Meet and hear more from Alisan Porter of The Voice Season 10

The Voice

Meet and hear more from Alisan Porter of The Voice Season 10

March 7, 2016 By Mark Franklin 0

Her audition: Alisan Porter, 34, of Agoura Hills, Calif., auditioned with Linda Ronstadt’s “Blue Bayou.” She’d barely reached the chorus and already had three coaches — Adam Levine, Pharrell Williams and Blake Shelton — facing her direction. Eventually, Christina Aguilera joined them, giving Alisan a four-chair turn. Christina praised her story and her vocals. Alisan joined Team Christina, explaining she felt a connection with her because she’s also a mom who still enjoys a career in music.

Her background: A former child actress, Alisan appeared in her first commercial at age 3, appeared on Star Search at age 5 and eventually wound up in film’s, including “Parenthood” and “Curly Sue,” the latter opposite Jim Belushi. She played the lead role in the latter film at age 9. From there, she went to Broadway, appearing in “Footloose” and “Chorus Line.” She calls that a “high-stress environment” and admits “I lost myself,” using drugs and alcohol “as much as possible. But before it was too late, I reached out for help.” She’s now been sober for more than eight years. The mother of two, she’s a stay-at-home mom, but says she’s still an artist — one who prefers singing over acting. “This is my last shot at really making it in the music industry,” she says. “And I don’t think there’s a better way to showcase who I am than being on The Voice.”

What the show didn’t show:

Her mother was a dance coach for twins who were appearing on Star Search. Producers heard Alisan singing in the lobby and decided she should try out for the show as well. In 1987, at age 5, she became Star Search’s youngest winner. And a show biz career was launched that helped lead to those roles as a child actress.

After her time on Broadway, she moved back to Los Angeles and began pursuing a music career, with stints as the lead singer in a band called the Raz and her own band, The Alisan Porter Project.

Once in L.A., she also appeared in “The Ten Commandments: The Musical” at the Kodak Theater. Her co-stars included Val Kilmer and a pre-American Idol Adam Lambert.

She also has a writing credit on “Aftermath,” one of the songs on Adam’s “For Your Entertainment” album. You can watch them perform the song together here.

She details her struggle with alcoholism in a blog she wrote called Lil’ Mammas.

She released a superb 12-track album called “Who We Are” in 2014. I featured one standout track — “Stay or Run” — here. You can check out a couple of others below.

During a conference call with the media, Alisan explained her decision for auditioning with “Blue Bayou.” “I love songs from that era. I love kind of blending folk, and rock, and country, so I felt like I wanted to sing a classic with all of those elements and that (song) was really something that I thought would work and I love that song.”

She also admitted she was a little nervous about doing something so public after three and a half years as a stay-at-home mom. But “any reservations I had just kind of got squashed the second I stepped on the stage to do my blind audition.”

On iTunes: Her Voice performances, her 2014 “Who We Are” album and a self-titled 12-track album from 2009.

Keeping up with Alisan:
Twitter: @alisanporter
Instagram
YouTube

“Blue Heart” (from her 2014 album)