Mary Mary Officially Taking A Break?
Mary Mary, the Grammy Award-winning gospel music duo, recently admitted that Erica Atkins-Campbell, one half of the group, is going solo.
While Erica has recently admitted that she is going to release some music without her sister and group member Tina Atkins-Campbell, the singer recently told Essence magazine that the sisters plan to reconnect for future projects.
"I will say this, we are not breaking up," Erica told Essence. "But we're taking a break. I'm going to do some solo music. Tina's going to vacation and travel the world."
The Mary Mary member explained that as biological sisters and group mates, the pair has been constantly connected to one another. Now, the duo is ready to take a break from one another.
"We've been joined at the hip the last 12 years and I think in order for us both to be our healthiest selves, just as women, in the group, [we will] take some time to think and re-assess," Erica told Essence. "We've been going constantly year after year, baby after baby, tour after tour and now season after season on TV."
Erica also told Essence that both of them plan to reconnect with God during their time a part.
"We're singing about Christ, we're singing about God," Erica said. "I can't sing about God and I'm not taking the time to talk to God."
Last year, the group called in to Gospel Talk radio online to speak about the challenges of maintaining their life as a group while having individual families.
"It is very challenging having two very filled lives that are individual lives," Tina told Gospel Talk. "We don't have a life of Mary Mary we have a life of Erica and Tina and our husbands and our homes and they're very different. So it can be very challenging trying to maintain one unit that's like a marriage when we're already married at home. So it's hard."
However, Tina told Essence that there may be a few benefits to taking a break from the group.
"Just when she's making a decision on her own, without having to consider me, it's less time, it's less energy, it's less work, it's less emails," Tina told Essence.
For now, both of the group members appear on their WE TV reality television show, "Mary Mary," Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.