Stronger with Each Tear

Stronger with Each Tear (stylized as STRONGER withEach Tear) is the ninth studio album from American R&B and soul singer Mary J. Blige. The album was released in the US on December 21, 2009, under Blige's own imprint, Matriarch Records.

Internationally it was released December 18, 2009, in Australia and Germany, December 21 in France, December 23 in Japan, and on February 2, 2010, in Korea with further international releases (in some cases re-releases) in March, April and May 2010. With this album, Blige achieved a record of nine albums to have debuted at the top of the US R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Background

Blige started working on her ninth album while she toured with Robin Thicke in 2008. In an interview with Rap-Up magazine she said:

The album was initially titled Stronger after the song, "Stronger" which Blige recorded and released as the lead single from the soundtrack Music Inspired by More Than a Game from the LeBron James' documentary More Than a Game. However Rap-Up later revealed that the album had been re-titled Stronger with Each Tear.

Hitomi

Hitomi Furuya (古谷 仁美, Furuya Hitomi, born January 26, 1976), known mononymously as hitomi, is a Japanese singer-songwriter. She began her career as model, but after meeting Tetsuya Komuro he began managing her career as a pop singer. In 1998 she left the "Komuro Family" and started working with other musicians and producers, oriented to other musical genres such as pop rock, and more recently to electropop.

Biography

Early life

Born Hitomi Furuya (古谷 仁美, Furuya Hitomi) in Tochigi, Japan, Hitomi's family relocated to Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture when she was a child. Consequently, Hitomi always identified herself as a girl from Kanagawa. hitomi was an enthusiastic athlete throughout her childhood, playing baseball, soccer, and basketball, as well as an avid reader of manga. When hitomi was 16 years old, she was spotted and approached by a scout from a modelling agency. Hitomi signed a short modelling contract and began appearing in magazines while she was still in high school.

In 1993, then 17 years old, Furuya was spotted by eminent Avex music producer Tetsuya Komuro at an audition. Komuro signed Furuya to Avex, put Furuya through vocal training, and decided that she should use an all-lowercase 'hitomi' as her stage name. The following year, in November 1994, hitomi released her debut single, "Let's Play Winter", through Avex Trax, to which she wrote the lyrics. Since then, Hitomi has been the lyricist for almost all of her songs.

I Am... Sasha Fierce

I Am... Sasha Fierce is the third studio album by American recording artist Beyoncé. It was released on November 15, 2008, by Music World Entertainment and Columbia Records. In its initial release, the album was formatted as a dual disc, intending to market Beyoncé's contrasting facets of artistry. The first disc, I Am..., contains slow and midtempo pop and R&B ballads, while the second, Sasha Fierce (named after Beyoncé's on-stage alter ego), focuses on more uptempo beats that blend electropop and Europop genres. In composing the songs' lyrics, Beyoncé worked with many writers, with each session accompanied by live orchestration.

Beyoncé credited both her husband, rapper Jay Z, and jazz singer Etta James for inspiring her to push the limits of her songwriting and artistry. Musically, I Am... drew inspiration from folk and alternative rock, while blending acoustic guitar elements into contemporary ballads. The tracks on the first disc were written and produced by Beyoncé, during collaborative efforts with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Terius "The-Dream" Nash and Ryan Tedder. Sasha Fierce boasted production from Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and Sean "The Pen" Garrett. The album received generally lukewarm reviews from critics, many of whom felt that it does not properly differentiate the double-discs' contrasts and goals.