For Mary J. Blige, performing at last year’s Super Bowl halftime show souped up her already legendary career to new heights.
“It was a straight peak,” Blige — rocking a green-and-white Versace catsuit — told The Post at Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club in Manhattan.
“The Super Bowl just took me to another level, you know, where people that I never thought would be looking at me are watching me. The whole world was watching. So it’s just a whole ’nother level, a whole ’nother experience right now.”
Indeed, at 52, Blige is having a midlife moment: After slaying the stage at last month’s Grammys — where her latest LP, 2022’s “Good Morning Gorgeous,” was up for Album of the Year — now she’s busting a TV takeover with her new BET show “The Wine Down,” debuting Wednesday, and then the third season of “Power Book II: Ghost,” premiering March 17 on Starz.
“The Wine Down” — on which Blige chats with celebrities such as 50 Cent and Taraji P. Henson over a glass (or two) of vino — was inspired during the pandemic shutdown.
“The thought about it came to me when COVID first hit, and we were in that quarantine,” said Blige.
“And I was just thinking about how many people needed someone to reach out to them … letting us know that we were not alone.”
Viewers will get to have an intimate audience with the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul. “This is who I am to my friends, this is who I am to the people I love and respect,” she said.
But Blige — who notoriously didn’t like to do interviews early in her career (“I still don’t,” she said) — makes clear that “The Wine Down” isn’t a talk show.
“I don’t have an audience,” said Blige, sipping a glass of rosé from her Sun Goddess wine line that she will be drinking on the series.
“It’s a conversation where I’m steering the questions, but everybody gets a chance to steer the questions back to me.”
Later this month, Blige will resume her role as drug queenpin Monet Tejada on “Power Book II.”
And she recently wrapped the film “Rob Peace,” a real-life drama directed by and co-starring “12 Years a Slave” actor Chiwetel Ejiofor.
And there’s no doubt about who Blige — a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for 2017’s “Mudbound” — will be rooting for at this year’s Academy Awards on March 12. “Angela Bassett,” she said of the Best Supporting Actress nominee for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
“It’s gonna be a riot if she doesn’t win.”
The Yonkers native also has real love for Rihanna, who performed at last month’s Super Bowl halftime show.
“I think that what she did on her own was amazing,” said Blige. “And she revealed to us one of the most precious things in the world: another life.”
Beyond the Super Bowl, Blige also has another special connection to mama-to-be RiRi: The “No More Drama” diva was offered “Umbrella” before Rihanna turned it into her first No. 1 smash in 2007.
But she has no regrets about passing on it.
“It wasn’t for me — it was for her,” she said.
No doubt, Blige couldn’t fake the funk on “Umbrella” — and it’s that kind of from-the-gut grittiness that has helped her maintain a very personal relationship with her fans since her groundbreaking debut, 1992’s “What’s the 411?”
“They feel like they know me because I am them,” she said.
“I’m a human being that has gone through hell — emotional, physical, mental, whatever … But I’ve also come out on the other side and experienced what heaven is as well.”
