Hollow

Album: Unbreakable Smile Reissue (2015)
Charted: 68
Play Video

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.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s EditionMusic Quiz

You know the scenes - Tom Cruise in his own pants-off dance off, Molly Ringwald celebrating her birthday - but do you remember what song is playing?

History Of Rock

History Of RockSong Writing

An interview with Dr. John Covach, music professor at the University of Rochester whose free online courses have become wildly popular.

Don Brewer of Grand Funk

Don Brewer of Grand FunkSongwriter Interviews

The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.

Tim Butler of The Psychedelic Furs

Tim Butler of The Psychedelic FursSongwriter Interviews

Tim and his brother Richard are the Furs' foundation; Tim explains how they write and tells the story of "Pretty In Pink."

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce Pavitt

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce PavittSong Writing

The man who ran Nirvana's first label gets beyond the sensationalism (drugs, Courtney) to discuss their musical and cultural triumphs in the years before Nevermind.