (who also features on the studio version).
Given all she’s going through publicly (see: divorce), the selection was especially apt.
The showing comes on the same day the project’s sales forecast was revealed.
Per Hits Daily Double, ‘Strength’ is on course to open strong on the Billboard 200. Its sales-plus-streaming prediction is 67,000-72,000, while the pure sales estimate sits at 63-68k.
Beyond being within the right ballpark for a top 5 placing, it’s on course to best the US opening of her last LP ‘The London Sessions.’ A point notable given that industry sales have dipped even more in the time since that project was released (2015).
Can Mary climb higher? She has more promo on the way – including a VH1 doc that airs tonight – so it’s plausible.
Stay tuned.
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Congrats Mary!!! These are good numbers in this climate for R&B. The album is pretty good, I really like the 1st half of the album the best.
it is really DISGUSTING, I swear to God, the ways in which we have abandoned the royals of R&B. it truly hurts my soul to see our Mary’s, Usher’s, Alicia’s and John Legend’s of the industry, STRUGGLING to push their core, quality music. BLACK ARTISTS birthed the seeds from which white “entertainers” grow their entire platforms, and here we watch them barely make the grade. Im so sick of this! MARY J. BLIGE is 25 years in the business. she is an ICON of classic & traditional sound. while this isnt her very best album, her fanbase should have definitely pushed her OVER the 100,000 mark…easily.
But did you buy it ?
R&B music sales should not “hurt your soul”! Music sales really do not affect you. Think a little deeper. If r&b fans are not buying music perhaps it is a reflection of the economy where many retailers (music, clothes, auto, etc) are struggling.
This has to be the intelligent comment I’ve ever seen on this blog. Finally someone who understands consumerism. Like you said the sales of albums declining is a direct reflection of where we stand economically. People are buying less cars, less clothing…less everything. Hence why major department stores and dealerships are closing. I don’t know why we feel like music is suppose to be exempt. Further…big time pop royalities aren’t selling either. Look at fergie and Britney. This as nothing to be with R&B…its bigger.
That is one possible reason, but the main reason is that R&B fans are not being played commercially only the radio. Also R&b fans are buying Adele or Ed Sheeran who is popular and being played commercially on most radio stations.
People aren’t buying music because there is streaming with much more complex playlists and free music available than 10 years ago. Department stores are suffering because people are shopping online. The economy is going up, it’s traditional methods of selling that is fading .
I agree with YoEarn..
Always remember that a BLACK MAN has the biggest selling album of ALL TIME, with over 60 million albums sold…and a BLACK MAN produced the biggest selling album of ALL TIME, Quincy Jones…and remember that a BLACK WOMAN has the biggest selling female album of ALL TIME worldwide with The Bodyguard Soundtrack…NO ARTISTS in HISTORY have EVER had albums that appealed to more consumers than Michael and Whitney! Michael took all the genres that black artists CREATED and made THRILLER.
Stop congratulating mediocrity. These are NOT good numbers. Mary had an album that did 700k first week. Anything under 100k is bad. And that’s being generous with that. I should be saying that anything under 300k is bad.
Nobody is selling 700K in a week anymore unless their name is Taylor Swift or Adele — and even they may not do those kind of numbers in pure sales next time they release. The industry is completely different from twelve years ago when Mary did those numbers.
For an R&B act who has been out for 25 years and not only doesn’t get any crossover airplay, but barely even gets played on mainstream hip-hop/R&B radio, these are solid numbers. The simple fact is that R&B fans don’t buy albums and don’t stream new music.
Kendrick was just shy of 700k
Kendrick is not R&B, he is rap-which white kids buy. White kids don’t buy (or stream) R&B music. And despite mainstream white media trying to lump us all together to minimalize our individual successes, rap and R&B are NOT the same thing, they are 2 separate genres of music-just like pop and country music.
@SMH he pointed that out because the first commenter claimed that only Adele and Taylor Swift could do 700k these days.
I also said “in pure sales” — Kendrick sold 353,000 albums, and the rest of the 605,000 in his first week sales were streams and sales of individual tracks off the album.
The album was just meh to me. But goodluck Mary
The performance was fantastic.
What are Fallon’s ratings by the way? 1 million or something. This seems highly inefficient as a medium for advertising music. If I was Capitol, I would target MJBs core audience (RnB fans) by sending her on a radio (urban and hip hop radio) tour.
Albums are overpriced anyway. $10+ is too much for an album, these should be priced around $5 to $7. The Big 3 (Sony, Universal, Warner) ruined music by hiring accountants who rely on models to chart a path for the industry instead of before when we had many labels competing.
