Category: Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Singer Tori Kelly is the cover girl for the February issue of Seventeen, which just hit newsstands. The 23-year-old singer has had quite a year, with her album “Unbreakable Smile” peaking at number 2 on the Billboard 200, receiving the Breakthrough Award at Billboard’s Women in Music 2015 event and getting a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. She kicked off 2016 performing what’s most likely her new single, “Funny”, on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday night.

In the Seventeen article, we learn that if the singer took Simon Cowell’s criticism to heart, we may never have gotten to hear “Nobody Love” (my personal song of the summer of 2015). Tori auditioned for season 9 of American Idol and was told by the notoriously prickly judge that her voice was “almost annoying”. Fortunately, Tori shook off his comments, telling the magazine, “Deep down, I knew I was good, and I knew I could do it. I needed to get knocked down and to build up a thick skin. Who knows what I would have been singing about otherwise? You have to go through things in order to inspire others with your story.”

Tori also uses this latest interview to clear up any rumors about her relationship with Ed Sheeran. Despite the fact that they make some beautiful music together, they have the single “I Was Made for Loving You”, they are strictly business. When asked about Ed, Tori replied, “I knew that was coming, but no. Working with him was a really cool experience because I was a fan and I didn’t know how it would go, but right away he made it super-chill. Ever since then, he’s been someone I consider a friend and even a mentor.”

Even though it’s been an exciting year, Tori has been accused of being boring – by her own manager. “He told me, ‘People are saying you are vanilla and that you have nothing to say.’ I was like, Whoa. I remembered record-label guys telling me I was really reserved when I was younger. Like, ‘Wake up, you should be bubbly and happy!’ And I was thinking, But this is my personality; I’m just chilling. So I went right back to being that little girl who was just so freaked out. I acted as if I didn’t care, but I went home that night and just poured all the feelings that I was holding back into my music. That’s how Unbreakable Smile came to be.”

A hit album, a Grammy nomination and a collaboration with Ed Sheeran? I would love to be that boring! You can check out the rest of the interview with Tori in the latest issue of Seventeen, available now.