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Mary J. Blige is one of the most iconic and recognizable names in the worlds of Hip Hop and Soul, and her music has gone on to become totally iconic, and instantly recognizable.
Her music is totally perfect for absolutely any occasion, from birthdays to anniversaries, and even weddings themselves.
As a result, you are likely looking around the internet trying to find some of Mary J. Blige’s best songs. Songs that represent her lyrical genius, and the kinds of songs that will instantly make anyone an all-time fan of her work.
If this is the case, then you could not have come to a better place, because we are going to take a deep look at 20 of Mary J. Blige’s absolute best and most essential songs.
There are some real surprises dotted across this list, so make sure to read on down below to ensure that you don’t miss out on some hidden gems!
Mary J. Blige Songs List
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1 – Family Affair
Arguably one of Mary J. Blige’s most famous and successful singles, this song has quickly come to represent her absolute lyrical genius, as well as her overall fun and carefree musical style.
The song largely revolves around the idea of leaving your troubles and drama behind and heading out to the club. This makes it a perfect song to dance and vibe to, especially at a wedding, or a similar function. Your guests will totally love how feel-good this track is, and how it helps them to let loose and enjoy the good times.
When it comes to essential Mary J. Blige tracks, it perhaps doesn’t get better than this, you cannot possibly miss this out from the list!
2 – Be Without You
This is another incredibly popular Mary J. Blige song, though one with a slightly sadder lyrical message. The song and its accompanying music video is centered around the fraught relationship between Mary J. Blige and her partner, as she laments the impact of a recent argument between the two, and how she cannot “Be Without You”!
Despite being an occasionally sad love ballad, the song still has a very fun energy and a very infectious beat that will easily get your guests dancing in a fun way.
The lyrics, which discuss love, also make this song a perfect wedding track, as it is a testament to the enduring power of love!
3 – Mary Jane (All Night Long)
This is one of Mary J. Blige’s earliest hit tracks, and it’s not difficult to tell why. This song will easily create a low-key vibe at a wedding or other social functions, so you definitely need to include it in your playlist.
It’s a song that has an incredibly sexy vibe to it, which can help to inject a little bit of energy and love into your night, and the lyrics are, in true Mary J. Blige style, all about celebrating love! We could think of very few songs more appropriate!
4 – Not Gon’ Cry
This song was actually recorded to be used as part of the soundtrack to the film Exhale, which chronicles a woman learning that her husband has cheated on her. Though this may seem like an extreme song to play at a wedding, this song is actually a very relaxing and fun song about personal agency and liberation, making it very fun to listen to.
Despite its slightly sadder subject matter, this song is actually a great celebration of love, making it perfect for multiple social functions!
5 – I’m Goin’ Down
This song has a great jazz-infused sound to it that makes it stand totally apart from the rest of Mary J. Blige’s already eclectic discography! You and your guests will totally love the way that this song sounds, and the way that the jazz instrumentation helps to give it quick bursts of danceable energy!
The lyrics themselves are also great because they play a testament to the power of love, as Mary discusses how, without her partner, her world becomes totally “upside down”!
See Similar Artist: Brian McKnight Love Songs
6 – Just Fine
This song has a totally unique rhythm and some incredibly rich production. There are so many great percussive beats that will easily get you and everyone else up on the dance floor. And it is also a great feel-good track that celebrates the transformative and healing power of pop music.
All of your guests are going to feel good when they hear this track. It’s a sure-fire energy-maker that can quickly ignite the life of the party!
7 – Good Morning Gorgeous
In order to get the best sense of who Mary J. Blige is as a recording artist, we figured it was also important to shed some light on some of her more recently-released tracks! This song, which was released in 2022, proves that Mary still very much has it in her to create an R & B wonder that is perfectly suited to all kinds of parties.
This song is a celebration of self-love that discusses how Mary has managed to navigate through some of the darker periods of her life. It is incredibly hopeful and life-affirming, and is also the perfect chilled-out vibe as the wedding celebrations come to a close!
You’ve definitely got to add this song to your playlist. It will help you to feel incredibly content with the things you have in life, and will help you to more easily celebrate the wonder of your wedding!
8 – Real Love
This is one of Mary J. Blige’s earliest hits and a song that cemented her name as one to look out for in the realm of hip hop and R&B. Released in 1992, this song chronicles Mary’s ongoing quest to find “Real Love”, and the trials that such a quest can bring.
This song will have you feeling totally good, as its beat is up-tempo, but still has a rather laid-back sound and approach that helps to create a party with plenty of energy, but also some chilled-out good vibes.
9 – Mr. Wrong
If you want a song that will totally surprise those that listen to it, then make sure to add this song to your playlist. Not only is it a Mary J. Blige song with plenty of infectious energy, but it also has a feature from Drake, still early into his career at the time! The collaboration between these two musical powerhouses is full of surprises!
The lyrics discuss what it takes to create a strong and healthy relationship, which can make it perfect for helping you and your guests to celebrate marriage and the relationship that you may have with your spouse.
Mary also shows off her vocal chops on this track, and if you weren’t a massive fan of her before, we just know you will be after this track is over!
10 – Take Me As I Am
This 2005 hit is another celebration of self-love that will help you to accept who you are inside, and will help you to love the skin that you are in. And, as ever when it comes to Mary J. Blige, this song also has a great beat that will help to get you and your guests on their feet and give their all on the dance floor.
No list of essential Mary J. Blige songs could ever truly be complete without this track!
