Biography
Bringing warmth and uplift to devotional sounds, Trecina “Tina” Atkins-Campbell has built a career as a gospel performer, reality-television personality, and best-selling writer. After more than ten years as one half of Mary Mary—alongside her sister Erica—she claimed the top slot on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart with her first solo release, the 2015 project It’s Personal. Its 2017 successor, It’s Still Personal, also reached the gospel Top Ten. While she maintained an active touring schedule, her first original recordings in seven years surfaced in 2024 with the single “Pray for Me,” setting the stage for the third solo album, Testify.
Raised in California, she was first recognized simply as Tina Atkins when she and Erica Atkins-Campbell—each of whom married a man named Campbell—formed Mary Mary in 1998. The act soon secured four straight number-one gospel albums on Billboard: Thankful in 2000, Incredible in 2002, the self-titled Mary Mary in 2005, and The Sound in 2008. Their concluding studio effort, Something Big, arrived in 2011 and peaked at number two on the gospel tally, while the final three of those releases also entered the Billboard 200 Top Ten. The sisters additionally issued books, among them Transparent in 2003, before unveiling the reality series Mary Mary in 2012.
Campbell stepped out on her own in 2015, issuing both the memoir I Need a Day to Pray and the album It’s Personal, which led the gospel chart and reached number 90 on the Billboard 200. Propelled by the track “Too Hard Not To,” she returned to the gospel Top Ten in 2017 with It’s Still Personal. In the years that followed she kept performing, and Mary Mary appeared at select concerts, among them a 2022 collaboration with the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles during Super Bowl LVI festivities. That same year she issued a live rendition of “Thank You Lord,” and in March 2024 she unveiled her first new original song in seven years, “Pray for Me,” which introduced the forthcoming studio album Testify.
Raised in California, she was first recognized simply as Tina Atkins when she and Erica Atkins-Campbell—each of whom married a man named Campbell—formed Mary Mary in 1998. The act soon secured four straight number-one gospel albums on Billboard: Thankful in 2000, Incredible in 2002, the self-titled Mary Mary in 2005, and The Sound in 2008. Their concluding studio effort, Something Big, arrived in 2011 and peaked at number two on the gospel tally, while the final three of those releases also entered the Billboard 200 Top Ten. The sisters additionally issued books, among them Transparent in 2003, before unveiling the reality series Mary Mary in 2012.
Campbell stepped out on her own in 2015, issuing both the memoir I Need a Day to Pray and the album It’s Personal, which led the gospel chart and reached number 90 on the Billboard 200. Propelled by the track “Too Hard Not To,” she returned to the gospel Top Ten in 2017 with It’s Still Personal. In the years that followed she kept performing, and Mary Mary appeared at select concerts, among them a 2022 collaboration with the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles during Super Bowl LVI festivities. That same year she issued a live rendition of “Thank You Lord,” and in March 2024 she unveiled her first new original song in seven years, “Pray for Me,” which introduced the forthcoming studio album Testify.
Albums
