Mary J. Blige is continuing to defend that slightly-awkward interview clip where she breaks into song while speaking to Hillary Clinton.
via NYDN:
“I wanted to incorporate the song in the show because the lyrics resonated with me so deeply and so heavily because of all the shootings and police brutality and I never got a chance to say anything,” Blige said Wednesday while promoting her new series, “The 411.”
“I’m a singer first …so that’s the only way I can express myself and …the only way I can get that reaction from (Hillary) is to sing it,” she continued.
Apple released a promo for the upcoming episode that showed Blige crooning the emotional lyrics to the song — which Springsteen wrote after the 1999 fatal police shooting of Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo in New York — directly to a stoic-looking Clinton.
A wave of viewers deemed the clip awkward and confusing following its release, but the 45-year-old Blige seems to have no regrets.
“I didn’t warm up … I just sang …It was organic and that’s how it went. And hopefully, I believe she felt it, I think she did,” she said.
Blige was inspired to conduct the interview after meeting Clinton at July’s Democratic National Convention. Their upcoming show together, which airs on Sept. 30, will serve as the first episode of “The Real.”
It’s unclear who Blige will bring on the show next, but she’s making it known she has no plans to sing to anyone mid-interview in future episodes.
“That will never happen again,” Blige said. “That was just for her.”
Mary’s explanation comes a day after she told everyone to ‘shut the f*ck up’ about it.
