“Be Without You” was the lead single for Blige’s seventh album, The Breakthrough. It has been her biggest hit to date. The song became her fifth Billboard R&B chart topper. Its 15 weeks at the summit made the song the chart’s biggest hit in nearly 60 years. The last song to spend more weeks at #1 was Louis Jordan’s “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” with 17 weeks in 1947. With a massive 75 weeks on the R&B chart, “Without You” also became the champion for most weeks total. WK
The song also garnered Blige some Grammy gold. It won for Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and was also nominated for Record and Song of the Year. The Breakthough also won a Grammy for Best R&B Album.
The video for “Be Without You” landed Blige yet another award when she scooped up Video of the Year at the 2006 BET Awards. SF The video featured Oscar-nominated actor Terrence Howard as her boyfriend.
As for the song itself, it explores a relationship in which the couple isn’t sure if they should stay together. Blige encourages them to appreciate what they have. SF LaShonda Barnett, author of I Got Thunder: Black Women Songwriters and Their Craft, wrote that the “authenticity, the emotional honesty and the vulnerability Blige reveals in her music” SF via songs like “Without You” have much to do with many people calling Blige “our generation’s Aretha Franklin.” SF
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