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MILWAUKEE, Jul 3, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- R&B singer Mary J. Blige, in Milwaukee to perform at Summerfest, says she has overcome her addictions and emerged a new woman.
Blige has learned to control the "old" Mary J., who challenged interviewers to fights, cursed at audiences and abused drugs and alcohol, she told Monday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"(The old Mary) comes out, but the new Mary is stronger than her," Blige told the newspaper. "My focus is to make the new Mary stronger than her, because she's been messing up my life. You have to tame her and set her down."
Blige's latest album, "The Breakthrough," has sold nearly 2.4 million copies.
The headliner at Milwaukee's Summerfest concert Monday said she was happily married to producer Kendu Isaacs and living very comfortably.
"At the end of the day I've chosen a happier life, because if I haven't chosen a happier life, the darkness will overtake me," she said. "I've learned too much to let this foolishness just destroy me. I come from my experience, but I'm still learning."
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
