SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 20, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Singer Loren Allred has achieved a lot in her life — and she’s just getting started.
Her face is getting more and more recognizable; and chances are, you’ve heard her voice, even if you don’t know it.
Allred attended Cottonwood High School in Murray, then studied musical theater at Weber State University in Ogden for a year before transferring to Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Allred’s parents are both musicians; her mother is a classical soprano and voice teacher and her father was formerly the director of the Pittsburgh Bach Choir and an artistic director and conductor of Salt Lake Choral Artists. Allred’s parents still live in Murray.
While studying in Boston, Allred uploaded videos of her singing to YouTube and was discovered and championed by Ne-Yo, ultimately leading to a record deal with Island Def Jam, when she was just 19. Allred also auditioned for “American Idol” when she was 18, in 2008, and competed on season three of “The Voice” in 2012.
But she is best known for her jaw-dropping vocal performance of the RIAA multi-platinum song “Never Enough” from the Oscar-nominated and Grammy-award winning “The Greatest Showman” soundtrack and film. Being the voice in the 2017 film and not the actress, Allred was mostly an industry secret until April 2022 when she appeared on “Britain’s Got Talent” performing “Never Enough” and received a Golden Buzzer. She performed her new single “Last Thing I’ll Ever Need” on the finale of “BGT” season 15, making her television debut as a songwriter, and ultimately finished in ninth place.
In 2021, Allred began to release original music via her EP “Late Bloomer.” She also toured her new music, and appeared on tours with Andrea Bocelli and David Foster. Her powerful EP “I Hear Your Voice” was released in April 2023.
She subsequently got a call that she would likely be appearing on “America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League,” in January of this year, which featured 40 all-star acts, 10 chosen by each judge. The 40 acts had all previously performed on one of the “Got Talent” franchises from around the world. Allred wasn’t sure what team she would be chosen for, but suspected it would be Cowell’s, and she was right. She went on to perform a new arrangement of “Never Enough,” with a key change that took her to a note that was higher than she had ever sung on live television. Her performance got her voted through by the “AGT” superfans to the semifinals, where she performed another song from a motion picture, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’
Allred chatted to Gephardt Daily from her home in New York Monday before she traveled to Japan Tuesday for work.
We asked her first about her upbringing in Utah.
“My family moved to Salt Lake when I was about to start ninth grade,” she said. “And I went to Cottonwood High School, and I found out that there was a scholarship audition for musical theater at Weber State and it was like a full ride opportunity. And so I auditioned for that and I got that scholarship. And when I was at Weber State doing musical theater, I actually had a voice teacher there, and he said, I think what would be the right fit for you would be to audition for Berklee College of Music in Boston, because it’s a little bit more contemporary. They can open you up to the pop world a little bit more than here, because I think I was feeling like, you know, I love musical theater, but I really want to study songwriting and vocal performance in another area. So, you know, my experience at Weber State and that voice teacher was really helpful in kind of shaping me to be able to move forward and into another area. He was always looking out for me and I studied with him for like a decade after that. So he’s always been a great influence.”
We also asked Allred what advice she would have given her younger self, particularly in tough times; she has said previously that her time with Def Jam and on “The Voice” were particularly difficult for her given the age she was, to the extent that she decided to quit the music industry because she was dealing with anxiety and depression.
“I think I would have just said, if you’re not ready, you don’t have to do this,” Allred said. “I think that, you know, embarking on a career that’s so public, and that kind of makes you into a product is something that someone who knows themselves a little better might be suited for, because it can be difficult to know who to trust, and know which direction to go, and know when to stand up for yourself. So I think I would have just said, it’s okay to wait a little longer. And I mean, that’s what I did, and I definitely don’t regret that.”
We also asked her about her relationship with the song “Never Enough,” and whether she feels that song entered her life for a reason.
“Yes, definitely,” she said. “You know, at the time, I had kind of decided that I was happier singing behind the scenes and I feel like the universe or something was giving me this opportunity to kind of ease me back into a place where… that I could follow and eventually come out again. So I feel like it was the perfect scenario for me. It wasn’t anything that I would have expected to happen, but I am so grateful for how it happened.”
Allred said the experience on “Britain’s Got Talent” was nerve-wracking, but so worth it.
“I mean, it was scary because, you know, the last reality competition show that I had done, ‘The Voice,’ it was very stressful for me and it didn’t really turn out how I had hoped,” she said. “And so I just thought, wow, I’m really just throwing myself back into the fire again. You know, and these shows are difficult because you never know what the judges are going to say. You never know how you’re going to sound, so it could either be the best moment of your life or the worst moment, and I’m so grateful that it ended up being such an emotional life-changing moment for me and, and Simon and the judges on ‘BGT’ were so welcoming and so encouraging. So, I am so glad that I ended up doing that.”
