Music Rewind: Tori Kelly Continues To ‘Shine On’

Toraays and Honeybees, 2024 was an incredible year for Tori Kelly and her music. She’s achieved a lot. Tori has proved that she’s “still the same girl chasing all those big dreams.” Tori stayed booked, performing, slaying, and everything in between. If there’s one thing Tori did this year, it was shining brighter each time she appeared or released something new. If you don’t believe us now, you’ll believe us by the time you finish reading this.

‘high water’ Live Music Video

Tori Kelly started the year off on a high note. On February 9, 2024, she released her single for ‘high water,’ followed by a live music video for the song on February 15, 2024. Her decision to do a live video instead of a music video was a great idea for the song. The video truly captured the essence and raw emotions that Tori put into the song. What made the video extra special? While she has a choir in the background of the song, the choir in the video were copies of herself. ‘high water’ set the tone for what we could expect from not only the album but what was to follow.

TORI. Album Promotion

From the moment Tori Kelly announced her album TORI. to when it was released, she went into full promotion mode. She gave the Toraays a taste of what they could expect from the album. On Instagram and TikTok, she shared snippets of songs that made the album. It made us excited with anticipation. Check out the small teaser of her song ‘Shine On‘ below. 

TORI.

Four years after her last album, Tori Kelly released her self-titled fifth album, TORI. April 5, 2024. She explored different genres on the album, including pop, R&B, gospel, and soul. The album gave us vibes from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The album consisted of fifteen tracks, including ‘missin u’, ‘cut,’ and ‘young gun’. We have so many favorite lyrics from the album, such as, “Deep in the night, I need your light. I’m lost without it, so lost, so lost,” from ‘shine on’. TORI. is a beautiful album with beautiful lyrics. If there’s one thing Tori did on the album, it’s shine from start to finish.

American Idol

This year marked the third time Tori Kelly has been on the singing competition show American Idol. The first time she was a contestant and the second time, she did a few duets with contestants. This year we witnessed Tori put on her judge and mentor hats in a full-circle moment for her. She also performed her single ‘high water’. Being asked to be a judge and mentor shows how far she has come from being a contestant to now judging singers who ended up being in the position she was once in.

Purple Skies World Tour

Initially, Tori announced her Purple Skies Tour on February 12th, which consisted of twelve shows. Fans took a huge interest in wanting and asking for more shows. Because of this, on April 8th, more were added on before expanding into a world tour on May 28th. The tour’s first leg went from April 12th to May 3rd. The second leg went from August 17th to November 9th. Lastly, the final leg of the Purple Skies Tour, which consisted of European and Asian shows, ranged from November 2nd to December 9th. If there’s one thing Tori Kelly knows how to do it’s put on a show, and she 100% put on a show for each crowd she performed for while on tour. 

Tori Kelly x Her Alter Egos

Yes, you read right: honeybees and Toraays; we’re now talking about Tori and her alter egos. If you’re wondering what we’re talking about, we’re here to shine the light on Tori Kelly’s music video for ‘thing u do’. We want to talk about it because it’s a big deal, if you were to ask us. We got Tori, but we also met the singer’s alter egos for the video: Rouge, True, Onyx, Iris, and Victoria, the director for the music video inside a music video.

Tori and her alter egos put on an amazing performance in the music video, with each alter ego playing an instrument, minus Rogue, who was acting as a background singer, and Victoria, who was the director, of course. We also got to see Tori dancing and acting. We don’t know what got into Tori, but we love every second of the video. The ‘thing u do’ video is a masterpiece, and Tori deserves all the flowers in the world for this one.

‘same girl’ Visualizer

‘same girl’ is an amazing song on its own. It gives us ‘Unbreakable Smile’ part 2 energy. However, the visualizer for the song gives us a beautiful glimpse into the singer’s life. Tori Kelly’s home videos in the video show her dreaming of being a singer from childhood and feature clips of her performances as an adult. She has done a lot and gone through a lot, from performing in talent shows to headlining tours. One thing she’s never done is try to change herself to win people’s approval. We love how she’s still the ‘same girl’.

TORI. (+ a lil more)

When fans thought Tori was done feeding them new music, Tori announced the release of TORI. (+a lil more). The album dropped on October 11th and consisted of four brand-new songs. These songs included ‘distance’, ‘bottomline’ featuring JoJo, ‘u’, and ‘beautiful war’ featuring Pink Sweat$. She got more in her R&B bag with these songs, and we live for new editions just as much as we love the singles we’ve been listening to for months.

Sing: Thriller

Another year, same Meena. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, we’re talking about Tori Kelly reprising her role as Meena in the latest addition to the Sing franchise. As a Halloween special, the creators of the franchise gifted us Sing: Thriller, a short film in October. We love to see the franchise is still thriving and Tori is still lending her voice for her iconic role as Meena. We can’t think of a better fit for the role—Tori makes Meena who she is. 

Tori Kelly x JoJo ‘bottomline’

We know we already mentioned Tori Kelly and JoJo’s collaboration, but we couldn’t help but mention it again! If you’re a millennial, you might understand and get why. After all, many fans of the two have been asking for a collaboration for years. For two of our favorite powerhouse singers to make it happen? We couldn’t help but be excited about it. Not only did they do a song, but they gave us a music video to go along with it. We felt all the feels with the ‘bottomline’ and watching the music video felt like watching two best friends coming together and having fun in the middle of a city on a random day. The chemistry between two friends is beyond beautiful. Also, let’s not forget to mention that ‘bottomline’ is a catchy song we can’t help but have on repeat.

Tori Kelly x BASIC Magazine

While the year isn’t over yet, on December 9, 2024, BASIC Magazine unveiled Tori Kelly as their 25th issue cover model via their Instagram. It’s one of many great ways for her to end the year and show that she’s destined for greatness and all the success. If you have the chance and means to order a copy, we highly recommend you should. Let’s support Tori Kelly in every way we possibly can.

Where Does She Go From Here?

There were many things Tori Kelly accomplished in music this year that we didn’t get to talk about. Some of these things include her performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, her original song ‘All I Want’ being a part of Bridgerton season 3, her Celebrity Family Feud appearance, appearing on YouTuber, Terrell Grice’s channel for the second time, and more.

But the question is what’s next for Tori Kelly and her music? One thing coming in 2025 for her is being the opening act for Ed Sheeran’s upcoming European tour slated to start in May 2025. We don’t know what Tori will be doing until then, but we can’t wait to see what she has in store for the world.

Do you have a favorite 2024 Tori Kelly moment? Is it a music video, performance, or something else? We would love to hear about any you may have. Let us know in the comments below or by contacting us via Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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