Idol Chatter & Voice Views

When Alisan Porter auditioned for The Voice, the 34-year-old mother of two was still best known for her career as a child actress.

Or, more specifically, for playing the title role in the 1991 comedy “Curly Sue,” opposite James Beluchi.

“I have retired Curly Sue; she is dead,” Alisan proclaimed at least somewhat jokingly during a press conference Tuesday evening.

“I am now the girl who won The Voice.”

She is indeed, claiming the Season 10 title after being the show’s early favorite, but losing some momentum recently.

She regained it during Monday’s performance finale, placing two songs — an original called “Down That Road” and a cover of “Somewhere” from West Side Story — in the Top 10 on iTunes.

Her duet of “You’ve Got a Friend” with Christina Aguilera was also the most successful coach-artist collaboration from Monday’s show, landing at number 21 on iTunes.

And on Tuesday, at the end of a two-hour season finale, Carson Daly proclaimed her the winner, with Adam Wakefield finishing second, followed by Hannah Huston and Laith Al-Saadi.

In the process, Alisan became the first female since Season 5 to claim The Voice title. And she made Christina Aguilera the first female to coach a singer to victory on the show.

“It’s so cool that that’s how my career started,” Alisan said of her early acting roles. “And I am honored to have had a great career when I was young. But it’s been decades since that is over and since I have been wanting this.”

Along the way, she’s admitted she got sidetracked by drugs and alcohol. Then came eight years of sobriety, marriage and two children.

“I always knew when I wasn’t in a good place, I would always hear myself saying, ‘If you could just stop this, you could probably do all these things that you want to do. If you could just get off this hamster wheel of numbing pain.’

“I knew that if I changed my life — really honestly changed my outlook on things — that something eventually was going to happen. I was patient and I kind of just waited for an opportunity to present itself for me … I couldn’t have ever imagined it would be something as amazing as this.”

As for Christina’s mentorship on The Voice?

“It was everything,” Alison said. “I love people that lead by example and she was a perfect example for me as a mother, an artist and such a powerful woman and strong personality. But she’s also vulnerable and sweet, and she embraced me right away.”

Next comes the hard part, achieving post-Voice success in the music industry. It’s been elusive for some past winners, especially those who have won past age 30.

But Alisan said she thinks the “sky is the limit.” And while she leans toward “folksy, classic” music, she wasn’t ready to commit to the type of album she’d release during Tuesday’s press conference.

Given what she’s gone through in the past 10 months on The Voice, she said “there’s a lot to write (music) about.

“Whatever happens during that process I think will be something organic and natural. I honestly don’t believe there’s one genre you need to stick to. For a singer like me and a writer like me, I speak from the heart and whatever comes out is going to be the kind of record that I make.”

From her blind audition on, Alisan has said that music, not acting, was always her first love.

“I’m just excited to be part of the music business,” she said. “This is what I’ve wanted my whole life, really, since I was 5 years old and I auditioned for Star Search. I’ve never stopped wanting that.”

See also …
Alisan Porter says she got tons of support from good friend Adam Lambert
Photo gallery of Alisan Porter’s winning night on The Voice