Mary J Blige & D'Angelo

Grammy award-winning songstress Mary J. Blige and highly-praised R&B singer D’Angelo will co-headline The Liberation Tour with a stop at the Pearl on September 7, 2012 at 8 p.m. The tour also features special guest Melanie Fiona.

With worldwide sales of more than 50 million albums and a track record of eight multi-platinum albums, nine Grammy Awards (plus a staggering 29 nominations) and four American Music Awards, Mary J. Blige is only getting started. The singer released her 10th studio album in 2001, My Life II … The Journey Continues (Act 1). Released via Blige’s Geffen/Interscope-distributed Matriarch label, the project doubles as the sequel to Blige’s 1994 classic My Life.

Blige once again fashions a moving testimony about love, devotion and inner strength. Providing the album’s cornerstone is the track “Living Proof.” Also the closing song for the hit movie “The Help,” the spare yet powerful song speaks volumes about life’s hard-won rewards. She goes toe to toe with Drake on the uptempo chart-climber “Mr. Wrong,” then displays equal doses of fervor and naked honesty, respectively, on “25/8” (sampling the late Heavy D gem “Now That We Found Love”) and “No Condition.” She taps her rap alter ego Brook Lynn for the romance-sparked “Midnight Drive.” Rounding out Blige’s life sequel are guest turns from Nas, Busta Rhymes, Rick Ross and a first-time pairing with Beyoncé on “Love a Woman.”

Influenced at an early age by the music of Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan and Gladys Knight, Blige brought her own gritty, urban-rooted style—fusing hip-hop, soul and honest, frank lyrics—to the forefront on her 1992 debut album What’s the 411? The multi-platinum set, executive produced by Sean “Diddy” Combs, quickly spun off several hits, including “You Remind Me” and “Real Love.”

Earning the nickname the “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul,” Blige began forging a unique niche for herself on the more personal second album, 1994’s My Life. Co-writing a major portion of the album this time around, Blige reaped such hits and signature songs as “Be Happy” and a cover of Rose Royce’s 1976 hit “I’m Goin’ Down.”

Each subsequent album reads like a chapter from an autobiography: Share My World (1997), Mary (1999), No More Drama (2001), Love & Life (2003), the multiple Grammy-winning and hit-spewing The Breakthrough (2005), Growing Pains (2007) and Stronger with Each Tear (2009). Along the way, she’s lined up a string of hit singles, including “Not Gon’ Cry,” “Love Is All We Need,” Seven Days,” “All That I Can Say,” “Family Affair” and “Just Fine.”

Blige, who co-penned “I Can See in Color” for 2009’s “Precious” soundtrack, is also ramping up her career in film and television. She currently appears in the Adam Shankman-directed “Rock of Ages” and it was recently announced that Blige will appear as a mentor to Maroon 5’s Adam Levine during the fall season of The “Voice.”

D’Angelo co-headlines The Liberation Tour, marking it his first U.S. tour in more than a decade. Recently having wowed audiences at the Essence Music Festival, Bonnaroo and the BET Awards, D’Angelo is back with passion and drive. The comeback has made headlines, as have rumblings of his third studio album, James River, tentatively scheduled to be released in 2012. D’Angelo first hit the world of neo-soul and R&B in 1995 with his debut album, Brown Sugar. The follow up album, Voodoo, came more than five years later and still debuted at #1. The track “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” earned D’Angelo a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

With the release of her debut The Bridge, Melanie Fiona emerged as one of 2009’s finest new breakout stars, boasting a Grammy-nominated hit single “It Kills Me.” The Los Angeles-based native of Toronto, Canada is co-managed by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation imprint and recently released her second studio album, The MF Life (2012).