Singer Mary J. Blige will pay tribute to her mum during a U.S. Mother’s Day TV special.
Mary J has joined the Dear Mama: An Event to Honor Moms special, which will air on American network VH1 on 8 May (17) – six days before America celebrates Mother’s Day.
The TV special, which will air from Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, California, will also feature actor Anthony Anderson, singer Robin Thicke, DJ Khaled, singer Maxwell, and TV personality and entrepreneur La La Anthony. Thicke will honour his actress mother Gloria Loring, while Khaled will pay tribute to his fiancee Nicole Tuck.
Ludacris and Kelly Rowland will also appear on the special, which is executive-produced by Queen Latifah’s Flavor Unit.
Blige’s appearance will follow the release of her Strength of a Woman: An Album Documentary, which chronicles the making of her 13th studio album. The documentary, which airs on VH1 on Tuesday (02May17), will feature her opening up about her split from husband Martin ‘Kendu’ Issacs.
“I’m in the process of helping myself,” she says in a teaser clip for the documentary. “It’s not something that I wanted to do (getting divorced), but I had no choice. I’m not writing an album preaching to anyone about what they should do. I’m literally trying to heal myself through writing, through singing, through some kind of way of getting it out of my system.
“I had to do something other than what I would normally do. I had to get out of my environment, out of my comfort zone, take a long hard look at myself in order to embrace everything that was happening so I can love myself out of the whole thing and that’s how this album was originated.”
Mary filed for divorce in July (16), after 12 years of marriage.
