AceShowbiz -

Queen of Hip-Hop Soul Mary J. Blige is coming out with her first ever Christmas album and she's not taking any chances with it, getting multi-platinum-selling Christmas album producer David Foster for the exciting project. The Grammy Award-winning Foster was responsible for the hit holiday albums of such artists as Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Rod Stewart and Michael Buble and he's next going to work his magic on Mary J.

Aptly titled "A Mary Christmas", the said album is set to arrive in October, containing the diva's rendition of popular holiday classics. It will be released under Interscope Records, Blige's current label Matriarch and Verve Records headed by Foster.

Although this is only her first foray into a full-blown Christmas album, Blige has already worked on some holiday tunes in the past while collaborating with Bocelli in "What Child Is This?", with Stewart in "We Three Kings", and with Angie Martinez in "Christmas in the City". She is expected to breeze through the album with Foster as record producer, having already won 3 Producer of the Year awards from the Grammys.

Recently, Blige appeared as the featured artist on the final version of The-Dream's inspirational track "Divine". Last month, she performed a cover of "Come Together" with pop/dance diva Jennifer Lopez at the "Chime for Change Presents: The Sound of Change Live" charity concert at London's Twickenham Stadium.