Transgender singer-songwriter and former “The Voice” contestant Sasha Allen has officially released his debut solo EP “Jawbreaker” (on Tuesday, April 15, 2025) after dropping his record contract with Republic Records.
Allen Says ‘Jawbreaker’ was Inspired by Girlfriend, Adore Delano
Allen, alongside his father Jim, captured the nation’s attention when they joined the cast of “The Voice” in 2021. Following the father-son duo’s audition – a rendition of John Denver’s 1966 track “Leaving on a Jet Plane” – they joined a team under the guidance of then-judge Ariana Grande before being eliminated in the season’s semi-finals.
Now, four years since his exit on “The Voice,” Allen’s debut solo EP has been released. Titled “Jawbreaker,” Allen reported that the EP speaks to his newly-minted relationship with singer, actor, and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Adore Delano. According to Allen, the pair met in November 2024 before making their relationship official the next month.
“I decided to name it after the last track on the EP, ‘Jawbreaker,’ because the song is a reflection on the changes my life went through at the end of last year after meeting Adore [Delano],” Allen told Out Magazine in an interview published the day of the EP’s release. “Some of the songs on the EP I wrote many years ago, but this track symbolized something new and blossoming in my life.”
“Jawbreaker,” according to Allen, is both personal and political, speaking on the singer-songwriter’s lived experience as a transgender man, particularly on the track “Bones.” In the song, Allen imagines a distant future where his bones are being uncovered by archaeologists.
“They’ll find your bones / From the same frame of time / And they’ll treat your bones / Just as they’ve treated mine,” sings Allen, clapping back at those who refuse to accept his trans identity, adding, “You’re so worried about me / I don’t think that you noticed it / By then the archaeologists / Are all transgender socialists.”
Allen recalled the early days of his transition in his interview with Out, pulling from the memories as inspiration for his EP. Born and raised in Newton, Connecticut, Allen remembered “being fed up with trying to exist as a female when I knew that I wasn’t. It was an ongoing build up.”
“It was even more heightened in middle school, when I really tried to push it down,” Allen added. “But the more I pushed it down, the more it bubbled up.”
Allen began his transition at 16-years-old while still in high school, which the singer remembers as “some of the hardest years of my life.”
Allen Discusses ‘The Voice’ and Leaving his Record Label
Despite a challenging high school experience, Allen won the hearts of Americans following his (and his father’s) audition on “The Voice” in 2021. Allen recalled the experience with Out Magazine, calling it “shocking.”
“I didn’t think we’d make it past the first round of auditions because I didn’t think we were really cut out for ‘The Voice’ to begin with,” Allen admitted. “I felt like we only got on because we would be ‘good TV.’ Like, I’m a trans guy, and we’re a father-son duo. We also had a folkie sound I didn’t think would get a chair-turn. I especially didn’t think we’d get a turn from Ariana [Grande]. That was in the last 10 seconds of the song, and it was the start of a really incredible journey.”
GettyAllen’s partnership with Grande extended beyond the show, with the “Wicked” star pulling some strings behind the scenes to open new opportunities for Allen and his father.
“My dad and I were the last ones on Team Ariana, and we obviously didn’t win the show, but Ariana went to her label [Universal Music Group] to facilitate an opportunity for my dad and I to release an EP together under that label.”
The EP, which was released in 2022, was titled “16 Borders” and featured a number of tracks written by Allen’s father Jim. “My dad’s an incredible singer-songwriter who taught me everything I know,” said Allen. “That EP is all of his songs that he wrote when I was a baby.”
Despite the positive experience Allen had recording with his father, the 22-year-old recently elected to leave his contract with Universal Music Group. Allen was encouraged to leave the label, which represents artists like Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and Lady Gaga, after talking to Delano about his music career.
“You’re shelved right now,” Allen remembers Delano saying to him late last year.
“Your voice and your guitar are your weapons. I can literally see in your eyes right now that you need to do this,” Delano added. “You need to get off that label.”
Speaking more on the situation, Allen told Out, “It just ended up being a tale-as-old-as-time record label situation where there’s a lot of holdup, trying to change things, and not being heard. I was the smallest fish ever in this massive ocean that is [Universal Music Group]. It’s a massive record label with the biggest artists in the world. It had been a dream, my whole life, to be signed by a record label. I was like ‘Oh my god, this is great. I’m not going to fade away.’ But it just turned into the typical thing: I was in an all-encompassing contract that didn’t turn out the way I would imagine.”
After leaving UMG, Allen released “When I Forgive You” on March 29, 2025. The track, which is the debut single from the “Jawbreaker” EP, highlights the unconditional love the transgender singer received from his “devout Catholic” grandmother after coming out.
“If this person has the ability to be so devout and have such belief in God and the Bible, yet also loves me and accepts me just the way I am…There’s a lot of power in that. There’s a lot of room for more acceptance in the world,” said Allen about the landmark single.
Sasha Allen’s debut solo EP “Jawbreaker” is available to stream now on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon Music.