I feel a little misled today. I’d seen a UK radio station mention a new Mary J Blige single on their website last week. There’s been talk of a new album coming, recently, and a joint tour with Maxwell will also take her to Europe this year. But after further investigation, I was quite disappointed to find out that the new single is the new theme song for TV shot The View.
For some reason, whenever I hear an artist doing a theme show or even sing a song for a movie, I always think of it as a cash-in moment. In other words, I assume it’s all controlled by other creatives and therefore not really an expression of the artists themselves. They are just channeling other people’s creative visions.
Of course, there are many occasions where this theory gets shot to pieces, because many singer-songwriters have created their best work for soundtracks and such, but in this case, I just became a little less enthusiastic to look up the song. That simply was the point I was trying to make.
And maybe it is the low expectations that did it, but I am really surprised by “World’s Gone Crazy”. The title might suggest the usual Mary J Bige type of song. Even though she sang about no more drama, drama, heartbreak and the rough side of relationships are usually what seeps through in her songs, but this song sounds rather upbeat and powerful. It’s definitely something I wouldn’t normally link to Mary J Blige, but she pulled it off like no one else could’ve.
You do hear it’s a theme song, even though it comes from top songwriter Diane Warren, who’s written a lot of hit pop, rock and R&B songs over many years. But you can really tell that the end of the chorus is intentionally ending that way so they can cut it off and start the show, at that point. But in general, that is not even annoying.
Mary J Blige is currently going through a divorce from her MANager. Yes, her husband also managed her and Mary J has said, in an interview, that the intertwining of their personal relationship and their business relationship was probably what caused the break down the personal relationship along the way.
A new album from her is expected this year, and I do expect it to be different from the sound of “World’s Gone Crazy”.
