A Mary Christmas

A Mary Christmas is the eleventh studio album and first Christmas album by American R&B recording artist Mary J. Blige. Produced by David Foster, it was released on October 15, 2013 via Matriarch, Interscope and Foster's Verve Records, compromising soulful interpretations of classic holiday tunes such as "Little Drummer Boy", "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".
Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews amongst critics. Commercially, it opened at number 23 on the US Billboard 200 and at number 5 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums with 12,000 copies. It marked Blige's 15th top ten title on the latter chart, tying her with Snoop Dogg for second-most top ten entries in the Nielsen SoundScan era.
It was confirmed in June 2013 that Blige had been working on a Christmas album, in an interview with Charleston Scene. In that interview, Blige revealed featured artists to be on the record would be Jessie J, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony and Barbra Streisand, with whom she duets a “jazzy version” of “When You Wish Upon a Star.”
This album is the first collaboration between legendary producer and hit-maker David Foster and Blige. The album will also be released on The Verve Music Group, in which Foster is the chairman of. Foster is also the producer of multi-platinum Christmas albums by Michael Bublé, Rod Stewart, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban and Celine Dion. Chris Walden wrote two arrangements for the album.