Tori Kelly has come a long way from singing songs in her bedroom with only a guitar. Although she is still the YouTube singer that captured our ear years ago, she has also blossomed into a completely new artist. This time around, we were able to see facets of Tori that we hadn’t been introduced to before.
Unlike any other show she’s done in Dallas, Tori came on stage with a full band in tow, making her fully equipped with two guitarists, one keyboardist, and one drummer. Though she opened the night with her familiar guitar playing, acoustic sound through her soulful introduction, ”Where I Belong,” Tori quickly changed the pace as she grooved across the stage to her up-tempo songs.
No longer singing behind her guitar, Tori laughed and danced her way across the stage as she sang to a packed audience at South Side Ballroom. The horn heavy, electric guitar ridden tune, “Expensive,” was easily one of the stand-outs of the night. Not only were we able to see the growth of Tori’s stage presence, but we were also able to capture the audience’s awe.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD-HMZeLem8/?taken-by=torikelly&hl=en
When she held the microphone out, the crowd sang. When she waved, the crowd moved in sync. When she hit one of those incredible high notes that we’ve grown to love her for, the crowd’s cheers filled the room.
Midway through the show, Tori thanked her fans for watching her videos on YouTube, saying, “Without you guys, I would not be standing here right now.” From there she went on to perform some of her most memorable covers including, “Pretty Young Thing,” by Michael Jackson, “Thinkin’ Bout You,” by Frank Ocean, and even a mash-up of “Say My Name,” by Destiny’s Child with her original song, “All In My Head.”
To close the night of vocal-greatness, Tori surprised the audience with an encore performance of two of her top singles, “Should’ve Been Us” and “Hollow.” But she didn’t stop there. Just when we thought the show was over, she gave the crowd an unexpected drum performance. She even gave us a throw back moment as she drummed the beat of, Bell Biv DeVoe’s “Poison.”
Tori Kelly definitely brought her A-game to South Side Ballroom during the Dallas stop of her tour. Something tells me that she won’t stop with us. Tori’s going to continue take the world by storm.
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