See Similar Artist: Mariah Carey Love Songs
11 – Share My World
Marriage is about celebrating everlasting love that endures no matter the hardships that are presented to the happy couple. Perhaps no song in Mary J. Blige’s catalog represents this better than Share My World. This song is a pure celebration of enduring love, and how it is able to pull through even in the most difficult of circumstances.
This song also discusses how being in a relationship is like sharing one’s own world and their experience of it. Being in a relationship requires that both parties are able to share their worlds with one another, to create a new world of love!
12 – Your Child
This is one of Mary J. Blige’s most successful tracks ever, and another that is totally essential when it comes to lists of her best tracks. You cannot go wrong with this song, and it will very quickly become a favorite of yours.
It will also go down as a treat at a social function, as it has a very chilled-out vibe that will help everyone to relax and enjoy the event to the fullest.
Although the lyrics of this song are a little darker, discussing the children that resulted from an affair that Mary’s partner had with another woman, this song will still totally help everyone to enjoy themselves, as its chilled-out beat will put everyone at ease.
13 – I Can Love You
This song boasts a totally incredible feature from one of R&B’s biggest legends: Lil’ Kim! This means that this song very quickly becomes a total vibe. The energy in this track is totally unparalleled, making it a total essential both for all-time fans of Mary and also for those looking to get into her.
We couldn’t recommend this track enough. It very quickly becomes a total earworm, and you won’t be able to get it out of your mind for so long after hearing it, as it is simply that good!
14 – My Life
“Life can be what you make it” is one of the best lyrics from this awesomely-produced song that is another of Mary J. Blige’s most popular songs. This is an incredibly uplifting and life-affirming track that fans of Blige have commonly cited as one of her absolute best.
You’d find it difficult to refute the idea that this is one of her best tracks when you hear it for yourself. It has a very simple structure, but this simplicity is what gives it much of its beauty and strength.
Your guests will feel right at home listening to this track.
15 – Everything
“You are my everything” sings Mary in this totally incredible track that will make it easier than ever to express your love. Could you think of lyrics any more romantic than that?
This whole song is full of romantic energy that will fill any room with love, and the sensual energy of the song is one of the best things about it. You’ll definitely want to get up and dance when you hear this song. The beat is so infectious and so sublimely produced that it is practically futile to try and resist the song’s call!
This song will make you feel better than ever. It’s simultaneously able to fill you with energy while still being very calm and relaxing!
See Similar Artist: Usher Love Songs
16 – Love Yourself
In order to truly love another person, you need to be able to love yourself, and this song is a perfect reminder of this immutable fact.
This song is a wonderful celebration of total independence, the healing power of self-love, and how it can change your life.
We strongly recommend checking the remix version of this song that features an incredible guest verse by rapper A$AP Rocky, which helps to add an extra modern edge to the song that will appear to everyone in the room.
This is definitely one of Mary’s absolute best songs, so you definitely don’t want to miss the chance to add it to your playlist.No matter what event you might play it at, it’s sure to be a treat!
17 – I Can Do Bad
This song will definitely help to lift the mood of any occasion, as its lyrics discuss the role that personal agency can play in raising one’s own mood. When it comes to being ‘happier’ this song just might have the answer!
It will help you to recognize bad vibes being sent out by other people so that you can actively seek out positive and healthy vibes to help make your life happier.
And we also have to mention just how great Mary’s voice sounds in this track, she’s definitely at her lyrical best in this track, and she sounds simply better than ever. We could go on about this track forever, but we’ll leave it to you to experience it for yourself!
18 – Thick Of It
This song sees Mary channeling a lot of personal pain throughout, but it has such incredible production values, and a great sense of energy to it, that you will no doubt be able to get up and dance to it regardless.
It has a very modern sound and some very modern production values that manage to balance Mary’s 90’s sound with some of the more modern sensibilities of the R&B industry in the late ‘10s and early ‘20s!
This is one of Mary’s most powerful and hard-hitting songs, but this definitely helps to make it totally incredible in its own way.
19 – Be Happy
This is another Mary J. Blige track that sings of the role that choice plays in happiness. This song is about declaring that you want to seek happiness, which in turn helps to make it easier to seek it out everywhere you go.
Finding happiness in the modern world can be quite difficult and tiresome, but with the right attitude (and the right track) you can very easily find happiness for yourself and those you love.
Make sure to add this to your playlist, we can guarantee that you and everyone you play it for will totally love it. It’s an energy make that also has a very important and deep message buried beneath the layers of rich and dense lyrical storytelling. We totally love it!
20 – Rainy Dayz
Even on the rainiest and most miserable of days, we can guarantee that this song will be able to put a smile on your face. We figured, what better song to close off this list with than one of Mary’s most life-affirming and happy songs ever recorded?
The comforting vibe of this song carries through from the first second of the song, all the way until its very end. No second of the song is wasted, and it is sure to have your mood totally uplifted.
Mary J. Blige is an artist known for producing incredibly upbeat music and music with relaxing and beautiful vibes, but we really do think that this is one of her absolute best. It perfectly shows off her ability to create uplifting music, but also shows off her incredible singing chops. And the production overseen by Ja Rule helps to elevate the track even further.
Final Thoughts
We hope that this list has inspired you. It took some time to look through Mary J. Blige’s entire extensive discography and condense the best of such a long career into just 20 songs, but we feel that we have done the very best.
These 20 songs definitely represent Mary J. Blige at her lyrical best and boast some of the best production of all songs she has ever produced. They are sure to make you a life-long fan of Mary, and will make for perfect songs to play at a wedding or at a wedding party!
Wedding Songs For The Ultimate Party!
