"Shackles " is the debut single by American gospel singer-songwriter duo Mary Mary, released in 2000. It is considered the group's signature song. Stan North of GospelFlava.com deemed it one of the pioneer songs of urban gospel music. The song was originally recorded and released in December 1999 upon Mary Mary's signing with Columbia Records and was re-released one month later as a promotional single for their upcoming debut album, Thankful. They both feature the same track listing but different album covers, the second using a picture of the duo. "Shackles" became a top-ten hit in several countries around the world, including Australia, Denmark, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom, and it charted well in other major music markets. Mary Mary later shot a music video for the song. The song contains a sample of Dennis Edwards' 1984 R&B hit song "Don't Look Any Further". A sample of this song then featured on Stormzy’s song titled "Rainfall", which was a part of his 2019 album Heavy Is the Head.
Crossover success
"Shackles " became a crossover hit, being popular with gospel, R&B, and pop audiences. It was a top 10 R&B and top 40 pop hit, and peaked at number 28 on the BillboardHot 100 chart. It became the first gospel song in five years to crack the R&B top ten and gained wide exposure on the MTV video cable channel. In addition, "Shackles" was one of the fewgospel songs to receive significant airplay on many CCM stations and appeared on many compilation CDs. It was also a worldwide hit and reached number five in the United Kingdom and number 17 in Ireland. Across mainland Europe, the song was a top 10 hit Belgium, the Netherlands, and Norway. It also charted strongly in France, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland, peaking within the top 20. In Australia, the song reached number two in September 2000, behind Madonna's Music, and was the highest-selling song of the year that didn't reach the number-one spot, coming in at number 10 on Australia's year-end chart for 2000.
Criticism
Like many contemporary gospel songs, "Shackles" was not without its criticism; many cited the song as being too modern and not staying true to its gospel roots. Mary Mary responded by saying, "It's definitely contemporary. It's music that everybody in any style of music can relate to. It's universal, but the lyrics are undeniably Gospel."
In 2007 Mandisa covered "Shackles " on her debut album True Beauty. Mandisa first performed the song during her time on "American Idol". Mandisa included a remix version of "Shackles " on her 2014 album "Get Up: The Remixes".
