Tori Kelly spent most of her pregnancy on the road, opening for Ed Sheeran in stadiums across Europe while quietly wondering who she would be on the other side of it. She worried motherhood might dim her creativity, or replace her drive to make music altogether. Instead, about 10 days after her son was born, the songs started pouring out.

The result is her sixth album, God Must Really Love Me, written largely in the postpartum haze and captured in voice memos while she nursed. It is a record about gratitude, surrender, and the kind of unconditional love that arrives before your baby has done a single thing to deserve it.

In this episode of The Motherly Podcast, Kelly opens up about the creative surge that hit her weeks after giving birth, trading a lifelong perfectionism for going with the flow, and what touring with a newborn actually looks like.

Meet the expert: Tori Kelly is a three-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who first broke through on YouTube and American Idol before building a career across pop, R&B, and gospel. Her sixth studio album, God Must Really Love Me, arrived in 2026. She and her husband, former professional basketball player André Murillo, welcomed their first child, son Zayden, in November 2025.

Liz Tenety: A lot of women worry that motherhood will take away part of their creativity. So much has been written about the creative work mothers don’t get to do, the books they didn’t get to write. Were you worried about your creativity before becoming a mother?

I was a little bit. I toured pretty much my whole pregnancy, and once the tour was coming to an end and I was about eight months pregnant, I started feeling some anxiety. I remember thinking in real extremes. On one end, what if I miss who I was, and now I’ll never be the same because I have this human in my life? And on the other end, what if I’m so obsessed with this child that I just quit music, because this is way better now? Both scared me. Looking back, it’s silly, because I’m such a true artist. I’m always inspired by what’s going on around me. If anything, becoming a mom has added so much to my art. I can tap into a whole new realm of songwriting, writing about being a mom, even writing songs through his perspective. There are so many more layers now. Growing up, there was this stigma that once you became a mom your career was over. I remember that in the early 2000s. There weren’t a lot of women to be inspired by who were moms with careers. It’s nice to see more women now saying you can be a great mom and a career woman and not have to sacrifice one for the other.

Liz Tenety: You were touring with Ed Sheeran while pregnant. When did you tell him, and how did you roll it out, to your team and then to the public?

Tori: Immediate family was first, but even then, I like to keep things to myself for a second. It was a couple of weeks before we told our families, and I loved that we had that short window that was just us. Then close friends, then my team, because it changed my schedule a little. My doctor actually looked at the tour schedule with me and said the timing worked out perfectly. There was a break in the middle right around my 20-week anatomy scan, and the end of the tour was exactly when she would have told me to stop flying. I told Ed at the very first show. I couldn’t keep it in, and he was going to notice me getting bigger. I hid it publicly for a while with oversized jerseys. I think my fans caught on early, but they didn’t say anything. I announced around five months, because I wanted to do it in a special way and put together a cute video.

Liz Tenety: You sing for a living. How did pregnancy affect your voice, and did you deal with breathlessness at the end?

Tori: I did. Ed does stadiums, so this was outdoors in the European summer heat, which I had never performed in even when I wasn’t pregnant. I had them set up fans blowing really hard. And his setup is a full 360 stage, so you are walking around the entire thing the whole time. I got good at picking which moments to really play with the crowd and which songs I would just plant myself and not move. The start of the tour I was going into my second trimester with tons of energy, but as I got bigger I felt it in my voice, especially on the songs with really high notes. I would come off drenched in sweat. The last three shows were in Düsseldorf, and those were tough. I remember thinking any longer and I don’t think I could have done it.

Liz Tenety: What was surprising about those early days of becoming a mom?

It felt like a blur, which is why I tried to journal a lot. If there’s one piece of advice I would give a new mom, it’s journal. Write down those early days. I wrote down the whole birth story because I knew it would go fuzzy, and sure enough I had already forgotten half of it. Every time he did something, like starting to open his eyes more, I would jot it in my phone. I was in a state of awe the entire time. And I’m glad I read up on the fourth trimester, because it’s easy to forget your body is still changing. I just thought, one, two, three trimesters, baby comes, everything’s great. It is not that at all. You’re recovering, the hormones are going crazy. I was grateful for a great support system. My mom came over, family helped out.

Liz Tenety: How has your creative process evolved since becoming a mom?

The biggest shift was that early surge, like it was downloaded into me. And this is the first time I have just kept writing. Usually I finish an album, know exactly when it’s done, and go into tour mode. This time I’m still getting ideas, still singing into my phone, doing sessions when I can. I feel more confident in my process, not second-guessing as much. It’s funny that having a child does that, but I feel more sure of myself. My sound has become more defined too, saying no to things that don’t suit me. I’m feeling better than I’ve ever felt.

Liz Tenety: What do you wish you knew before becoming a mom?

Everything I’m experiencing with him, I’ve enjoyed experiencing for the first time, diving in without knowing what I’m doing. My husband and I are very go with the flow. We’re not great at keeping a schedule, we’re in-the-moment people, and it’s been like that with raising our son. We’re just winging it. So I don’t know that there’s anything I wish I’d known that would have changed things.

Liz Tenety: What’s one song you love to play for Zayden?

He genuinely reacts to my album, especially the first song. I don’t know if it’s because he hears himself on it. At the concert I open with that song too, and he looks up at the screen with big eyes. So, God Must Really Love Me, the intro to the album. That’s his favorite.

Liz Tenety: What do you hope he says about you as a mom and as a person someday?

That his mom loved him unconditionally, that she believed he could pursue his dreams, whatever he set his mind to. That I was a fun mom, because I want to be a fun mom. But love also means discipline, so I hope he feels the love in that too. I hope he feels like he can do what he wants in life and feel supported by his mom.

This article has been edited and condensed for clarity. Listen to the full episode of The Motherly Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.