Exclusive: Ella Bleu Travolta Releases Tribute to Mother Kelly Preston, “Little Bird” From Forthcoming Debut EP ‘Colors of Love’

When Ella Travolta began writing songs in 2020, she started excavating parts of her life that she realized she needed to reveal. Reflecting on her experiences over the past four years, and a devastating loss, led the 24-year-old singer and songwriter to her debut EP, Colors of Love, and one of her most personal songs, “Little Bird.”

The touching ballad is a tribute to Travolta’s mother actress Kelly Preston, who died in 2020 from cancer at age 57, and reconnecting to the memory and spirit of those lost.

Little bird don’t you cry / Would you stay awhile before I fly / Close your eyes / Won’t you smile / Sing a lullaby it’ll be alright Travolta tenderly sings on the ballad, which she co-wrote with Callum Maudsley. “Little Bird,” explains Travolta, is a discussion and connection between a baby bird and a mama bird, but could correlate to any relationship.

The song also explores growing up in the public eye during such a loss and breaking through all of the outside voices clouding the memory and connection to the person they lost—What is real / When everybody tells me / How to feel / What is mine / How do I speak / When every word is taken.

“Growing up, you’re going to go through loss and growing up in the public, which I have since very young, there’s definitely going to be more attention on it from a lot of people,” Travolta tells American Songwriter. “Anyone going through a loss, you’re going to have other people’s input that can easily be added into it, or other people’s feelings, and it can cloud how you feel when you don’t really know how you feel, or not be as pure to your own feelings.”

The accompanying music video features home videos of Ella with her mother and father and other personal snapshots from her childhood.

Following Travolta’s earlier singles “Dizzy” in 2022, featured in the film Just Seconds Apart, and “No Thank You” from 2023, Travolta continued writing a batch of songs on the ukulele, which she shared with her father, John Travolta. Both tracks also appear on the six-track Colors of Love, along with “Little Bird.”

“This song [‘Little Bird’] is about listening to yourself and staying true to that pure relationship that you had with that person that you lost,” adds Travolta. “It’s about making sure that you have an almost direct communication and a pure line to that person, and know how you’re feeling, what you want to communicate to them.”

She adds, “I’m hoping with all of these songs, people can take away what they can, or relate to it in whatever way they can because they’re left up to interpretation.”

Photos: Stefania Rosini