Tori Kelly - "Should've Been Us"

[Az Paynter]

35 33 TORI KELLY Should've Been Us 1941 1525 416 6.607

+79 Spins
+46 Bullet
+0.484 Audience

[Dylan :)]

Has fallen to #107 on iTunes :// Nobody Love and her song with Ed are higher

[Az Paynter]

34 32 TORI KELLY Should've Been Us 2103 1620 483 7.369

+74 Spins
+29 Bullet
+0.287 Audience

[NeRD]

Jun 22, 2015 21:59:22 GMT -5 Live Your Life said:

Now, why didn't she sing it like this on the studio version?

That was fucking amazing.

She needs to be HUGE.

[The Upper Hand]

She is an outstanding vocalist. However, if she is willing to be an acoustic performer, she better release other types of songs.

[kanimal]

Jun 27, 2015 19:41:51 GMT -5 The Upper Hand said:

She is an outstanding vocalist. However, if she is willing to be an acoustic performer, she better release other types of songs.

I agree that she's clearly more comfortable with - and more talented at - a stripped/acoustic style.  TV performance after TV performance confirms this (her only weak TV performance was the Ellen one, and that close to the original version of Nobody Love).

But blame radio--and the people who listen to radio, for that matter--for driving her a more heavily produced, pop direction.  Even here, I've seen a lot of acoustic/ballad type songs called 'boring.'

The good thing is that her voice is big enough to work on these pop tracks.  She's not just a style/tone singer; she's a powerhouse.

Jun 24, 2015 11:34:20 GMT -5 GHOST said:

Any update today?

Glad z100 is ob board. Did they ever add NL?

It was an On the Verge song, so Z100 would have had to add it.

[The Upper Hand]

Yes, she is definitely a powerhouse vocalist. That's why she should go for full-band performances.

[Kurt]

Yeah - the recent Billboard article on her backs up both of those points:

Jun 27, 2015 17:13:47 GMT -5 Live Your Life said:

Tori Kelly on Her Brush With Prince, Fame After a Decade of Trying and How She Proved Manager Scooter Braun Wrong

Two nights after performing in Minneapolis, the 10th stop of an 18-city North American headlining tour, Tori Kelly sits in a room at downtown Atlanta's Omni Hotel, still buzzing from a chance encounter with the Twin Cities' most famous resident: Prince. "It's a story I'll be ­telling for the rest of my life," she says, recounting how the legend seemed to appear out of nowhere at Minneapolis' Varsity Theater just as she began a cover of "Kiss." After the show, a member of his 3rdEyeGirl backing band invited Kelly to his home, where she played pingpong and was eventually summoned to meet the musician himself. "I don't think I said that much," she says. "I was just smiling the whole time, and he was there, wearing a turban. Then he disappeared into thin air. I didn't see him again after we spoke."

The experience is just one of many music milestones already notched by the 22-year-old known for her R&B-pop fusion sound and impressive vocal range. Born an hour outside of Los Angeles in Wildomar, Kelly credits her love of music to her parents -- a nurse and a construction worker -- who are both proficient ­instrumentalists who often played gospel music at home. "My mom and dad say that before I could even talk, I was humming melodies and reacting to songs," says Kelly, who is of Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Irish, German and English descent.

Kelly's success story has been nearly a decade in the making, thanks in large part to digital platforms like YouTube and reality TV. At 11, she won America's Most Talented Kid, which led to a deal with Geffen Records that she says was "huge but also a blur. I was in all of these studio sessions, writing with all of these people, but I didn't even know who I was." At 16, she made it through to Hollywood Week on American Idol, then went viral on YouTube two years later with a cover of Frank Ocean's "Thinkin Bout You" (she currently boasts more than 1.1 million subscribers). At 20, she signed to Capitol Records and in 2014 spent time opening for Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, who has said her voice "is like candy covered in honey."

In May, much like Ariana Grande's breakout moment a year prior, Kelly's acoustic performance of "Nobody Love" at the Billboard Music Awards sparked early Grammy buzz. "One of the reasons you'll see her doing more stripped-down sets on TV is that there's nothing we need to conceal," explains Capitol Music Group ­chairman/CEO Steve Barnett of her appeal. "We're in an era where real artistry often competes with prepackaged 'acts,' and there's no studio trickery involved with Tori."

