Tori Kelly on Her Rise to Fame and the Importance of Following Your Passion
Singer Tori Kelly talks about her new tour, becoming confident on stage, and having curly hair. (Photo: Capitol Music Group)
Tori Kelly’s rise to fame might seem like an overnight success, but her career has actually been 10 years in the making. The California native, who performed at this year’s Billboard Music Awards, the MTV VMAs, and most recently the iHeart Radio Festival in September, got her start performing on shows like America’s Most Talented Kids (she won in 2004 at age 11) and on American Idol (she was eliminated before the Hollywood round on Season 9). These early experiences taught her a lot about confidence. “I was really shy and really nervous growing up when it came to performing,” Kelly tells Yahoo Beauty. “I knew that I loved performing, but getting on stage was really hard for me.” By putting herself into these uncomfortable situations, she learned how to perform and feel like herself while on stage.
Kelly wisely turned to YouTube as a way of reaching the masses and quickly created a community of online fans. When her cover of Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You” went viral in 2012, (it has over 23 million views), she was back on the music industry’s radar. “I really credit everything to the fans because they’re the ones who discovered me on YouTube and pushed everything out there,” says the artist.
Nowadays, Kelly is becoming a household name. Her soulful voice packs serious power, so it’s no surprise her songs have been nabbing top spots on the charts and selling out shows. This fall, she’s on tour promoting her debut album, Unbreakable Smile, which landed the #1 spot on the iTunes charts in the US, Canada, and New Zealand.
For fans of her covers, Kelly says she plans on playing some during the new tour. “If I really love a song, I’ll send it to my band and they’ll learn it and they’ll do it. I think that is what’s fun about tours — you don’t have to keep every show the same, we can kind of do whatever we want.”
If Kelly seems confident in her career, that’s likely because she never thought twice about pursuing music, her true passion. “I never had a plan B, even in kindergarten when they would ask what you want to be when you grow up — everyone would giggle but I would always say singer,” she says. “It felt like it was just in my veins. I had to do it.” Today, her sound is a mix of soulful R&B and infectious pop, which she credits back to the music she listened to growing up. “There’s one singer, Crystal Lewis, who on a technical level, her voice is just so spot on,” says Kelly. When I was three years old I was trying to mimic her.” She was also attracted to the sounds of Maxwell, Jill Scott, and Stevie Wonder as well as songwriters like India Arie, John Mayer, and Jeff Buckley. “I think the soulfulness is the common thread — that makes everything make sense.”
Tori Kelly is on tour for her debut album, Unbreakable Smile. (Photo: Capitol Music Group)
Her newest album, Unbreakable Smile, includes collaborations with Ed Sheeran, LL Cool J, and Daye Jacke, and also gave Kelly the opportunity to work with writers and producers, like Max Martin, who she looked up to. “I already had two EPs in my belt that I produced on my own,” says Kelly. “I really wanted to be a part of it. It would have felt weird to not have a hand in everything — the arranging, the production.” The album’s title track is the one Kelly feels best captures her sound and story. It was the first one she wrote for the album, and she calls it a “breakthrough” for her personally and for her songwriting.
Of course, we can’t talk about Kelly without also acknowledging her wild (and perfect) curls. She credits her mother, who also has curly hair, with teaching her how to tame her tresses over the years. Her go-to products include Ouidad’s Climate Control Heat and Humidity Gel and the brand’s Moisture Lock Leave-In Conditioner. While many curly haired girls out there are wishing for straight locks (so many that Dove even created a campaign around it), Kelly isn’t one of them. “It takes way too long [to straighten] and I just feel like a different person. I feel weird with it straight,” she says. “But you never know. Maybe one day I’ll bust it out straight and creep people out.”
As someone who has been pursuing her passion for her entire life, Kelly’s parting words of wisdom for those hoping to do the same thing is simple: Don’t compare yourself to others. “Stay focused on your own thing and know what you’re good at. Stay nice — that goes a long way.”
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