After making a guest appearance in an episode of Empire last night, March 11, Mary J. Blige premiered her music video for her song "Doubt" off her London Sessions album.
The R&B diva stopped last night's emotional episode of Empire, titled "Sins of the Father," to appear in a flashback with the ling of Empire Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard). Blige's character, Angie, sang a duet about love with Lucious called "Shake Down."
Then this morning, March 12, the singer released her music video for "Doubt." The powerful and emotional song is in the singer's usual vein of motivational self-help songs. She sings about the sacrifices she has made to get to where she is now and how she cannot doubt herself anymore.
But the music video is surprisingly simple -- in a good way. Blige stands on a barren stage in an elaborate theater and sings to empty seats. The attention is all on Blige and her vocals. "Doubt" is the fourth single off her London Sessions album.
Although London Sessions dropped last fall, it did not get a lot of attention on the charts. But the album is one of the best Blige has had in years. The singer took a lot of inspiration from London, where she recorded the album. She said the album provided her with a sense of freedom.
"The music is free over here the way it used to be in the States," Blige told The Guardian. "Artists are just free to do what they love. Listening to the radio you can hear the freedom. The music is living and breathing -- you can hear that from Adele's last album. It was massive -- a big deal. But she did what she loved."
Blige drew inspiration from and collaborated with many British artists on London Sessions. Sam Smith penned "Therapy" for Blige to sing on the album.
"Adele, she's a soul singer," Blige told Billboard in November. "Sam, he's a soul singer. Elton John was a soul singer -- we could take it all the way back. Soul music has been coming from the U.K. forever and been inspiring me."
Sam Smith and Blige reunited at the 2015 Grammys to perform Sam Smith's smash hit "Stay With Me" together.