We also asked her how she ended up getting the call to take part in “America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League.”
“Well the producers reached out and they just said, you know, we’re doing this, like kind of all-stars show and the judges are drafting their favorite contestants from past seasons, and you might be getting a call from someone you know in the next couple of days,” Allred said. “And then I got a call from Simon; so I didn’t know which judge had chosen me but I had a hunch since I had already performed for Simon. I was excited when he was the one that called.”
I also asked her if she would’ve chosen Cowell had she got to select her mentor.
“Oh, yeah, without a doubt, he’s a genius,” she said. “He has amazing instincts and he’s proven that, you know, he knows what to do with singers since I was a teenager. I actually missed my first week of Berklee because I was auditioning for ‘American Idol’ when I was 18. And he said no; he was not very nice to me. So I also had that fear, before I went on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ of, you know; is it just gonna be the same? But you know, something’s changed in him and he is just the warmest, most encouraging person. And I think he was able to kind of drop that character that I feel like he had to play.”
She also talked about performing a new version of “Never Enough” on “AGT: Fantasy League.”
“It was an epic experience because Simon said, I think that you should come back to the U.S. and do ‘Never Enough’ again, and then I thought, oh, I want to make sure it’s not enough,” she said. “But he said, I really think that, you know, people in the U.S., a lot of them haven’t heard the story yet. I think it’s really important that you introduce yourself over here, and he was so right, because the response was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I think I had 20,000 notifications in one day on my phone, like, it wasn’t; I mean, I couldn’t keep up with it. And I feel like finally now, I’ve established a name for myself in the U.S. and in the world, and it’s just, it’s really a difficult thing to do, and I feel like it happened, because of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and ‘America’s Got Talent’ and Simon Cowell in particular.”
She added of her performance of “Never Enough”: “It’s a little bit different; we added a key change and so it was a challenge for me; it’s the highest I’ve ever sung the song live. So I was just like, you know what, if we’re gonna go for it, we’re gonna take it all the way. I’m honestly so proud of how how it went. I was intimidated, but I really, I was just like, this might be one of my best vocal performances ever.” Allred also told us her parents were able to fly to England when she was on “BGT” and to Los Angeles to see her appear on “AGT: Fantasy League.”
The show ended up being won by head-to-head balancing act duo from Tanzania the Ramadhani Brothers, but Allred was invited to perform on the finale. “I was a guest performer, kind of coming back for the finale,” she said. “There were a bunch of different acts on the show that performed with me and [singer] Brian Justin Crum. And it just felt like a Cirque Du Soleil celebration, like it was amazing.”
Allred also told us more about her trip to Japan, which begins today, Feb. 20.
“I have this amazing opportunity, where I’m singing the song for the new ‘Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth’ which has such a huge following; people have been looking forward to this re-released this game from the 90s, and I’m the singing voice of one of the main characters, Aerith, in the game,” she said. “So that’s coming out, I think, maybe in April, but we are filming a music video for that with the composer and so it’s really special. I’ve been there [to Japan] once before, but it was just for a private event, and this opportunity feels like, you know, much more exciting.”
Allred also talked about what the rest of 2024 holds for her and what’s on her bucket list to achieve.
“I have so many things that I’m excited about,” she said. “I recorded my semi-final song, my arrangement of ‘Over the Rainbow.’ That’s coming out soon. We did all live strings. And then I have a music video to go with my brand new version of ‘Never Enough.’ So that’s coming out. I couldn’t contractually put out my own version until five years after the movie. So I just felt like this was the perfect time and I kind of got inspired by Taylor Swift’s whole thing where she did kind of like Taylor’s version, so it’s called ‘Never Enough: Loren’s Version.’ And then I’m just finishing up a whole EP actually, which includes some songs that were supposed to be on my album when I was signed to Def Jam; I’ve been able to record those again. And then a few spins on ‘Greatest Showman’ songs and then a brand new original, so it’s almost like an album that shows my past, present and future and it’s going to be called ‘Claim to Fame.’ So I feel like that project is going to showcase me as an artist more than just a singer which I feel like people kind of gathered from ‘The Greatest Showman.’ I’m really excited about it.”
Allred said the EP will likely come out later in 2024.
“It’s going to be a little later in the year because we’re just putting some live strings and trumpet and you know, I’m really kind of like pouring my heart and soul into this,” she said. “So it’s going to be a few more months but I’ll keep you updated.”
We also asked her if she has any desire to tread the boards on stage or appear in films.
“It’s been really exciting,” she said. “I’ve had some audition inquiries come in for some Broadway, West End sort of things. So it’s been really exciting to kind of work with an acting coach and tackle those auditions, so I’m not sure what will happen but it’s definitely on my bucket list.”
For more on Loren Allred and to listen to more of her music, click here.
