Tori Kelly Announces New Album ‘God Must Really Love Me,’ Inspired by Faith, Marriage and Motherhood (EXCLUSIVE)

When she first started putting the pieces together for her upcoming album, Tori Kelly took a write-what-you-know approach. “I was pretty clear on what I wanted to say, which were three pillars: My faith, my marriage and then motherhood,” the singer-songwriter tells Variety about “God Must Really Love Me,” due June 12 via Epic Records. “I was like, this is the album and where I’m at. From there, it just really started taking shape.”

“God Must Really Love Me,” exclusively announced on Variety, marks Kelly’s sixth studio album and her first following 2024’s “Tori.,” a record steeped in the traditions of Y2K pop and R&B. But “God Must Really Love Me” is a step back from the bombast of its predecessor, instead embracing the warm, acoustic-leaning R&B that powered much of her earlier work. In anticipation of the album, Kelly is giving the first taste of the set with a pair of singles — “Control” and “Dive” — both releasing this Friday.

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The album arrives at a point where Kelly is in a place of contentment that she’s never before experienced. “It feels good to look at my life and be like, this is my life. I love it. I’m so happy right now,” she says. “That’s really why I wanted to call it ‘God Must Really Love Me,’ because when I took a step back and listened to the songs, it’s a feeling of gratitude, like look at these blessings in my life. God must really love me.”

The album initially started to take shape while Kelly was on tour with Ed Sheeran in Europe last summer, when she would book studios along the way to tease out ideas. She was pregnant with her son Zayden, and recalls feeling a “little bit of angst” over not knowing if she would be inspired to focus on music once he arrived. “I was like, I don’t know how busy that’s gonna be. When am I gonna be able to put music out? Maybe I wanna take a little break. Who knows?” she says. “I was just staying really open-minded, but starting to feel uneasy about it a little bit.”

It didn’t take long for inspiration to strike. Ten days after Zayden’s birth in November, Kelly was singing voice memo ideas into her phone and was flooded with inspiration. Two months later, she headed into the studio with her main collaborators — Tommy King (Dijon, the 1975) and Dan Farber (Lizzo) — to record the bulk of “God Must Really Love Me,” which came together in two weeks.

The album, which also features contributions from Dixson, Nija Charles, Emily Warren and Ammo, is a portrait of Kelly at a moment in life where she’s found peace, embracing the joy of becoming a mother and reflecting on the strength of her marriage to husband André Murillo. On several of the songs, Zayden can be heard cooing into the microphone as she holds him on her lap while recording.

If pop stars have been known to brand any given album as their “most personal album yet,” then Kelly can say it with confidence this go-around, inviting listeners into her world in ways that have never before been as specific. “There’s something that unlocked for me in my songwriting. It almost feels like I’m not overthinking anymore,” she says. “There’s a reason why the simplest songs we resonate with are because it’s coming from a real place. I think my songwriting has leveled up a bit, because there are more layers to peel back.”

Kelly has time and again proven that she has the range, known for belting to the rafters to enhance the impact of any given song. But on “God Must Really Love Me,” she scales back her vocal approach and tampers down the theatrics. Her buttery runs are still there, but she delivers them with a restraint that allows the message of the songs to ring out more clearly. “I wanted the storytelling and lyrics to shine through. I was really careful not to let it get in the way of the lyrics,” she explains. “I wanted to capture the feeling in the moment. I didn’t really do multiple takes of these songs. It was pretty much like, day of, the way that we wrote it, let’s capture that feeling and then move on.”

With roughly a month to go before the release of “God Must Really Love Me,” Kelly is striking a new balance between work and family by heading out on the road with her husband and son as part of Forrest Frank’s “The Jesus Generation” tour, kicking off on June 1. But for now, Kelly is thinking about how she wants her fans to experience her latest offering and what it means for her at this point in her career.

“The title is ‘God Must Really Love Me,’ but at the end of the day, I would love it if people felt that for themselves too,” she says. “Feel how loved they are, how special they are, inspire them to look at their lives and see what they can be grateful for, spend time with the people that they love. It’s definitely my slow-down type of album. Let’s take a deep breath. Let’s go outside, touch some grass and be grateful for what we have.”