Hollow

Album: Unbreakable Smile Reissue (2015)
Charted: 68
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Songfacts®:

  • Tori Kelly is a committed Christian and this song of faith is a love song to God:

    I'm fragile and you know this
    So hold me, wrap me in love
    Fill up my cup
    Empty, and only your love could fill up my cup
    Because I'm hollow


    Asked on Twitter to describe the song in three words, Kelly replied: "honest. vulnerable. Epic."
  • The song was originally written by the LA musician Zac Poor. Kelly told the story of the tune in Genius annotation: "This song landed in my lap at a very interesting time. The album was already out and we wanted something new. It's really rare for me to connect with a song that's already there but this was the type of song where I really just felt like I wrote it myself."

    "I tracked the song by myself in the studio and really poured my heart into it. That night I got a text with the names of the songwriters and the very first name I saw was my good friend, Zac Poor. He had no idea I was tracking it. It was a surreal moment. I got really emotional because I've known Zac for so long and I knew he had been working so hard to get his big break. It was a really cool moment."
  • Kelly's favorite lyric from the song is, "pour out your perfection on me now."
  • Tori Kelly: "'Hollow,' for me, is very directly connected to me and my faith - it's like my love song to God. I tried to fill that hole with a bunch of only things, and I just know that Jesus is the only one that can fill it."
  • Kelly's verses about fragility and her need for love on the original version were inspired by her connection with God. However, the remix, featuring Big Sean, finds the G.O.O.D. Music rhymer turning it into a love song for his girl.
  • Kelly performed this with James Bay at the Grammy Awards in 2016, where she was nominated for Best New Artist.

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