Tori Kelly, just 22-years-old, dropped a bomb on us last night during her VMA performance of her hit song “Should’ve Been Us.”
You may not know who Kelly is right now, but after last night, it’ll be no surprise when she sings her way into everyone’s hearts.
Appearing on a near-dark stage in a gold jumpsuit, with her wild blonde mane silhouetted against the backdrop, Tori started her song with a guitar in her hands and a soulful riff that made it clear she was about to blow the performance out of the water. Soon, Kelly was rocking out, having thrown the guitar off the stage to a screaming audience that cheered her on.
Tori seemed to have come out of nowhere to some people, but that’s not actually the case. A long-time YouTube sensation, Kelly released her debut album Unbreakable Smile earlier this year. The album is currently No. 48 in this week’s Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.
After Tori released her album, she teamed up with Meghan Trainor and Ed Sheeran for some collaborations, as reported by the Inquisitr . Kelly sang Trainor’s song “All About that Base” with her on stage. Tori also collaborated with Sheeran for the song “I Was Made For Loving You” which appeared on her album.
Before any of this happened though, Tori was actually insulted by the infamous Simon Cowell during her audition for American Idol back in 2010 and didn’t even make it to the Top 24. Obviously, Cowell was wrong about Kelly, who has proven that she has some serious talent.
We love that Tori absolutely slayed the performance with the only theatrical element being her guitar-throw. As much as everyone loves a good show with snakes and fire, Tori proved that none of that is necessary when you have a voice as powerful as hers. She told MTV that it was all about the music for her.
“My performance kind of came naturally this time around because I really wanted it to be about the music first. Of course I know the song, because I’ve been performing it for so long, but I really just wanted it to be about the song and the music, nothing too crazy stage-wise, at least with props and stuff like that. I wanted to focus on the simplicity of the music and strip it back.”
It’s certainly heartening to hear that what’s most important to Kelly is the music, and with a performance like last night’s, we can expect great things from Tori in the future.
Check out last night’s performance by Tori Kelly at the MTV Video Music Awards.
[Photo Courtesy of Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]
