Loren Allred remembers buying rapper Wiz Khalifa’s mixtape directly from him off the street.
“I was in middle school,” she says, “and I remember the cover and his song ‘Prince of the City,’ because it was my MySpace page song for many years. He was hustling, and it was really cool,” she adds. Now the same could be said for this Pittsburgh native, who’s making a name for herself in the music industry after early years filled with competition shows and behind-the-scenes work.
“I was on The Voice when I was 21, and I feel like I wasn’t ready for the pressure at the time,” Allred, now 34, tells Pittsburgh City Paper. She was a contestant on season three of the NBC show and selected Maroon 5’s Adam Levine as her coach. She was eliminated after the first week of live playoffs and tied for 13th place.
Allred then decided to take a break from the music industry and got more involved in demo singing, which led her to an opportunity with writers from the 2017 movie The Greatest Showman.
“That kind of put my voice back into the public, which I felt was a unique situation,” she tells City Paper. “It wasn’t something I had expected would happen.”
Allred was cast as the singing voice of actress Rebecca Ferguson’s character, belting the famous song “Never Enough,” which was part of the movie’s platinum-selling soundtrack.
In 2022, Allred auditioned for the 15th season of Britain’s Got Talent, where she performed the song. Judge and showrunner Simon Cowell asked why Allred never got a big record deal after the song. She explained that she was more comfortable behind the scenes but was now ready to put a face to the song.
With her debut album forthcoming, her face is poised to be recognized everywhere. Still, Allred’s roots — both familial and musical — are in Pittsburgh. She was born at Allegheny General Hospital and grew up on the North Side, near Riverview Park. She reminisced about growing up in the city, going to Blue Slide Park as a child.
“I laid on my stomach to go down the slide with no cardboard,” she laughs. “It ripped up my whole stomach and my mom had to put a million band-aids on it.”
Allred later heard the late rapper and Pittsburgh native Mac Miller’s 2011 debut album Blue Slide Park and was excited to see a Pittsburgher coming up in the music industry.
Allred also remembers going to work at Duquesne University, where her dad worked as director of choral studies. She took her first piano lessons from Duquesne students in the practice rooms at the university.
Allred’s father, Brady, was also director of the Pittsburgh Bach Choir until the family moved to Salt Lake City. He is now artistic director and conductor of the Salt Lake Choral Artists. Her mother, Carol Ann, is a classical soprano and voice teacher. Allred fondly remembers her parents performing together often at places like Heinz Hall, with her mother soloing with her father’s choir often.