Quite Contrary - Zink Magazine

Mary J. Blige is the stuff that after-school specials and dreams are made of. BY VANESSA CRAFT

Interviewing Mary J Blige comes with a few hazards.  For a start, she has a bad reputation for being moody and difficult with the press.  Just ask Veronica Webb, who Mary threatened to ‘f*ck up’ after she wrote an unflattering article about her. Adding to this history, any questions for Mary had to be pre-approved by the record company.  And the Zink time slot is at the end of a seven-hour marathon of interviews and meet-and-greets. 

So when the conversation starts with several long, suck-up-all-the-oxygen yawns, it doesn’t look promising.  But then Mary giggles, and sheepishly says, “I’m saawry!” and everything is going to be just fine.  Things are different now.  Mary is different now.

Lounging in her hotel suite wearing a luxurious cashmere sweater and wool trousers, with immaculate hair and makeup and a diamond the size of an orange on her ring finger, Mary J Blige is working the hell out of the diva look.  She really has come a long way from her childhood spent under a cloud of abuse, molestation and poverty in the projects of Yonkers, New York. 

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Diva Demands: Zink Magazine

Post-Madonna, prima donnas want the world on a platter with M&Ms (only the yellow ones) and bottled water (flown in from Poland at room temperature) served by a Greek God (Apollo or Achilles only).  BY VANESSA CRAFT

Back in the day, being a diva meant something; it described a highly eminent, glamorous female singer cut from a different cloth than the rest of us.  Old school songstresses like Billie Holiday (who used to sleep in evening gowns instead of nightgowns), Diana Ross (ordered no direct eye contact from backstage minions) or Shirley Bassey ("Diamonds never leave you; men do") were all perfect examples of outrageous egos, supreme talent, and spectacular lifestyles.

Open up a glossy page from any magazine or tabloid today, and you’ll find most female singers - whether rock, pop, or R&B, one hit wonder or rap star - branded with the term.  To be a diva in 2004 means you have a complicated, legally binding rider that lists in great detail the brand, size, shape and colour of the fruit bowl in your dressing room.  And that’s just the beginning.

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