Loren Allred

An American vocalist, composer, and keyboardist whose crystalline, full-bodied delivery first appeared on the Billboard charts via her contribution to the motion-picture adaptation of the stage production The Greatest Showman, Loren Allred entered the world as the daughter of two musicians. Her mother, classical soprano Dr. Carol Ann Allred, and her father, Dr. Brady R. Allred, relocated the household from Pennsylvania to Utah once Loren turned fourteen so that he could assume the posts of Artistic Director and Conductor with Salt Lake Choral Artists. While immersed in classical repertoire, she also gravitated toward the powerhouse stylings of Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Toni Braxton; formal lessons helped her cultivate a distinctive soul-infused pop approach. She spent one year in the musical-theater program at Weber State University in Ogden before moving to Boston to enroll at the Berklee College of Music. During that period, self-posted YouTube clips attracted the attention of Ne-Yo, who advocated for her and secured a contract with Island/Def Jam, prompting her relocation to New York City. Producers of the televised competition The Voice likewise noticed her, resulting in her participation as a third-season contestant in 2012; she advanced as far as the opening round of the live playoffs and finished tied for thirteenth.

Two years later she accepted an offer to record with the then-emerging Broadway duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul on an original screen musical. After laying down preliminary tracks, she was selected to supply the singing voice for Rebecca Ferguson’s portrayal of Jenny Lind in the completed film The Greatest Showman. In the interval preceding the movie’s late-2017 premiere, Pasek and Paul earned an Academy Award and several Tony Awards for their scores to La La Land and the stage hit Dear Evan Hansen. The Greatest Showman itself proved commercially successful, with its soundtrack ascending to the summit of the Billboard album chart in January 2018; that same month Allred’s featured ballad “Never Enough” entered the Hot 100 at number 88 and later reached the Top 40 in both the United Kingdom and Ireland.