ABOVE: Jim (L) and Sasha Allen on “The Voice.” Screenshot via YouTube/NBC.
The unique folksy blend of the voices in a sweet rendition of the John Denver classic song “Leaving on a Jet Plane” this week on NBC’s “The Voice” caused celebrity judges Kelly Clarkson and Ariana Grande to mash their buttons and turn their chairs around to face the performance.
Unbeknownst to the entire panel of judges, which also includes John Legend and Blake Shelton, they were witnessing a bit of history for the reality musical talent search television show. On stage was 57-year-old music teacher Jim Allen and his son Sasha. The moment was groundbreaking as the 19-year-old teen singer is a transgender.
In the pre-performance video profile, the younger Allen reflected “I do have a special connection to the concept of a Blind Audition, where the only thing that matters is the art and who the person is inside.” Allen went on to detail more of his background, adding that “I was born female, and I never felt comfortable, and it ate away at me the more I grew up.”
The pair from Newtown, Connecticut have an obvious deep bond. Referring to his son, the elder Allen said: ““It’s a parent’s job to listen to your child, even when it’s hard to understand them.
And that brought forth extreme sadness at not having understood what he had been going through for years,” he added. “While it is such a big and extraordinary thing to absorb, there are fundamental things that don’t change about a person. And it’s nice to be at that point where, you know, it’s not a big deal.”
“I remember at night just laying in bed and thinking, ‘If I could just wake up as a completely different person, I would do it,” his son also noted. “I would give up everything I have to be able to live in peace and live comfortably without being tormented internally.’ I used to write in notebooks, ‘I feel like a boy. I want this so bad.’ And I’d shred it up into such tiny pieces, because I was so scared for anybody to know.
“The only way to feel like me was to transition to male,” he continued. “I dealt with a lot of hateful comments, whether it was from my classmates or from teachers. I wouldn’t have been able to get through high school without music and without art to express what I was going through,” he said.
Watch their performance below:
https://youtu.be/ti3Kq1FpOmU
