Mary J. Blige Brings the Breakthrough Tour to BankAtlantic Center

Mary J. Blige plays BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise on Saturday night, the South Florida stop on the Breakthrough Experience Tour built around her 2005 album "The Breakthrough." The album, released last December, has spent multiple weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 this year and produced the singles "Be Without You" and "Enough Cryin'," both of which are still in current rotation on South Florida R&B radio.

Blige is one of two co-headliners on this leg of the tour. The bill rotates between Blige and LL Cool J as the closer at different stops, with Jaheim added as a supporting act for several dates including the Sunrise show. Blige's set is built around the Breakthrough material — "Be Without You," "Enough Cryin'," "Take Me As I Am," "Baggage" — pulled in with older catalog favorites including "Family Affair," "Real Love" and "No More Drama," the title track from her 2001 album.

The Sunrise stop is one of the higher-profile R&B shows the arena has hosted this year. BankAtlantic Center has spent the summer mostly dark between Florida Panthers seasons, with the building leaned on for one-off concerts and occasional family shows. The Saturday show is being promoted in concert with WEDR-FM, the long-running Miami R&B station that has been running ticket giveaways for the past month.

Broward County is one of Blige's long-standing markets. Her South Florida audience has followed the catalog through the Yonkers-rooted hip-hop soul of "What's the 411?" in 1992 and the more pop-leaning material on the recent album, and Saturday's ticket buyers skew across that range. Tickets remained available in the upper bowl as of Friday afternoon, with the floor and lower-bowl sections sold out for weeks.

The tour continues with dates through the late summer before winding down in early fall. The next stop after Sunrise is Atlanta.