Sisters and gospel duo Mary Mary premiered in the District what will be the last season of their hit reality show, leaving longtime supporters to wonder why they would call it quits.
Tina and Erica Campbell spoke candidly to the hundreds of fans who attended the season six premiere of their eponymous WE tv show on Wednesday, Sept. 27 at the Howard Theatre in Northwest.
“It’s time to move on,” Erica said. “Look at it this way, when Oprah was just the host for the news, if she never would have quit to start her show, we never would’ve had the Oprah we have today. If she didn’t leave her successful show, we would never have OWN.
“At each stage there is always somebody who’s like, ‘But this was so great, why would you [leave]?’ But you have to keep growing and allowing God to teach you things and pour into you,” she said.
The sisters said that with all that they are going through as musicians, mothers and wives, they have a responsibility to say yes to God.
“It would start to get very uninteresting if we had to create a show to try to be who the people met when we signed up,” Tina said. “We are not those same girls. I am not that same Tina. I don’t actually approve of the Tina that I was when I started doing the TV show. I don’t kick it with people like her. I was thrown off, but I’ve changed.
“I’m not trying to be that, but that’s what people are accustomed to, so now if you’re a part of the same show, sometimes you find yourself fighting to be not hostage to who you were, and we love y’all, but I will not hostage to who y’all think I’m supposed to be,” she said. “I have to be who I am, so I don’t go crazy and do something crazy [and] then y’all don’t like me anyway.”
Erica, who is married to the group’s producer Warryn Campbell, addressed the rumors of the duo splitting up.
“Mary Mary is not over, so let’s get that out the way,” she said. “The same way you see Bishop Jakes have a church, and a movie and a book, and a conference [that] goes all over the whole world, it’s possible. I know we see men do it all the time, but when women do it it’s always kind of baffling.
“God has given us great things to do, and when he gives you a vision he will also give you the provision,” she said. “I believe I can be a solo artist, in Mary Mary, do ‘Get Up Mornings’ radio show, be happy in my marriage and my children be happy, too.”
While the sisters couldn’t confirm whether a new Mary Mary album is on the horizon, they insist that their relationship isn’t as fractured as the show suggests.
“Ain’t no animosity here, ain’t no competition here, the marriages are great, the family is great,” Tina said. “We laugh, we kick it, we’re each others friends and supporters, but there are conflicting moments and the show prefers to show you guys those conflicting moments, but that’s not the sum of our life. We got to be true to who we are. I’m not going to live a lie.”