The big guy upstairs has been looking down on Tori Kelly, who drops her sixth and latest album God Must Really Love Me.
The new collection arrived at the stroke of midnight via Epic Records, and is home to the previously-released singles “Control” and “Dive” (which she reportedly wrote while seven-months pregnant).
The album explores love, identity and “the quiet work of protecting your peace amid the constant noise of the outside world,” and was announced some six months after the birth of Kelly’s first child with husband André Murillo. The press release shared that Kelly experienced a creative “urgency” like never before, as she locked into the songwriting process “with full-hearted conviction, frequently recording voice memos while nursing her son.”
The big guy upstairs.
“Before the baby was born I’d tried to work on as many songs as possible, because I thought maybe I wouldn’t want to write once I was in mom mode. But then everything just hit me at once and right away I knew what I needed to say and exactly how I wanted it to sound,” she remarks. “I really challenged myself to peel back the layers and go much deeper with my lyrics. In the past I’ve held back from getting too specific in my songs, but this time I just completely let go.”
In a change of tac, Kelly developed most of its songs in solitude before heading into the studio with such producers and co-writers as DIXSON (Kehlani, Vic Mensa), Nija Charles (Summer Walker, Kiana Ledé), Emily Warren (Dua Lipa, Noah Kahan), and Ammo (Beyoncé, Teddy Swims). Most of the album came to life in Los Angeles with her two main collaborators, Tommy King (HAIM, Donna Missal) and Dan Farber (Lizzo, Alessia Cara), although a string of songs emerged while touring Europe in summer 2025 with Ed Sheeran.
Kelly is supporting the new album with Forrest Frank for the 29-date The Jesus Generation Tour, which continues through to Aug. 1 at Globe Life Field.
God Must Really Love Me is the followup to Kelly’s 2024 self-titled album, Tori. Stream it in full below below.
