Tina and Erica Campbell (a.k.a. Mary Mary) had a day filled with schedules, interviews, family and music when they met with this journalist to talk about their latest CD MARY MARY: “Something Big.” The duo is taking their music to Lehman Center of the Performing Arts in the Bronx at 7:00 p.m., on October 9th where they will share the stage with the Grammy winning Gospel Group Jubilation who won in 2010 for Best Traditional Gospel Album for Oh Happy Day. Performers of contemporary gospel, Mary Mary will blend their form of gospel with the traditional gospel sound of Jubilation whom they worked with previously when Queen Latifah appeared on stage with both groups during a performance in Brooklyn.
“Our father was a minister and my mother was a piano player who led the choir. We grew up in the church where we engaged in a lot of relevant activities. We were in the Kids Choir, the Youth Choir, High School Choir and later sang in the College Choir. In fact, our family sang together. We are a large family of 9 siblings, so sometimes it felt like our entire family was the choir” shared both Tina and Erica who are 3-time Grammy Award winners, 2-time American Music Award winners, a NAACP Image Award and BET Award winners.
Songwriters, Mary and Tina wrote many of the songs on their “Something Big” album. Starting off touring with several gospel groups and performing in gospel stage plays, they started doing backup singing. The duo sang with Brian McKnight and toured with Eric Benet for a while. “We learned a lot about the business, stage and crew while working with these singers and groups. It was a great teaching lesson for us,” said Erica who was Brandi’s backup singer for a short time. “We write many of our own songs. Our process is very organic. In fact, we were inspired to write several of the songs on our new album “Something Big.” When we sit down to write and pick up a pen and paper, we do not force it. We do not start thinking about what is playing on the radio or what do the labels want or what’s new in music. That might mess up our natural flow. In fact, we decided to pray and the idea of doing something big came to us. After all, God is Big and we should all want to live big, love big and do big things. We ended up writing and recording our song in 30 minutes and well “Something Big” came out of it,” said Tina.
Erica and Tina are asking fans to do something big for others as part of their “Something Big Campaign.” They are asking folks not to just listen to or dance to their music, but rather to give of their ideas, time, resources and monies in order to help their communities and ultimately the world. They encourage youth to help the elderly and discover where the Church can work positively in their lives.
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article courtesy of Eurweb.com
