Mary J Blige on why she loves London, her fans and Sam Smith

 
Stay with me: Mary J Blige and Sam Smith on stage at this year’s Grammys (Picture: Larry Busacca/Getty Images for NARAS)
Alistair Foster24 February 2015
The Weekender

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Mary J Blige says she fell in love with London after living here last summer - and wants to return to the capital to record her next album.

The American singer stayed at a hotel in Knightsbridge while collaborating with younger UK artists, including Sam Smith, on her acclaimed record The London Sessions. In an exclusive interview with the Standard, Blige, 44, said: “I fell in love with London last year when I lived there for a month and man, it felt like home. It was 80 and 90 degrees, it was a heatwave, and it was beautiful.

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“I got the chance to get up every morning and run in Hyde Park. I’m absolutely tempted to get my own place. I would make another album in London as quick as I would in the States.”

Blige, who sang with Smith, 22, on his single Stay With Me at the Grammys this month, said: “I feel blessed to know and to have met someone as talented as Sam Smith. I think we’re similar in a lot of ways. We’re not afraid to be transparent that we are vulnerable or let people really see the depths of us. The song, Stay With Me, means that to us.”

Blige recently surprised fan Rana Otemro, 29, from Watford, at an intimate gig at Village Underground in Shoreditch as part of MasterCard’s Priceless Surprises campaign. She said: “Rana thought she was at a live streaming of me playing in New York.

“So when she got to the venue, there was a large screen of me performing, but behind the screen I was really performing. When they dropped the screen, it was me. It was so cool because she was so excited.”

Blige said keeping a connection with fans was “something I’ve always done”. She said their response to her album My Life, in 1994, had helped her battles with drink and drugs: “Ever since that day my music has been therapy to them and they have been therapy back to me.”

She will return to London for this summer’s Wireless Festival in Finsbury Park. She is also performing at an intimate, yet-to-be-announced MasterCard gig - for a chance to go, keep checking the website pricelesssurprises.co.uk

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