Tori Kelly
photo: justin higuchi · cc by 2.0 ↗Victoria Loren Kelly grew up in Southern California singing gospel and R&B, building an early following through YouTube covers before a 2010 stint on 'American Idol' and a run of self-released music led to her 2015 major-label debut, 'Unbreakable Smile'. She pairs gymnastic, gospel-rooted vocal runs with an acoustic-guitar, singer-songwriter directness, a combination that later earned her Grammy recognition in the gospel field. Her blend of technical vocal firepower and unaffected intimacy made her a touchstone for a generation of younger pop and K-pop singers.
Kelly has repeatedly cited Lauryn Hill among the early influences that shaped her style, and the imprint is in her rhythmic, rap-adjacent phrasing and her hip-hop-soul approach to an acoustic song — melody delivered with a conversational, syncopated cadence rather than straight pop legato.
listen forPut Hill's 'Doo Wop (That Thing)' next to Kelly's 'Dear No One' — hear how both slide between sung and near-spoken delivery over a spare groove, bending the phrasing off the beat so the vocal feels like talking set to music.
Kelly names Mariah Carey among her formative influences, and Carey's model of cascading melismatic runs, an enormous range, and gospel-rooted riffing is audible in the vocal acrobatics Kelly stacks across her hooks.
listen forLine up Carey's 'Vision of Love' with Kelly's 'Should've Been Us' — notice how each takes a simple melodic line and floods it with rippling runs and a soaring final belt, letting the sheer vocal ornamentation become the payoff.
Kelly counts Stevie Wonder among her influences, and his buoyant, horn-and-groove soul-pop and playful, melodically restless phrasing surface in her more upbeat, retro-leaning material.
listen forPlay Wonder's bouncing 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)' before Kelly's 'Nobody Love' — feel the same handclap-and-groove momentum and the way the vocal skips lightly across the beat, chasing the pocket rather than sitting square on it.