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Talent runs in John Travolta‘s family, and his daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, cites him as a big influence.
Ella, a singer who performs under her first and middle name, is gearing up to release her debut EP. In a recent interview with People, the 24-year-old artist shared how she got into music.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, I had a bunch of little voice notes on my phone of snippets of songs that I came up with or melodies. I play ukulele, and I write a lot on ukulele, so little ukulele songs [too],” Ella said.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
After coming up with a few songs, Ella decided to play them for her father, who, alongside his Academy Award-nominated acting career, is also known for his singing — most notably in his iconic role as Danny Zuko in Grease and Edna Turnblad in the movie musical adaptation Hairspray. (In addition to Ella, John is a dad to his late son Jett, who died in 2009 at 16, and son Ben, 13. He shared all three children with late wife Kelly Preston.)
Upon hearing Ella’s music, John encouraged his daughter to keep going — and to embark on a music career.
“He was like, ‘Oh, wow, you should really finish these. You should finish these songs, and then, you could record demos of them or something,'” Ella said.
Ella then decided to put together a collection of songs. The result is Colors of Love, which is set to arrive on Friday, November 8. The EP will feature a song called “Little Bird,” dedicated to her late mother, who died at 57 in July 2020 after a battle with breast cancer.
“It had been a couple of years since my mom’s passing, so I could take a step back and see what I wanted to communicate,” Ella said. “And I just wanted it to be as real and personal as possible.”
Through the process of writing and recording Ella’s music, her dad John has been her rock. He shared a snippet of “Little Bird” last month on his personal Instagram page, and revealed he helped produce the song. The two also made a father-daughter trip to Paris this past summer during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
She credits the industry veteran for instilling confidence in her craft.
“I run things by him a lot. He’s a complete role model for me and one of the biggest things … he does is he’ll give me advice,” she says. “The best advice that I’ve gotten obviously is from him, but he also really leaves it up to me, which I really appreciate. He very much … trusts me and my instincts.”
