Mary Mary at MOBS 2

In 2000, sisters Erica and Tina Campbell earned immediate respect and success with Mary Mary’s platinum debut album, Thankful. The joyful dancefloor-filling hit single “Shackles” put them at the top of the charts across the world and then the girls followed it up with the 2002’s Incredible album. After a short break, Mary Mary returned with the brilliant, self-titled third album, packed with uplifting lyrics, distinctive vocals and unforgettable songs. Some things have changed for Mary Mary in recent years. Erica and Tina have each started families. As Erica explains: “We’ve been focusing on having babies and staying home with our husbands and family. We’ve been enjoying life. You gotta take time for family.” Tina jokes: “We’re a lot sleepier now!”

She laughs and continues: “We have to change the way we work. The Dixie Chicks have seven kids under four among the three of them. We think we can do it with one child each if they can do it with seven! My mama juggled nine kids with being a choir director. If they can handle it, we can surely handle it with one each.” The second thing that’s changed is that Erica and Tina are more confident about their music

Tina shares, “Sometimes when you first come out, you don’t really know who you are as artistes and musically, you haven’t really found your niche. This time around we’re so comfortable being Mary Mary and I feel like we’ve grown as women and ministers. ‘Shackles’ was great! It opened a bunch of doors for us and I’m grateful for that but you can never do your beginning again.

“We can’t make the record again and you can’t redo what you’ve already done. Obviously we want to make more songs that impact people but God is a God of the present and he’s doing great things today so we don’t like to live in the past.” You’d think that when they were having a worldwide smash like “Shackles,” they couldn’t get more confident but Erica disagrees.

“Confidence doesn’t come with a successful hit,” she says. “Think of the millions of people who sell millions of records and then kill themselves. Or the millions of people who travel the world and make loads of money and then they’re depressed or take drugs to alter their current state because they’re not happy. We’re so content with who we are, both our flaws and our strengths.” Tina agrees. “The place where I am right now is definitely a better place.”

One listen to Mary Mary and you’ll immediately see that Erica and Tina are spreading their wings musically, embracing new influences and stretching the boundaries, so there are plenty of surprises. The sound of 1930s big band music underpins “The Biggest Greatest Thing,” an idea suggested by Warryn Campbell, Mary Mary’s producer (and Erica’s husband). For Tina, recording the track was quite a stretch!

As she remembers, “I was listening to Ella Fitzgerald before we recorded it and I thought I couldn’t do it because I’m not Ella Fitzgerald but it came out really well.” Erica adds, “In the end the harmonies sound like the Andrews Sisters. We’re very proud of the song because it was foreign to us. You have to challenge yourself and not always do what’s comfortable for you. With the big band, we were just trying a few things out!” Move over Andrews Sisters, here come the Campbell Sisters!

They often draw on personal experiences for inspiration and this comes through most powerfully on the song, “I’m A Believer.” Erica is unashamed about her faith. “We’re not asking questions,” she says. “We’re letting people know it’s the real deal. ‘I’m A Believer’ is straight about our testimonies. We had a fire at Christmas time and it was right in front of my mom’s room and my four little sisters’ room. Had we stayed at the house, there is no way they could have got through the fire because we had bars on the windows. But for some reason my mother decided that something wasn’t right and they went and stayed at my aunt’s house. At three o’clock in the morning, the police phoned to tell us that the house was on fire.” Tina tells her story. “The song talks about me having a car accident eight years ago when my car flipped upside down,” she says. “My car got totally destroyed. The roof caved in and all the windows busted out. But there was no glass on me! No scratches and no scars. There were no pains and no whiplash! The car was totalled and I was facing traffic but guess what? I ended up on the island. My car was flipped up in the air and I didn’t end up in the traffic. That’s nothing but God. You ask me why I believe? Because God saved my life!”