Mary Mary found that Nationwide was indeed on their side.
In an interview with PEOPLE at the Music Saves LA event, the gospel duo — made up of Tina and Erica Campbell — opened up about watching Erica’s daughter, Zaya, 3, go viral on TikTok for singing part of the Nationwide Insurance anthem.
Tina, 49, said Mary Mary started singing the song herself during one of their shows four or five years ago.
“We did a gig and one of our band members did the whole Nationwide [theme song] as if it were a church song. We just called and acted crazy. Then Erica went home and played it for Zaya, and she sang it,” she recalled.
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Erica said she posted it on social media and it “resurfaced.”
“That was in 2017 and it came back six years later,” said Erica, 51. “Nationwide reached out and they’re really on our side.”
The “Walking” artists also detailed Tina’s upcoming solo single, which focuses on forgiveness and features the line “unforgiveness is a relationship.”
“I realize a lot of people know what I went through in my marriage and I had to forgive,” Tina said, referring to the cheating scandal with her husband Teddy Campbell. “But there is much more in life to forgive. You must forgive your children for breaking your good things.”
Erica noted that there are a lot of people in the music industry that the duo could “hold a grudge against”.
“You can stay mad at your husband for what he didn’t do at your kid’s birthday party when he was 5. Like, there are so many things to forgive your business managers, other managers,” she said.
Erica added, “Some people are angry at God because their lives didn’t go the way they wanted, so the topic of forgiveness to me equals freedom. It equals release. It’s not even about the other person.”
Erica Campbell and Tina Campbell of Mary Mary.
Marcus Ingram/Getty
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Tina said that although not everything is “OK”, “everything is forgivable”, which translates to the song
“I don’t think anyone should be relentless because it leaves you in slavery, and I just want to live, so I’m singing about it again,” Tina concluded.
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Mary Mary released their last album Go get it — a compilation of their greatest hits — 2012.
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Source: HIS Education