We all heard about Kanye’s speech and Miley’s outfits, but the real star of the VMAs this year was Tori Kelly with her performance of “Should’ve Been Us”. Kelly is a 22-year-old up-and-coming artist from California who has collaborated with artists like Ed Sheeran, and she’s also our #WomanCrushWednesday this week.
Before Kelly got a record deal, she had a pretty popular YouTube channel that she started when she was 14. The cool part? She still posts to it. When Kelly was 16, she auditioned for American Idol. She was eventually eliminated and called annoying by Simon Cowell. What do you think of her now, Simon?
After independently writing, mixing, producing and releasing her first EP, titled Handmade Songs By Tori Kelly, Kelly was signed to Capitol Records. Her debut album Unbreakable Smile dropped in June of this year. Not only is she an extremely talented singer, she also plays several instruments including the guitar and the drums.
If you saw her VMA performance, you probably noticed that Kelly likes to focus on simplicity. Instead of hyping up her performances with lots of dancing and loud instrumentals, she likes to strip down her songs so you can really focus on the lyrics and the music itself.
So what’s she like outside of the music? Her favorite food is pizza and her favorite emoji is the heart eyes. She used to be really scared of falling off stage, but now she wants it to happen so she can face her fear. So basically, she’s really awesome.
Check out Tori’s VMA performance:
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