Yayy!!
Mary has a strong fanbase and they cried and complained that she needed to go back to her saving grace the sad love song, the relationship battle songs and the powerful women anthems this album is a reflection of that but the material does not resonate like past Mary material for some reason. Honestly this album is ok to say the least so her first week sales numbers are not surprising but I honestly expected for Mary at least ?k first week but all in all still great for an artist past her heyday of the 90’s and mid 00’s. Congratulations Mary!!!
She is selling more than these newer r&b chicks. She hasn’t done much promo. Urban radio ain’t playing r&b. She would have easily sold more with a urban hit. Radio sucks. She should keep promoting & performing. Also, she sold 700k around the holiday season, coming off of a major era. These are good numbers for a iconic r&b singer. Her Vh1 documentary will push her sales up a bit..
Mary has over 25 years in the game. She’s sold millions of records. The fact that her numbers are approaching 72k is amazing. I’m sure this album will go at least gold. Its a great wonderful album from beginning to end. Congrats Mary!
On a side note:
Like DAMN I’m so feeling NAO right now!!!
As a fan, I just wanted to say, I went to the Mary/Maxwell show and bought my tix through Ticketmaster. I received this album (because it was supposed to be a Decemeber release) and Maxwell’s blackSUMMERS’night. It was a ticketmaster promo for the entire tour so many fans probably already have the record or its on its way in the mail and didn’t buy at the store.
I’m thinking this should be reflected in the sales but I’m thinking not by the numbers projected cause many of the reviews I read on many shows said they were mostly packed nationwide.
I like mary when her album sales go big because she gives the productiin a full blast..
I’m upset “Thank you” wasn’t the first single & she not performing the song..
Idk why ppeople expect her to sell 100k and up when my mom, a Mary fan, doesn’t know her album is out. This. Is the issue, fans dont know when new music is out. She isn’t played on the radio on the urban stations like that, so her older fans have no clue the music is out there now. What happen to th commercials for albums? What happen to sin
Idk why ppeople expect her to sell 100k and up when my mom, a Mary fan, doesn’t know her album is out. This. Is the issue, fans dont know when new music is out. She isn’t played on the radio on the urban stations like that, so her older fans have no clue the music is out there now. What happen to th commercial or albums? What happen to singersgoing on sitcoms.
good point. promo shud be weeks prior and months later pushing the material.. not just a tour. late shows, kimmel, ellen, the real, wendy, steve harvey, GMA, the other morning late night shows, award shows, commercials, unplugged versions, the local news shows. what happen to that type of promo?
The budgets to get the artists on that many platforms has decreased significantly hence the reality now.
Way more than what I expected. Over 60k REAL sales is way more than Usher and Alicia and all the other R&B veterans lately. I seriously expected way less, the buzz for new Mary J albums keeps decreasing with each release. So for her to do these numbers it is very good.
Also, the person who said only Adele and Taylor do 700k copies first week or more is right. Nobody else is doing it on REAL sales alone. Not even Drake who is anotehr of the biggest album sellers in the USA lately.
The argument that these are good numbers because no other R&B singer is doing more than that is a poor one. That’s like a kid getting a D and rationalizing that it’s a good grade because everyone else in the class did that, or worse. Bad is bad. It doesn’t matter if everyone else is doing bad too. Aim higher. Is her team even attempting to make her album a success? Do they have a plan, or are they just gonna dismiss its flopping on everyone else flopping too? Miss me on embracing lower expectations. If everyone is flopping, and the bar is that low, then everyone should be trying to come up with a plan to outdo the average. Refuse to sugarcoat this. Disappointed in Mary’s opening numbers. They could have done better than that…
I agree with you being upfront with the facts. I just feel indifferent because given her collective tenure, clout and renewed interest, I assumed she could pull of 100k. However, these numbers enable her team to consider the following points (good, bad and ugly):
1. Who is the contemporary buying core?
2. How can she better engage this core?
3. What are ways to integrate (but also profit from) her earlier and maturing fan base(s)?
4. How is she faring alongside her comparators (Mariah, Toni, Faith)?
5. What’s the impetus or downfall to release additional albums (in exchange for an EP per se)?
6. What are ways to identify and maximize her strengths?
Mary is transitioning to the mature artist category, her moves from now on HAVE TO BE deliberate,well thought-out and carve her legacy –the album is solid however.
She sounded great on this!
This song is awesome as is the album! It’s unfortunate the circumstances from which this great piece of art was created but I’m thankful for the music and hope more people pick it up as I think it can help a lot of people through the message!