Mary J. Blige calls her latest road trek the For My Fans Tour. But know that the show — which stopped Wednesday night, March 19, at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena — is really all about Blige.
And that’s hardly a bad thing.
During the 33 years since her first album, the Bronx born artist has fashioned a narrative of empowerment and resilience, overcoming professional and personal challenges and chronicling many of them in song — which has earned Blige the moniker of Queen of R&B & Hip-Hop Soul, and made her a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee last October.
Strength is her watchword, and Blige flexed plenty of musical muscle during an hour and 45 minutes on stage Wednesday that turned Little Caesars into a non-stop singalong for the 15,000 or so fans there.
Make that stages.
Following hit-filled sets from openers Mario and Ne-Yo — the latter offering snippets of the many favorites he’s written for other artists — Blige, all in white, emerged on a platform at the back of the arena, where VIP ticket holders sat on plush couches, to open with a sultry “Take Me As I Am.” She then — to the tune of Grand Rapids band DeBarge’s “A Dream” — rode a crown-shaped (she is the queen, after all), airborne gondola back to the main stage, where another crown bearing her initials was held aloft by a giant pair of hands and where her six-member band, three back-up singers and six dancers were ready to slide into the rest of the show.
And that they did, running through all or part of 31 songs that sampled from 10 of Blige’s 15 studio albums, including four from last year’s “Gratitude,” plus covers of Rufus & Chaka Khan’s “Sweet Thing” and the Rose Royce slow jam “I’m Going Down.” At one point early on Blige and company even ran through 10 of those tunes in a breathless 20 minutes, wrapping the Marvin Gaye-referencing affirmation “Be Happy.”
It was a stylish affair as well, the stage open and featuring a large video backdrop that screened historical footage and photos from throughout Blige’s career. The costuming was modest — just four looks during the night — and the pyrotechnics minimal enough to be effective. Early on she shouted out to Detroit gospel greats the Clark Sisters, who she said were in attendance, as well as local rapper Kash Doll, who threw down on the second stage about two-thirds of the way into the show, while Blige was making a wardrobe change.
The only curious aspect of the night was the concert’s pacing, which hewed towards the mellow and even languid aspects of Blige’s catalog — all well-performed and nicely choreographed, but in decidedly lower gear. It wasn’t until the final quarter of the show that Blige — sporting a cut loose, tearing into “Enough Cryin'” to begin a high-swagger segment that included energetic romps through “The One,” “I Can Love You,” “You Bring Me Joy,” “Just Fine,” “MJB da MVP” and, after a recorded bit of Kendrick Lamar’s “tv off,” a confetti-festooned “Family Affair.”
The Queen does as the Queen wants, of course, and on Wednesday Blige certainly proved that after all these years the throne is still occupied and the crown in good hands — now, and likely for years to come.