Though Kelly's name has floated around the industry for years, her exposure has yet to yield a high level of ­commercial success -- which manager Scooter Braun (Grande, Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen) aims to change. "I remember telling her, 'You're the most talented person I know, but you're boring. People think you're ­boring. They think you're vanilla,' " says Braun. "But Tori is ­resilient. The next day she came to my house and said, 'I wrote a song about what you said, and it's called 'Unbreakable Smile.' "

For Kelly, who says she has "had to learn the dark sides of the industry -- who to trust and who not to trust," that track fittingly became the title of her debut full-length album, Unbreakable Smile. The record, which is packed with catchy, pop-laced tracks like "Should've Been Us" (which rises to No. 32 on the July 4 Mainstream Top 40 chart), illustrates the influence of ­mega-producer Max Martin, who has worked with superstars Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus. But despite the pop bona fides, Kelly, who often begins the writing process by recording a melody or lyric on her iPhone, says she won't drift far from her roots. "Soul is at the base of the album; soul is what makes me me. The pop came after, and it's like the sprinkles on top."

[Live Your Life]

As someone who's followed her before the YouTube stuff, I actually feel that it has pigeonholed her, as a vocalist and artist. She didn't learn to play the guitar until she was 15. Before that, it was all about the vocals. Now, she's kind of stuck in between a rock and a hard place because the public knows her for the acoustic stuff and for using a more soft, ethereal tone...which is fine at times. But the world has yet to see what she can really do, vocally. She also has a really cheesy writing style, but that's another subject. As I said in her album thread, I can see her making a "real" album in a few years.

[theflying]

I actually think her tone can get a bit irritating (less so live but on a record yes) if she goes into full on vocal beast mode. Ariana Grande happens to have a great tone with her powerful vocals but sounds somewhere between a baby Mariah Carey and any random girl off the block when she's being quieter. Tori is the opposite imo. The softer vocals fit Tori really well.

Agree about the writing style. She'll get there.

[Daryl the Beryl]

Top 30 on Pop:

33 29 TORI KELLY Should've Been Us 2239 1655 584 8.029

+136 Spins
+101 Bullet
+0.660 Audience

[Dylan :)]

That spincrease 

[Deleted]

She's amazing live <3

[fire]

Love this - hope it'll be a hit

[tamed09]

It'll take time but she's on the right path and she has single potential on the album. Steve and Scooter stand very firmly behind her

[Live Your Life]

[SHOOTER]

I much prefer this over NL so I hope it becomes her breakthrough hit.

[GHOST]

This seems to be underperforming on iTunes just like NL.

Ugh, so frustrating. I hope it takes off somehow.

[Az Paynter]

33 26 TORI KELLY Should've Been Us 2450 1792 658 8.959

+65 Spins
-27 Bullet
+0.388 Audience

[divasummer]

Jun 30, 2015 1:12:25 GMT -5 GHOST said:

This seems to be underperforming on iTunes just like NL.

Ugh, so frustrating. I hope it takes off somehow.

I thought I saw it somewhere between 102-122 the last time I was on ITunes yesterday.
I also think a poster mentioned that it wasn't posting it's ITunes update on the daily radio updates.
One day it was Num.130 but didn't show up.
That's not awful considering it's only at 6.5 mill AI.
However each week it seems like she's been on a show supporting it.

[Envoirment]

Great to see this doing well, where did NL peak? Hoping this will out-peak that.

[GHOST]

If this stalls on radio again before it takes off on itunes like Nobody Love I am going to fume lol

[Az Paynter]

32 26 TORI KELLY Should've Been Us 2497 1862 635 9.335

+47 Spins
-23 Bullet
+0.376 Audience

[Az Paynter]

33 25 TORI KELLY Should've Been Us 2567 1941 626 9.394

+70 Spins
-9 Bullet
+0.059 Audience

[Az Paynter]

33 25 TORI KELLY Should've Been Us 2618 2029 589 9.697

+51 Spins
-37 Bullet
+0.303 Audience

[GHOST]

Ugh, radio seems to be on board but the itunes performance is boggling.

Isn't it not resonating with the public? Does it need a discount to get it going? What gives?

I'll be damned if this doens't become a hit for her. :(

[Az Paynter]

32 25 TORI KELLY Should've Been Us 2699 2103 596 9.953

+81 Spins
+7 Bullet
+0.256 Audience

[GHOST]

Out of the top 200 on iTunes.

C'mon. Maybe they need to discount it to get it going.

[Az Paynter]

POP:
26 25 TORI KELLY Should've Been Us 2841 2450 391 10.645

+88 Spins
+23 Bullet
+0.370 Audience

RHYTHMIC:
59 50 TORI KELLY Should've Been Us 343 186 157 1.325

[vithor]

Nice to see this going top 50 on rhythmic. I still have high hopes for this song. This girl is amazingly talented.