John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner Kelli Welli Releases New Family Album 'Baby Ninja'

Baby Ninja, the fourth album for families from John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize winner Kelli Welli, was released today, June 16, 2023.

In collaboration with illustrator Belén Toscano, Kelli has also created a 40-page comic book based on Baby Ninja's title track. A bold statement about the amazing and powerful things babies do every day, the Baby Ninja comic book was released today alongside the Baby Ninja album.

Take a little bit of pop, a pinch of Americana, and a dash of African rhythm. Add in a taste of Cajun flavor and a touch of country and western with a Japanese flair, and you have what fans have come to expect from Kelli Welli: originality, personality, a dose of the ridiculous, and lots and lots of love.

Kelli Welli's songs tell goofball stories, celebrate love, nature, and languages, and honor the small moments that come with raising the little people in our lives. The 16 tracks on Baby Ninja explode with Kelli's creativity and include contributions from fellow kids' artists and talented friends Uncle Jumbo, Claudia Robin Gunn, Nanny Nikki, Stacey Peasley, and the album's co-producer and multi-instrumentalist, Bryan Daste.

Reviewers and peers have placed Kelli Welli on a par with some of today's top children's artists, saying her unique style places her “very much on her own pedestal, unmatched by other artists” and that her work is “a true testament to what happens when you listen to children, rather than suggest what children should listen to.”

Baby Ninja is available for purchase on Amazon, Bandcamp and at kelliwelli.com and streaming on all major platforms.

Portland, Oregon-based Kelli Caldwell, who performs for kids as Kelli Welli, is an active songwriter in both the children's and singer-songwriter/Americana (“grown-up”) music arenas. She has previously released three award-winning children's albums and was the Grand Prize Winner in the children's category of the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. All three of Kelli's previous children's albums won the prestigious National Parenting Products Award. She is a three-time winner of the West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest and was a finalist in the Great American Song Contest. Kelli won third place in the 2023 International Songwriting Competition, where she reached the finals in 2019, 2020, and 2022. Although Kelli is relatively new to the thriving Portland kindie performance scene, she was named a TOP 5 Parent Pick by PDX Parent magazine in 2020 and 2023.

Kelli has a Master of Publishing degree from Canada's Simon Fraser University and a B.A. in Speech Communication with minors in Japanese and German from Oregon State University. She's been a prolific writer and songwriter for over 20 years, was a board member of the Portland Songwriters Association for eight years, and is a member of the Recording Academy, West Coast Songwriters, Nashville Songwriters Association International, Children's Music Network, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Previous releases include the albums Robots Don't Tell Jokes (2022; National Parenting Products Award), Let's Go, Pistachio (2021; National Parenting Products Award) and Ooh La La Too Doo Na Na Oop Bop Oop Bop Ribbit (2020; National Parenting Products Award, Moms Choice Gold Award), as well as three EPs released in 2016: LOVE, Turtle Doggie Monkey Froggie La La La La La, and Lullabies: For Kids and the People Who Love Them.

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