Mary J. Blige Says She’s Going to Retire from Music in '5 or 6 Years'

Mary J. Blige is sharing her retirement plans.

The R&B icon, 53, revealed in a new interview published on April 29 that she is looking to retire from the music industry in “five or six years."

“Right now, I’m definitely gonna do some more acting and I’m definitely gonna retire in, like, five or six years,” Blige, who has had roles in The Umbrella Academy and Scream: Resurrection, told Extra. “Right now, I’m still doing what I’m doing but not as often as I was doing it because I don’t have to now.”

When it comes to the music she is currently making, Blige said she is “singing about life ... love … being stable and understanding you can have things like love. You can have a good life.”

“Mostly the love I have for myself,” she told Extra. “... My real love is me and I found it.”

But while the singer may be looking to the end of her hugely successful music career, which has spanned over three decades, her achievements have still been coming thick and fast, including her induction into the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Blige was announced as an inductee, along with Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & the Gang, Ozzy Osbourne and A Tribe Called Quest, on American Idol on April 21.

Sharing her reaction to the news, Blige said she is “still trying to process everything.”

The “Just Fine” singer added to Extra that being honored this way is “the most amazing thing … -

Global Screen Boards Supernatural Surviv,...

it is in a class by itself.” Blige will also perform at the ceremony, which is set to take place on Oct. 19 in Cleveland. 

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Earlier this month, Blige spoke to PEOPLE about her third annual Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit, which will be held in her hometown of New York City from May 10-12 for Mother’s Day weekend.

The three-day festival is the only one presented by an all-Black team of women and will see a host of celebrities making appearances at various events — including the Strength of a Woman Summit at The Glasshouse and other uplifting workshops and programming.

“It's been amazing and exciting and just so fulfilling to do what I always wanted to do, continue to give people a piece of me, uplift us, inspire us and elevate us — the same way I've been doing through my music, I'm doing it through my festival now — and of course, entertain us as well," Blige told PEOPLE. "It feels really good ... It means so much to bring it home.”

During the interview, Blige also teased that the album she is currently working could be her last.

"I love it, I enjoy it, and it might be the last studio album. It might be," she told PEOPLE.

Related Articles

Follow Us

What the Pentagon Has Learned? Are UFOs ,...