For Grammy award-winning artist Tori Kelly, becoming a mom really changed everything, even inspiring her new album God Must Really Love Me.
“I thought people were just saying, ‘He’s gonna love your voice,’ because I’m a singer, and I kid you not, he has a crazy reaction,” Kelly told PEOPLE about her son, Zayden, hearing her new album. “Anytime I put it on, he could be crying or fussing, and he’ll just stop whatever he’s doing.”
The new album was inspired by her journey of becoming a mother. Kelly poured her emotions into each track by “allowing myself to celebrate a season of joy and happiness.”
“I was just so overwhelmed with inspiration. I’ve never felt anything like that before,” the singer said.
“When you live with these songs, I hope they give you permission to slow down, exhale, & be present,” the new mom wrote on Instagram as she celebrated the album’s release. “Writing this album brought me so much peace, & now that it’s yours, I hope it brings some to you too. Feeling incredibly grateful. thank you for listening. Thank you JESUS.”
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Kelly dreamed about motherhood but didn’t think too much about it until she got married.
“I always had in the back of my mind that I would definitely love to be a mom, but it didn’t take up a ton of my mental capacity until I met my husband,” she told PEOPLE, who married her husband, André Murillo, in 2018.
She announced her pregnancy last year while on a European stadium tour with Ed Sheeran.
“Once I announced it, I just felt so free,” she said. “The bump was fully out. It was really fun and kind of empowering too.”
Kelly and her husband welcome Zayden in November, and “Ten days later I was already singing different ideas into my phone,” she revealed. “It just felt like a flood came over me.”
Zayden is even featured on the album.
But overarching the joy of motherhood and marriage is Kelly’s faith, which she calls “foundational.”
“The reason I love this music on this new album is because everything is so intertwined,” she said. “Everything I do, I think, flows out of my relationship with God. God is in my marriage. God is in the way I view motherhood. He’s all up in every part of my life.”
God Must Really Love Me is available wherever you get your music.
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