America's #1 Gospel Group Mary Mary Invited to Open Final Three Shows on Maxwell's North American Summer Concert Tour

America's #1 Gospel Group Mary Mary Invited to Open Final Three Shows on Maxwell's North American Summer Concert Tour

Chart-Topping Duo Opening For Maxwell in Jacksonville (8/2), Charleston (8/3)

& Durham (8/5)

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Who: America's #1 gospel artists Mary Mary
What: Three major summer event concerts opening for Maxwell
Where: Jacksonville, FL; Charleston, SC; Durham, NC
When: August, 2, August 3 and August 5

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In what promises to be one of the year's most talked-about concert events, America's #1 gospel artists Mary Mary have been invited to open the last three summer shows on contemporary soul superstar Maxwell's current North American concert tour.

Mary Mary will open for their Columbia Records labelmate Maxwell in Jacksonville, Florida (Moran Theatre, August 2); Charleston, South Carolina (North Charleston PAC, August 3) and Durham, North Carolina (Durham Performing Arts Center, August 5).

According to Billboard, the Grammy Award winning duo Mary Mary recently held down both the nation's #1 Gospel Song ("God In Me") and #1 Gospel Album (The Sound) positions while Maxwell enjoyed the best overall sales week of his career when his latest album, BLACKsummers'night, entered the Billboard 200 top-selling albums chart at #1, with first week's sales totaling more than 300K.

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Mary Mary/Maxwell BLACKsummers'night Tour

Date City/State Venue
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8/02/09 Jacksonville, FL Moran Theatre
8/03/09 Charleston, SC North Charleston PAC
8/05/09 Durham, NC Durham Performing Arts Center

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Mary Mary's The Sound has occupied the #1 slot on the Billboard Gospel Album chart for more than six months since its release in October 2008 and has been #1 for 15 consecutive weeks beginning April 19. The Sound has also spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard Top Christian Albums chart.

Featuring Kierra "Kiki" Sheard, "God In Me," the latest single from The Sound, is perhaps the first gospel record to deploy an auto-tune, a continuation of Mary Mary's visionary blending of urban, hip-hop, soul, funk and pop elements with the power and conviction of their Christian message

2009 is shaping up as a banner year for Mary Mary, named Best Gospel Artist at the 2009 BET Awards, where they performed "God In Me" with guest artist Queen Latifah. "Get Up," the lead single from The Sound, earned the duo 2009's Best Gospel Performance Grammy (their second overall) and a 2009 Dove Award (the pair's seventh to-date) for Urban Recorded Song of the Year. Mary Mary also took this year's NAACP Image Award for Best Gospel Artist (Traditional or Contemporary).

Heralded as "Praiseworthy" by People magazine, The Sound peaked at #1 on a variety of Billboard Christian and Gospel albums charts shortly after its release in October 2008. The Sound entered the Billboard Top 200 at #7, giving Mary Mary their highest

charting -- and second Top 10 -- album on that chart (2005's Mary Mary peaked at #8 on the Top 200). Mary Mary and The Sound achieved one of the highest chart debuts on the Top 200 of any gospel album released in 2008.

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For more information, please contact:

Andre Morris / andre.morris@sonymusic.com
Columbia Records
212-833-5072
212-833-8536 (fax)

Yvette Noel-Schure / yvette.noel-schure@sonymusic.com
Columbia Records
212-833-4483

www.mary-mary.com
www.columbiarecords.com

/PRNewswire -- Aug. 2/

Source: Columbia Records

Web Site: http://www.columbiarecords.com/

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