"That moment was so surreal": Tori Kelly recalls traumatic incident from last year

Washington [US], April 7 : American singer-songwriter Tori Kelly was preparing to release an EP when she was abruptly hospitalised for life-threatening blood clots in July 2023. Despite the traumatic incident, she was eager to resume her rigorous work schedule, reported People.
"That moment was so surreal," said the Grammy winner, noting that she had a busy day of interviews the next day. "I'm in the hospital and I just remember saying to everyone, 'Hey, I'm getting out of here, right? I got stuff to do. My EP is coming out in a few days.' They were like, 'Probably not. We need to keep you here, make sure you're good.'"
According to People, Kelly's recovery was quick. The EP release continued as planned, and she embarked on a North American tour -- her first post-pandemic concerts -- less than three weeks later. After all, she was introducing fans to her new, Y2K-inspired pop-R&B sound, which culminates in her fifth album, TORI., released Friday, April 5.
"I thought the album was done even before the EP came out," says Kelly, who's married to basketball player and coach Andre Murillo. "Then, the health scare happened, and I was like, 'Hold up. I feel like there's another song or two brewing.'"
Kelly began working on the new album "Mentally" in 2020, shortly after being forced to cancel a tour due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
After completing her previous recording deal with Capitol Records, she was free to envision the next stage of her career and entered the studio with hitmaker Jon Bellion to begin recording new songs in 2021.
"One of the coolest things is we made all of this music without a team. It was just me, my vision and going into the studio, pouring my heart into these songs. And Jon, of course, too, helping me with all of that," recalls the singer, who was grateful to find collaborators who didn't mind working without a record company backing the project. "It was kind of like, 'Hey, at some point I'll be able to pay all of y'all.'"
Inspired by artists like TLC and Aaliyah, whom she loved as a child, Kelly quickly found herself creating music with a sound quite drastically different from the acoustic pop in which she launched her career on American Idol and YouTube as a teenager.
Once the album was completed -- or so she thought -- the musician partnered with Epic Records for its release and decided to ease fans into her new era with a seven-song EP.
"I decided to put out the EP first as a way to give people a taste of what this new era even is because it is a big departure in some ways. My look is different. I'm back to my natural hair colour," she explains. "It also allowed me to go on a tour, which I was craving so badly."
Kelly was fortunate to gain the "green light" from her physicians to continue the tour, which was tremendously important to her after the health crisis.
"I was paying attention to how I felt too, and being careful," she says. "I was like, 'No one's going to take this away from me,' and just to see the fans in person, these same people who were praying for me and sending me so much love, it was an emotional tour."
Upon wrapping the string of concerts, she called Bellion back up for another set of studio sessions and wrote "High Water," a heartfelt ballad about trusting the future when times are tough.
"I was able to process what had happened, and I am a late processor," she details. "I think it helps me in my songwriting though, because I'm able to think back and be like, 'Oh, that's how I felt. OK, let me channel that feeling.'"
Kelly also composed the autobiographical album-closing 'Same Girl', which traces her artistic journey and serves as a reaction to admirers who may have been surprised by the aural and visual changes to her work.
After finishing the run of shows, she summoned Bellion back in for another round of studio sessions and penned 'High Water', a passionate song about faith in the future when circumstances are bad.
"It's my way of being like, 'It's OK to have fun and explore,' and that's what being an artist is. You're expressing yourself," she says of the track. "At the end of the day, I'm kind of grounding myself again and reminding myself that you're still you at the end of the day."
The health scare's biggest impact on her life today? She feels more gratitude than ever before. "When I look at just my life, my career and getting to go on these tours, I'm just like, 'I don't want to take anything for granted because life as I now have experienced is so fragile,'" she says. "I'm just holding people a little closer."
Kelly also placed more of an emphasis on making sure her artistic output matches exactly how she wants to express herself.
"I'm such a perfectionist now, even more like, 'OK, this has to be perfect, that outfit's not right, or the vision isn't there,'" she added.
"It's a blessing and a curse because I'll stay up late at night thinking about these things, but I'm just happy that I can finally release it and let it do its thing in the world," reported People.