Award Show 2007

Grammys

Feb. 14, 2007 | 04:30 PM EST

What Mary J. Blige Really Meant to Say at Grammys

Photo by: AP

Mary J. Blige didn't exactly pull a Hilary Swank at the Grammys on Sunday night – she at least remembered to thank her manager husband Kendu Isaacs. But the three-time winner did forget to thank the two music powerhouses who first helped put her on that stage: Uptown Records founder Andre Harrell and her first producer, Sean "Diddy" Combs. Uh, oops! So, what happened up there, Miss Mary? "I was shaking. I absolutely was trying to remember everyone who helped with the album (The Breakthrough) because it was just such a big breakthrough," she tells us exclusively. But, like the R&B diva herself, we believe in second chances, so here's what Blige really meant to say up there:

"I forgot to thank Andre Harrell for coming to my house and believing in me. When I lived in the projects, he came to my house. He told me things like, 'You are going to sing for kings and queens one day. I had to remember those things, you know. This is when I was 17. I was like a little girl, a teenager (in) jeans. I don't know how my hair was – probably flipped or something. ...

"Andre had employed a whole lot of people who really fought hard for Mary J. Blige to have a career back then. One of those people was Puffy. Our chemistry together really created the beginning of this whole big hip-hop soul thing that is happening right now. The way they dress. The way they speak. All of the songs they write. It all came from what Puff and I had put together."

And though she feels bad about leaving out her mentors, she tells us that this whole winning thing, it's still pretty fantastic. "I feel really good. Everything I could have won for I got ... (Plus) we just had dinner with Oprah."