Premiering
Thanksgiving night at 8:00 EST, the beloved singer will unveil her first
holiday special A Mary
Christmas, on Sean “Diddy” Combs’s Revolt TV channel. “This is Mary
like we’ve never seen her before,” executive producer and Revolt co-chairman
Andre Harrell says via telephone from his west coast office. “We tried to do
something that was jazzy and elegant. Watching her was like seeing a young
Nancy Wilson; it’s very sophisticated.”
Harrell,
who has known Blige since
she was a wild teenager, signed the singer to her first recording contract with
Uptown Records when she was 18. Revolt chairman Sean Combs also worked at
Uptown in those early days, and aided Blige’s career in everything from helping
to develop her “hip-hop soul” sound to the chic boots on her feet.
“The first thing
that Mary said to me was, ‘If, me, you and Puff do something, you know a
certain level has to be on.’ I assured her that Mary Christmas would be on the highest
level of Black elegance television has ever seen.” In addition, Queen Latifah
agreed to host the show. “Latifah and Mary are friends for real, so when we
asked her, she signed on right away.”
Pulling
the show together in a
record amount of time, the production hired multi-Grammy Award winner David
Foster as the musical director. (Foster also produced the Mary Christmas
album on which the special was based.) Veteran director J. Kevin Swain, who’s
worked with Mary in the past, was also recruited by the production.
“We had four days
of prep and then got it all done,” Swain says. “The Revolt staff and crew were
top-notch, and everybody dug deep to get the project done with no problems. I
think this is a special that will live on for years because of the way Mary
presents the songs—one of my favorites being her version of Donny Hathaway’s
lovely ‘This Christmas,’ which she performs with Tyrese. Mary Christmas
was meant to happen, it did happen and I’m glad in happened.”
Harrell
has worked with both Blige and
Combs since their early days at Uptown, the mid-1980s/’90s label that blessed
us with new jack swingers Guy, overweight lover Heavy D, bad boy crooners
Jodeci and the television show New York Undercover. Harrell sounds like a proud poppi
talking about their considerable growth as both an artists and people.
Working with Mary
is like you have the whole Black female race in your hands and you best to get
it right.
“Mary is such a
happier person now. She’s a woman, she’s matured and she doesn’t want to be
involved in any bullsh*t. She knows that she represents women with hearts,
minds and souls, and she doesn’t want to let them down.
“As
for Puff, he’s the same dude he was 25 ago, except he got a whole lot of money now.
He’s the same dude throwing tantrums when he gets upset, but he’s also the same
dude who works harder than everybody else to get a project done.”
Revolt CEO Keith
Clinkscales, formerly of ESPN and Vibe magazine, says, “While Mary is very glamorous, she is
still the real girl that has always been her foundation. When you hear her
singing these songs, she takes you back to your childhood with her beautiful
flow. She and David Foster worked so well together.”
Having
produced jazz-pop
albums for Natalie Cole (Unforgettable) and Michael Bublé, Foster was the perfect
choice to fulfill Blige’s vision. “I always wanted Mary to do jazz, so this was
just so right,” says Harrell. “Foster took her voice and style to somewhere
brand new.”
Very pleased with
the outcome of Mary
Christmas, the network is currently planning on meeting with other
high-profile talent about hosting future specials, but for now it’s all about
Blige. “Working with Mary is like you have the whole Black female race in your
hands and you best to get it right,” Harrell says, laughing. “That was the
approach we took with Mary Christmas.”
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