Though his original music has been going viral for years, it was only this spring that Sasha Allen officially made his debut as a solo musician. The 23-year-old singer-songwriter and social media sensation first found fame as a contestant on The Voice in 2021, and four years later, Allen says he feels he’s finally stepping into himself as an artist.
Allen grew up in Connecticut, where his father Jim made sure that music was always a part of his life.
“I got really lucky,” Allen says. “My dad is a music teacher and an incredible musician. He’s like a savant and can play anything you put in his hands. And so from a really young age, I was exposed to music and had music at my disposal. He taught me to play guitar when I was 6 years old.”
From there, Allen also learned to play the bass and to sing, then started writing his own music at age 12. At 18, he started posting on TikTok, laying the foundation for his now more than 1.6 million followers on the platform.
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“I was in a spot where I just didn’t know what I was doing with my life,” Allen recalls. “I was in middle-of-nowhere Connecticut. I was not in school. I had finished high school early. I was in a weird in-between era and an artistic rut of, like, ‘What do I do?’”
“I started TikTok kind of hoping that I would be able to have some sort of audience and then use it later in my life to promote my music — which is exactly what ended up happening, and so I’m very lucky,” he continues. “I just kind of started talking about my experiences as a trans person in a way that — I’m not really good at being serious unless I’m singing. So it was kind of in a way that was more raw and comedic, and I just kind of talked at the camera, and people started to connect with that.”
At age 20, Allen made the leap from social media to television screens: He and his father made it onto reality singing competition The Voice, where they were chosen by coach Ariana Grande. Allen knew that going on the show meant sharing his trans identity with a national audience, and indeed, his time on The Voice made headlines not just for his talent, but for bringing trans rep to one of TV’s biggest music competitions.
“I had to make the decision to go on The Voice as an openly trans person and grapple with that decision, because it’s such a massive audience — and it was also the most viewed season of The Voice history, because it was Ariana Grande’s season,” he explains. “I knew it would be huge, and I knew that it would also kind of lock that in, of like, ‘Sasha Allen is a trans artist. Sasha Allen is a trans influencer.’ And even though I make content that’s so trans-related, it’s a hard thing to be like, that’s what I’m going to be known as and known for.”
“Over the years, I’ve actually found so much beauty in leaning into that and saying, ‘Yeah, I am. I am a trans musician. I am a trans influencer. Like, that is who I am. That’s my life experience. There’s no way around it,’” Allen continues. “I’ve been able to reach so many people and connect with so many people, and appearing on The Voice and being openly trans, I got endless messages. The fact that I appeared with my dad, who so wholeheartedly accepted me, changed people’s lives when it was on their TVs in their living rooms with their parents. I’m very thankful to be a trans person that’s so openly trans. It’s added to my life so much. It’s helped me to love myself more, and it’s something that I love about myself.”
“The fact that I appeared with my dad, who so wholeheartedly accepted me, changed people’s lives when it was on their TVs in their living rooms with their parents.”
– Sasha Allen
Allen and his dad made it to the season’s semifinals, making Allen the first trans contestant to make it to the live show portion of The Voice. Despite not making the finale, Allen was a breakout star of the season and even landed a record deal with Republic Records soon after the show wrapped. But despite his momentum, Allen didn’t release any music for the next three years — a result of his contract, he shared on social media, which tied his hands when it came to putting out his songs. Early this year, he was dropped from Republic, and he immediately started working on bringing his viral songs, like “When I Forgive You” and “Bones,” to streaming services.
“In a way, I’m really thankful for that, because it really wound me up,” Allen says of his record deal. “When I was finally out of that contract — I had three years to kind of stew on what I wanted and the songs I wanted and how I wanted things to sound. And I learned so much about the process of recording and writing and the structure of a song and releasing music. Even though I didn’t in those three years, I learned so much about it, and that helped me so much, because everything on my EP, all of the instruments, the mix, the production, was all just fully me by myself with complete creative control.”
“It was the greatest feeling ever,” he adds. “It felt like it was something that I was waiting to do for my entire life: like, I had never had music out before this, but I’ve been writing music for over a decade now. And so it was great. It was one of my favorite creative experiences of my entire life, recording my EP.”
