Tori Kelly On ‘BET Awards’, Being Discovered On YouTube + Clarifies Her Nationality, ‘My Dad is Jamaican’ [VIDEO]

Unless you are an indie artist connoisseur or avid YouTube new artist subscriber, you didn’t know who Tori Kelly was until the 2015 BET Awards. This past Sunday the network introduced her to their over 2 million viewers when she performed alongside Robin Thicke and John Legend to honor Smokey Robinson. Now the small-town star has become an overnight sensation as many are wondering who is the blond girl with the soulful voice.

Those and many other questions were what Hot 97’s Ebro in the AM asked the former American Idol contestant when she visited their studio. All smiles and soft spoken, she answered the million dollar questions in regards to her nationality (spoiler alert: she’s not white) as well as being a YouTube kid.

On her nationality:

My dad is Jamaican and Puerto Rican and my mom is Irish and German and probably some other things but those are like the main things.

On the mystery about her race always being a factor:

I’ve gotten that all my life. I kind of like being the girl people are unsure— I don’t care what people think I am. I think it’s about the music and the soulfulness behind it. It shouldn’t be about what race you are.

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