Fifty is looking incredible on Mary J. Blige. The legendary songstress celebrated the milestone birthday on Jan. 11 by sharing these gorgeous photos of herself rocking a metallic gold bikini featuring a sexy snake print, a halter wrap top and bikini strings accentuating her trim waistline. With purple aviator sunglasses and gold jewelry to complete the stunning look, the “Be Without You” singer reminded us all that she’s an icon.
The photos, snapped by photographer Robert Ector, were taken in an undisclosed tropical location. “Tough love is the therapy!,” the birthday girl captioned one of the pictures, and wrote underneath the other, “#WhereTheMoneyReside.” The last video was a reference to Durell Smylie‘s singing video that recently went viral.
Celebrities jumped into Mary’s comments section to send their birthday wishes. “Happy birthday Mary,” La La Anthony wrote, adding, “love u!!!!” Meanwhile, Tamar Braxton wrote, “I love you with my entire heart [red heart emoji] hbd,” and Tami Roman commented, “Whoa” with heart and fire emojis. Of course, Mary received many more birthday wishes from her fans across Twitter and Instagram.
Although Mary be ringing in another year, she doesn’t want you calling her “Auntie.” The Grammy-winning singer made it clear that she’s not a fan of this nickname some fans have been using during an interview in Aug. 2020. “Why can’t I just be a sister? There are women that are like, way older than me calling me ‘Auntie.’ Like, c’mon,” she told Hip Hollywood, adding, “Can I just be your sister? Your friend in your head? The auntie is like, C’mon. Not if you’re ten years older than me. Please don’t call me auntie. I’ll be your sister.”
Mary does love her fans’ unwavering support, though. Towards the end of her 49th year, Mary celebrated even more accomplishments in her decorated music career. At the beginning of Dec. 2020, Mary revealed that she had received 203.3 million streams and 27.8 million listeners on Spotify in an Instagram post, and teased that “new music” is “on the way.” Here’s to another year of amazing music from the R&B icon!