Last summer I found her. Tori. Kelly.
If you haven't heard of Tori Kelly or haven't heard any of her songs, I need to you to pause before you read anymore and go listen to these five songs:
-Unbreakable Smile
-Dear No One
-Confetti
-Hollow
-Something Beautiful
Bonus: Nobody Love
I'll wait for you to listen to those.
Wasn't that such a great experience? Yes. Yes it was.
I had tried to find my Taylor Swift before. I would find artists that I liked and listen to them frequently for a week or so, but then I would move on and be okay. I happened upon Tori by accident, and I still haven't moved on.
The iHeart Radio station has this thing called, "the Next Big Thing," a contest for up-and-coming artists. Tori won last year, and it was around this time that they played her song Nobody Love on the radio. I remember hearing it the first few times and being, "whatever," about it. But then one day I really sat and listened to it. I listened to the music and the lyrics, and when it got to the final part with those great chords that just make you want to jam out, I got to thinking, "you know, this is a great song." But I didn't do anything past that.
Then in early May I was watching the Billboard Awards on tv. Tori won the chance to play at the awards ceremony. There she was out on a stage in the middle of the crowd, just her and a guitar, and she played a gorgeous acoustic version of Nobody Love. I was in awe.
After that I looked up Tori Kelly and found her first album, Handmade Songs by Tori Kelly. I found out that handmade means actually handmade. Tori wrote the lyrics, wrote the music, recorded the songs, engineered the songs, and produced the songs all from her bedroom. What a boss. I listened to the CD and decided I liked Tori Kelly. She was cool.
I was driving home about a month later and remembered that Tori's new CD was in stores. I stopped by Target and bought the CD (yay for Target because I got the two bonus tracks). I popped the CD in my car and started listening. The first track is a short acoustic opener. Beautiful. Then the first full song came on, Unbreakable Smile. I distinctly remember what road I was driving down as I listened to it for the first time. I was jamming along, and then it got to these lyrics, "maybe one day I can sell out shows without taking off my clothes. God made me sexy, I don't care if only I know," and I let out a big, "YES!!" and jumped on the Tori Kelly train right then and there. From that moment she became my Taylor Swift.
I listened to that entire CD, and then I listened to it again. And again. And again. I'm pretty sure it was early August before I switched to other music in my car. It was always Tori Kelly for over a month. And really I only switched music because I didn't want to get sick of Tori. I could have kept going.
To this day, over seven months later, if you get in my car, at least 70% of the time Tori Kelly will be playing.
Not only does Tori Kelly have the voice of an angel, but she also believes in and chases after the King of all angels. Her twitter is full of Bible verse references. Her interviews mention her strong faith. One of her latest songs, Hollow, is about her relationship with God (check out this link here). Her lyrics are clean and friendly to ears of all ages. That's a great thing to hear in the world of today's music. So if you find your 13, 25, 40, or 60 year old daughter, wife, friend, etc, wants to listen to Tori Kelly, encourage it.
Whenever I've had a rough day, I always turn on Tori. I'll turn on Nobody Love, crank up the volume, and car dance like nobody's watching. It always makes me feel better.
Tori was featured in the February issue of Seventeen Magazine. They released two different covers, and I made it my mission to find them both. Luckily I found them both without much struggling. I took both covers and got artsy, and now I have these lovely wall decorations.
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| Seventeen Magazine covers |
I've yet to see her in concert. She came close enough to me two times last semester, but I had unavoidable conflicts both times. Boo. She'll be close enough three more times this semester, but once again, unavoidable conflicts will cause issues (darn you school). But that's okay. Each time I miss out just makes the day I finally see Tori Kelly live even better.
Until that day I'll keep jamming in the car, during homework, and during many free moments of the day. Her music has yet to get old.
Until next time
Mo
P.S. If anyone wants to get me tickets to see Tori Kelly or even (gasp) meet her, I definitely would not be opposed.
