Ella Bleu Travolta is honoring her late mother, Kelly Preston’s life and legacy through her new music.
“[My mother’s death has] definitely been something that I had wanted to communicate and had been thinking about, obviously, for many years,” Travolta, 24, shared on the Friday, November 8, episode of Today while chatting about her debut EP, Colors of Love. “I think it’s different for each person, going through loss. But for me, personally, it was just this pure message that I wanted to give to my mom.”
She continued: “Even though there can be so much support from everyone, it can also sometimes get in the way of how you truly feel and how you want to communicate those, sort of, last words to that person or just give a communication to them. So, this was sort of just my message from a baby bird to a mama bird and also to yourself, too, ‘cause you always know what’s right.”
Ella is the only daughter of Preston and John Travolta. The couple, who wed in 1991, also shared sons Benjamin, 13, and Jett, who died at age 16 in 2009. John, 70, announced in July 2020 that Preston had died at age 57 after a two-year battle with breast cancer.
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One of the EP’s tracks, “Little Bird,” serves as a heartfelt tribute to Preston. “’Little bird’ is a song about a beautiful time in my life,” Ella explained in a September Instagram post. “I spent the last two years thinking about what I wanted this song to be, only for it to be written over night [sic]. This song is about the celebration of life.”
The song’s music video is comprised of home videos of Ella and her family from over the years. On Friday’s episode of Today, Ella said it was “amazing” to revisit old footage of her mom.
“It was really, really nostalgic and really beautiful,” she gushed. “There was a lot of crying, but they were happy tears. And I wanted it to be a celebration, too, of her life ‘cause it’s all those best, most happy moments. And that’s how I remember her.”
Ella began pursuing her passion for music during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. She described herself as a “closeted singer” before her famous father encouraged her to share her music.
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“I had a bunch of voice memos on my phone of little bits of songs that I wanted to finish, or it was just, like, a little melody or a few lyrics,” Ella shared on Today. “And then, my dad listened to one and he was like, ‘You know, you should finish one of these songs. You should finish writing it.’ So, that kind of gave me a little bit of a confidence boost.”
The project was a family affair as John serves as a producer on the EP. “I love working with my dad,” Ella said. “If I could always do it, I would. He’s amazing and he’s so protective because he’s been in the movie industry and the music industry forever, so he knows how to protect me, in that sense.”
Ella even has an idea for their next musical collaboration. “I would love to do a Christmas duet,” she teased.
