On the Verge: Fall in 'Love' with Tori Kelly
This week in On the Verge, USA TODAY's spotlight on breakthrough artists, Patrick Ryan talks to singer/songwriter Tori Kelly.
From Nobody to somebody: When she was just 16, Kelly grinned and bore the scathing criticism of Simon Cowell, who called her voice "almost annoying" in her American Idol Season 9 audition. Although she was swiftly cut in the judges' rounds before voting started, Kelly has had the last laugh: She went viral in 2012 with her cover of Frank Ocean's Thinkin Bout You (22 million views on YouTube); got scooped up by manager Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen); and opened shows for Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran. Now, at 22, she's riding the sunny vibes of her Max Martin-produced first single Nobody Love (No. 20 on USA TODAY's Top 40 airplay chart), which she'll perform on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Monday.
Car-ride singalongs: The curly-haired Southern California native remembers singing along to gospel artist Crystal Lewis as early as 3 years old in the backseat of her parents' car. "There's this one part in the song where she holds out this really long note and I couldn't get it, I was so mad," Kelly says. "My dad really patiently started teaching me the technical stuff, about using your diaphragm and weird things like that, and I was so excited. That was the first time I really challenged myself vocally."
Post-Idol ambition: Kelly participated in singing competitions throughout her childhood and teens, before deciding to take on Idol in 2010. After Cowell's snide dismissal and later getting the ax, "it really put a fire under me," Kelly says. Having already put a few covers up on YouTube, she "started posting full force, like, 'I'm going to take the reins and really do this.' " Two years later, Braun saw her cover of Thinkin Bout You online and came to one of her shows. She has since put out two EPs: the independently released Handmade Songs in 2012, and Foreword on Capitol Records in 2013, which debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Teasing the world: For Kelly, those two EPs were merely training wheels for her debut album, expected out this summer. "I'm thankful for them, because there wasn't a lot of pressure to really define who I was. It was cool that I got to tease the world with those EPs and figure out what kind of music I want to put out there. Now, I can really take the stuff that I love and mush it all together into an album I'm proud of."
Obvious first single: On Nobody Love, Kelly is unabashedly poppy without sidelining the powerful, lilting voice that sets her apart. She wrote the album over a year and a half, but was unable to find a single. That all changed when certifiable hitmaker Martin (Taylor Swift, Katy Perry) lent his Midas touch in the studio.
"For me, this song was needed on my album, because I tend to go really deep with my lyrics, but I also love really catchy, lighthearted pop songs," Kelly says. "It talks about how this generation, we're constantly searching for that next thing and moving on from different things, different people, and nothing's ever good enough. So in this song, I kind of wanted to (sing) about that type of love. You don't have to search for anything else and you just feel really secure in that love."