John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s Daughter Ella Honors Her Late Mom With Deeply Personal Song
Ella Bleu Travolta is honoring her late mother Kelly Preston in the most beautiful way.
The daughter of Kelly and John Travolta released her new song “Little bird” on Sept. 6 as a tribute to the actress, who died in July 2020 of breast cancer.
In the emotional tune, the 24-year-old sings with an ethereal quality while paying homage her mom.
“Little bird, don’t you cry / would you stay awhile before I fly?” she croons. “How do I know? How do I grow? / I just take it day by day / I just need to hear you say / Little bird, don’t you cry / Hear my lullaby. It’ll be alright.”
Ella’s proud father marked the release of her new song by praising his daughter and sharing that the date held a special meaning in their family.
“This song and video is an homage to her mother, and it also happens to be my wedding anniversary with Kelly,” the Hairspray actor wrote. “It is one of the songs on her upcoming album that I helped produce - please enjoy!”
In the subsequent music video, Ella shared touching home videos from her childhood with John, Kelly, her younger brother Benjamin Travolta, 13, and her late brother Jett Travolta.
In the clips, she shows John, who has his pilot’s license, dressed in full uniform, greeting his family at the plane. There’s also footage of the entire family playing inside a toy store, lots of hugs, dancing, splashing in the pool together, celebrating holidays and much more.
“‘Little bird’ is a song about a beautiful time in my life,” Ella wrote on Instagram Sept. 4. “I spent the last two years thinking about what I wanted this song to be, only for it to be written over night. This song is about the celebration of life.”
To look back at Kelly Preston's life, read on.
Preston acted alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in the 1988 movie Twins.
Travolta and Preston both appeared in the 1989 movie The Experts. Travolta played Travis while Preston played Bonnie. The pair starred in many more films together over the years, including Battlefield Earth, Old Dogs and Gotti.
Preston married Travolta in 1991. She opened up about their most romantic moments during a 2018 interview with People.
"I think it's when Johnny just whisks me away, and we'll jump on the airplane and go out to dinner, and I don't know where we're going," she told the magazine at the time. "It's good to be married to a pilot!"
Travolta and Preston welcomed son Jett in 1992.
The actress played Avery Bishop in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire.
Travolta and Preston welcomed daughter Ella in 2000. Here, they were seen attending a 2018 party in Cannes, France in honor of Travolta's Inaugural Variety Cinema Icon Award.
Preston played Libby Reynolds and acted alongside Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth in the 2003 movie What a Girl Wants.
She also gave the Dr. Seuss book a new twist by acting in the 2003 movie The Cat in the Hat along with Mike Myers, Alec Baldwin, Dakota Fanning, Spencer Breslin, Sean Hayes and more stars.
Preston also appeared in Maroon 5's 2009 music video for "She Will Be Loved."
In 2009, Jett suffered a seizure and died at the age of 16. Preston paid tribute to the late child, who had autism, by sharing the following photo and message on World Autism Awareness Day in 2019.
"To my sweet love, Jett... you are in our hearts forever," she wrote at the time. "I send love to all of the beautiful autistic children and the wonderful people who love them. May we all shine and grant love and respect to children with special needs. #autismawareness #autism."
Travolta and Preston welcomed son Benjamin in 2010. Here, they were pictured at the Solo: A Star Wars Story premiere at the 71st Cannes Film Festival in France back in 2018.
Preston played Victoria in the 2018 project Gotti.