Mary J. Blige finds singing her hit songs to be therapeutic.

The chart-topping star has been one of the best-selling female artists in the world for more than two decades - but Mary has insisted she still puts her heart and soul into each and every performance because she finds it to be a rewarding experience.

Speaking to New York magazine, she shared: "If I'm on stage every single night, it can't just be for my fans. It obviously is for me, too.

"I'm going to feel it like it was the first day. I'm going to relive 'No More Drama'. I don't have a choice. These things really happen, so they just turn up again. And if it's healing for someone else, it's therapy for someone else, it'll be therapy for me as well."

Mary has recently turned her attention towards acting, starring as Florence Jackson in Dee Rees' period drama 'Mudbound'.

The acclaimed movie tells the story of two World War II veterans who return home to rural Mississippi, where they face racism and Post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mary explained that her on-screen performance was inspired by her grandmother, as well as her own childhood experiences.

She said: "Everything we saw, we couldn't say - so that was in me. My mother said whatever she wanted, but my grandmother was just a very reserved woman, very reserved but very powerful. Because you can end up in trouble if you said too much.

"I mean, Dee saw that. That's my personality."