That EP, Jawbreaker, came out this April, featuring five new songs and a lullaby version of Allen’s previously released single “When I Forgive You.” The essence of the EP, he says, is “coming to terms and also celebrating identity and the experience of that in your early 20s, whether it’s finding love, or whether it’s sexually, or whether it’s accepting the world’s view of trans people and still living through that and finding joy in that, and finding joy in existing as someone who is different.”
Allen says the song he’s proudest of is Jawbreaker’s title track. It closes the EP with a healthy dose of romance: “The best of my life is the touch of your eyes / While my hands find you on the frets of my guitar,” he croons in the second verse.
“That song is about T4T relationships, which — I’m in my first one in my adult life right now, which has been really life-changing for me and really beautiful for me and essential in finally feeling comfortable with myself,” he explains. “It’s a song about accepting yourself in romantic relationships or sexually and finding someone who understands you and feeling deeply, deeply understood.”
At the end of last year, Allen hard-launched his relationship with RuPaul’s Drag Race star Adore Delano — and naturally, the internet was immediately obsessed with the new power couple. Seven months later, Allen says their relationship is as strong as ever (and their frequent swoon-worthy posts about each other make it easy to believe).
“She’s the love of my life,” he says. “Like, she is such a beautiful human being and someone that understands me so much. […] I’ve never met someone that I have so much in common with, like, down to a soul level.”
With both Allen and Delano being reality TV alumni and social media stars, their relationship has been the subject of public scrutiny since it began — but despite what any trolls may think, Allen is happy to let his romance play out in the public eye.
“There’s been people who say, whatever, we have an age gap, whatever, who cares — in spite of that, I feel like being so public with her and our love for each other, it’s been really beautiful and gratifying for me, because I love her so much that I want to share it, and I want people to know and I want to celebrate that, because she’s been so influential in my life and even my love for myself,” he says. “She’s pushed me: She was the one that pushed me to get out of the contract that I was in that was holding me back, and pushed me to record my music, and pushed me to promote my music, and pushed me to keep going, like, since our first date ever.”
Looking forward in his career, Allen is excited to put out more music (“This next year, I want to — I’m going to — release a full-length album,” he promises), both as a solo artist and with his all-trans masc band The Dogs on Shepard Street. He’s also putting out a children’s book called The House That Feels Like Me, based on his viral video sharing his concept for a trans-positive picture book.
@sash1e may be the most wholesome video ive ever made – #fyp #foryou #lgbt #trans #gay #transgender #ftm #trending #queer #storytime #taylorswift ♬ original sound – sasha allen
And of course, he plans to continue building his social media following and sharing more of his songs and stories on TikTok. Allen appreciates that his careers as an influencer and a musician feed into each other, with his fans supporting both sides of his content in equal measure.
“I have many songs about being trans, and then I have an audience of 1.5 million followers on TikTok, and a lot of them are trans or allies or just LGBT in general,” Allen says. “There’s no better audience to have than queer people. They’re the best fans to have ever, because they’re crazy and they’ll go to the ends of the earth. So yeah, I really appreciate the overlap, and I also think that it’s helped people to know my personality and know me more as a person. And to me, I like artists where I feel connected to them, and I feel like I know them, and I feel like I know their story, and so I appreciate it, and I feel like it kind of blends into my music.”
“There’s no better audience to have than queer people. They’re the best fans to have ever, because they’re crazy and they’ll go to the ends of the earth.”
– Sasha Allen
Beyond his music, Allen’s become known for his candor about navigating the world as a trans person, from the reality of recovering after top surgery to schooling cis folks on their common misconceptions. Allen’s style of posting, he says, is motivated by his audience: in particular, his younger queer followers.
“A lot of the content that I post, I have in mind for trans kids, honestly, and teenagers or young adults and people that I see myself in,” he says. “I was at a point in my life when I was like 16, 17, 18, where I was struggling to navigate the world as a trans person and navigate my relationship with my identity. And so I want to share my stories and experiences to let people know that you can get through it and be successful, and you can experience joy and loving yourself as a trans person. ‘Cause it takes a long time to get there, so I want people to know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for them.” ♦
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