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Tori Kelly Brings New Life To Amy Grant’s ‘Baby Baby’

By Jeffrey Totey
Published on: 18:51 PST, May 1, 2016

Tori Kelly wasn’t even born when Amy Grant’s “Baby Baby” rose up the charts to No. 1 in 1991, but this past weekend, Kelly and Grant released a new version of the song in celebration of the hit’s 25th anniversary. While no one has complaints of the original, Tori Kelly brings new life to Amy Grant’s song.

Though the new “Baby Baby” is being marketed as a duet, the two singers didn’t actually sing together. Instead, producer Dave Garcia took Grant’s original song and added Kelly’s new recorded version.

“I loved the way that Dave Garcia crafted the new version of ‘Baby Baby’ together, using part of my original vocal and then pairing it with Tori’s new vocal,” Grant told People magazine this week. “Tori is such an incredible vocalist, one of the most effortless singers I have ever heard, and once she starts singing it is like a rocket engine has been strapped on to the song and she takes us all on a ride. I really think she knocked it out of the park.”

When the idea for this collaboration was crafted, Grant had never met the 2016 Best New Artist Grammy-nominated Tori Kelly.

“Although I had not met Tori at that point, my 15-year-old daughter, Corrina, is a big fan of Tori’s and so I was very aware of her incredible talent and was honored she would sing this song.”

Though she had won the title of Junior Champion for the junior singer division of Star Search, later won America’s Most Talented Kids competition in 2004 and appeared on season 9 of American Idol, Tori Kelly really didn’t rise to full-fledged fame until 2012. It was then that Kelly recorded a cover version of Frank Ocean’s “Thinking ‘Bout You” and posted it on YouTube. The song went viral and shot up to over 24 million views. Later that same year, Kelly released the album Handmade Songs By Tori Kelly. It was quickly followed by her debut EP release, Forward, for Capitol Records.

In 2013, Tori Kelly told HungerTV that she listened to a lot of Christian music when she was growing up and that gospel singer Crystal Lewis was a big influence on her life.

“Technique-wise and everything she’s definitely one of my biggest inspirations, I remember singing her songs when I was really, really young … there’s something about that style of music that’s very passionate and you can move people by what your saying and the way your singing it, so I think that’s something that always stuck with me and carried into my own songwriting,” says Kelly.

For Amy Grant, her first self-titled album was released in 1977 and she didn’t have the help of the internet to help promote her. Still, she soon became a huge star of contemporary Christian music. Her first crossover album, Unguarded, came out in 1985 and some fans were concerned that Grant was becoming too worldly because she wore a leopard skin jacket that she sewed herself! However, people outside of Christian circles began to take notice of the singer’s work. By the time “Baby Baby” was on the air, Grant became a household name. Released in January 1991, “Baby Baby” was the No. 1 song for two weeks making Grant the first Christian artist to accomplice such a feat.

Despite what some people might think, “Baby Baby” was inspired by Grant’s daughter Millie who is not 26 years of age.

“I had played with a few lyric ideas but nothing was working,” she says. “And then one day I looked down at my new daughter and thought ‘Oh baby, baby,’ and the lyric just poured out of me in about 10 minutes. I have heard from so many people who say they grew up singing the song, or that they sang ‘Baby, Baby’ to their children when they were young and they are excited to hear a new version. My hope is that those who loved the original will enjoy the breath of fresh air that Tori puts into the song and that perhaps the song will find a brand new audience of younger listeners who weren’t even born when the original was on the radio.”

Amy Grant is currently on the tour with Nichole Nordeman and Ellie Holcomb, but don’t be surprised if you see her appearing with Tori Kelly soon.

[Photo by Larry Busacca and Paras Griffin/Getty Images]

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