OpenEntrance - What’s Really Going OnWhat’s Really Going On

After the Heart of the City Tour with Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige has cancelled what was to be her first Australasian tour, citing exhaustion. The weary R+B star, who is currently performing dates in Britain, will not be making the trip to Australia this weekend as planned, for shows that were billed to start in Perth on June 10th.

Instead, the dates in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand will now take place in November. In a statement released on Friday, tour promoter Michael Chugg said he accepted Blige was too tired to make the trip Down Under at this time.  He reveals Blige’s “overwhelming tour schedule” has left her desperate for a rest and he agreed it would not be feasible to proceed with the tour as planned.

He explains, “We won’t risk health complications or undue stress for the artist.” Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Blige says, “I am so disappointed that I won’t be able to make it to Australia and New Zealand for the June tour as planned.  “I want to thank all of my wonderful fans who supported the announcement of my first tour in these countries and I can’t tell you how excited I was to come down in June and put on a show for you all. Postponing these shows has been an extremely difficult decision for me and I am sincerely sorry that I will not be able to fulfil my tour commitments.”

After the Heart of the City Tour which was almost 30 stops, I bet she is looking forward to a summer of just chillin.

Starting March 22nd in Miami, Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z will tour together in a 26 show tour across the U.S. All of the dates and location have not been announced, but here is a partial list:

          DATE           CITY                    VENUE
       March 22      Miami, FL             American Airlines Arena
       March 26      Baltimore, MD         1st Mariner Arena
       March 27      Uniondale, NY         Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
       March 28      East Rutherford, NJ   Izod Center
       March 30      Philadelphia, PA      Wachovia Center
       April 2       Toronto, ON           Air Canada Centre
       April 3       Boston, MA            TD Banknorth Garden
       April 5       Greensboro, NC        Greensboro Coliseum
       April 6       Washington, DC        Verizon Center
       April 16      Los Angeles, CA       Hollywood Bowl

I am sure tickets will sell out fast on this one, but I bet the price will be ridiculous. On Ticketmaster, the price of tickets for the New York show are between $76-$347. Those seats close up better come with a record deal!

I am sure this is being blown out of proportion, but it is a good story anyway. Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Timbaland and Wyclef Jean, and award-winning author and producer Tyler Perry have all been named in a steroids and Human Growth Hormone trafficking investigation.

“Records shared with the Times Union and information from several cooperating witnesses on Long Island indicate Blige and other stars were shipped prescribed human growth hormone or steroids — sometimes under fictitious names — at hotels, production studios, private residences, an upscale Manhattan fitness club and through the Long Island office of Michael Diamond, a chiropractor affiliated with the celebrities, sources said.”

Mary J. Blige: Between August 2005 and January 2007 Blige allegedly received multiple shipments from an Orlando pharmacy of Jentropin, a human growth hormone, and Oxandrolone, an anabolic steroid, in orders sent to her at the Beverly Hills Hotel, MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and Clay Gym in New York City. Read the rest of this entry »

Ne-Yo got Mary J. to join him on the remix of his track “Do You.” Pretty Bangin track. The two of them could have cut loose a little more, but still super solid.

To listen to the track go here.

The Ethel Waters Show, a variety special, appears on NBC in 1939. It is the first time an African American appears on television. Ethel Waters was the first black Superstar who opened all the theatrical doors hitherto closed to black performers of her day, to attain the towering position she reached as a headliner. She fought hard and long to achieve solo star status in the white world of vaudeville, night clubs, Broadway theater, radio, films and television. More than any other black performer of the century, Ethel Waters was a woman of the theater, and the celebrity she attained in maturity as an actress tended at times to overshadow-at least in memory-the importance of her accomplishments and influence as a singer.

It was Waters’ struggles that opened the doors for many of today’s superstars such as Beyonce, Mary J. Blige and Tyra Banks, to name a few.

Also on this date: 

1864 Congress votes that Black soldiers should receive equal pay.    

1921 Georgianna R. Simpson became the first Black woman to receive a PhD from the University of Chicago.

1970 Cheryl Adrienne Brown wins the Miss Iowa pageant and becomes the first African American to compete in the Miss America beauty pageant.

Mary J. Blige graces the cover of the 150th issue of Vibe Magazine

Here are some quotes from the article:

Mary on VIBE giving her the 150th issue cover:

“I’m humbled by the whole situation because VIBE has been there for me throughout my career. They’ve saved my life, and they don’t even know it.”

Mary on being dubbed the Queen Of Hip-Hop Soul:
“Early on, I didn’t know how much of an influence I was. But what I’ve done is educate myself. I’m able to stand up straight and say, I am a proud black woman-and this is coming from someone who’s always been told that they were a dumb, nigga bitch. But right now, I’m a black, educated woman who wants more out of life, and you can hear it in my music.”

Mary on how her old self would have reacted attending the opening of Oprah Winfrey’s all-girl school in Henley-on-Klip, Africa:
The old Mary would have run, hide, and been scared. She would’ve caved in to the voices of the people saying, ‘Oh, she’s not keeping it real. She’s on the Oprah show.’”