After more than 30 years of a thriving music career, Mary J. Blige says she’s ready to retire in “five or six years.”
The Grammy award-winning Queen of Hip-Hop Soul is gearing up for her third annual Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and releasing new music. It’s all part of her rollout to retirement.
“Right now, I’m definitely gonna do some more acting and I’m definitely gonna retire in, like, five or six years,” she told Extra.
Fans can rest assured that more new music is on the way before Blige calls it quits. She shares the love she still has for recording. The “Real Love” singer just doesn’t feel the need to make as much new music as she used to because she’s already put in the work.
“Right now, I’m still doing what I’m doing but not as often as I was doing it because I don’t have to now,” she said.
This comes after Blige recently said her next album would be her last.
“This is another album, and it’s probably my last studio album,” she told People in an interview published April 22.
As for the new music she’s working on, it stays true to Blige’s themes of love in all forms, including the self-love she’s acquired as a single woman.
“Mary is singing about life. Life… love… being stable and understanding you can have things like love. You can have a good life,” she tells Extra.
Blige is embracing “mostly the love I have for myself. The glow is the love for Mary J. Blige. I find my real love. And my real love is me and I found it.”
Blige’s annual Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit is taking place in her hometown of New York City during Mother’s Day weekend May 10 – 12th. She’ll be inducted into the 2024 class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this fall.
