"What if I wake up and it's all made up?" sings Alisan Porter in the heart-felt ballad "What if I Wake Up," from her upcoming new album "Pink Cloud."



However, the Worcester native has consistently embodied what to do after a dream comes true. Porter's already remarkable career — including being a child actress star and later a singer with a powerful and expressive voice — saw her become the season 10 winner of NBC's "The Voice" in 2016. After winning, she stayed with Shakespeare's famous maxim "To thine own self be true."



"You need to know who you are musically," Porter has said about turning down a major label contract in order to follow her heart as an independent artist.



In that capacity, Porter, who now lives in Los Angeles, will be back in the area as part of a short East Coast tour when she opens for country star Scotty McCreery at Indian Ranch in Webster at 1 p.m. July 28.



She will also be performing July 27 at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgeford, Conn.; July 31 at the Cape Cod Jazz Festival in Harwich; and Aug. 3 at Baha Mar resort in Nassau, The Bahamas. On returning to L.A., she'll finish editing music videos in support of "Pink Cloud" with a view to having the album released by the end of summer. It will be her first full solo album since winning "The Voice."



In one of those interesting coincidences, Porter won the 10th season of "The Voice" while McCreery was the 10th season winner of "American Idol."



"That's super cool. I love that. That is really funny," Porter said during a recent telephone interview as she was getting ready for the tour. "He's great," she said of McCreery. "He's a lot more country than I am, but it'll be cool. It will be a cool mash-up (of musicians.)"



Porter was always in the mix to be a significant singer. The daughter of Laura Klein-Weiner, a Broadway singer and actress, and Ric Porter, a founding member of the locally legendary rock group Zonkaraz, Porter had perfect pitch at 9 months old.



As a child she spent a lot of time at the Charlotte Klein Dance Centers in Worcester, owned and operated at the time by her grandmother, Charlotte Klein. Meanwhile, she was making commercials when she was 3, and at the age of 5 became a five-time junior vocalist champion on the show "Star Search" hosted by Ed McMahon (she was the youngest singer ever to appear on the program). She also made several movies for the screen and TV, including starring in the 1991 John Hughes feature film "Curly Sue" at the age of 10 with Jim Belushi.



On stage, she was in "Footloose" on Broadway, "Hair" and "The Ten Commandments," and in 2006 she was cast as Bebe in a Broadway revival of "A Chorus Line" (the role includes being part of a trio that sings the wistful "At the Ballet"). Bebe had been played by her mother 28 years previously in the first national tour of the show.



The Worcester Telegram & Gazette interviewed Porter at the time.



"That was a lifetime ago," Porter she said when reminded about that interview.



Much more, of course, happened.



"At some point or another I decided I needed to change. Drugs and alcohol wasn’t a part of that change," Porter has said candidly about achieving sobriety. She is now a mother of two children, ages 5 and 7.



Meanwhile, she wrote and performed her own songs, fronted a band called the Canyons, and released two solo albums, "Alisan Porter" in 2009 and "Who We Are" in 2014.



Then there was a respite from music, but people hadn't forgotten who Porter was, or the sound of her singing voice.



"A friend of mine gave my name to one of the casting directors," Porter said of being recommended to "The Voice."



"She (the casting director) called. I thought about it. I thought, 'What the heck?'"



On the show, she immediately turned heads and chairs during her blind audition with a "spine-tingling" rendition of "Blue Bayou."



Porter went on to become the first contestant on the show to win "The Voice" with a female coach — Christina Aguilera.



"It was all unexpected. It was a very positive experience." Porter said. "Obviously, winning was amazing. Working again. It was amazing to branch out in this business — if nothing else, just make a living singing."



Asked if she would ever consider returning to the stage in a musical, she said, "I wouldn't rule it out. It's not my favorite way to live. It's hard for me. It doesn't bring me as much joy as playing my own music."



Part of the package for winning "The Voice" was a record deal. That it didn't work out was not a problem with "The Voice" but "a label issue," Porter said.



"They wouldn't produce an album for me … They wanted to mold and shape me in what they want, and I was already molded into what I was."



So she went "all independent."



An EP, "I Come In Pieces," was released last year. In December, she came back to Worcester to perform in Mechanics Hall on a bill with Daughtry and English trio the Rua for the 10th anniversary of "XLO’s Acoustic X-Mas."



Over the last few weeks there have been a couple of single drops from "Pink Cloud." "What If I Wake Up" and the rocking "Never Could" have a distinct country feel to them. Indeed, Porter traveled from Los Angeles to Nashville in order to write for the album. "Pink Cloud" is co-produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Matt Rollings, who also worked with her on "Who We Are."



Besides country influences, her style has been described as "steeped in booming gospel, soulful blues, and rock 'n' roll energy." Porter's lyrics are often deeply personal.



"This album ('Pink Cloud') is a bible of everything I've done, it has all accumulated to this moment. It's truly about understanding what it means to be in a partnership, but also really knowing who you are within a relationship," Porter said. "For sure it's definitely a labor of love. It's been a lot of work."



She feels comfortable with her vision of herself as a musical artist. "I was always sure of that, and I think this album outlines that really well," she said.



"At this point in my life it's all about consistency." She's touring in part so that "Pink Cloud" can have "as much movement as we can possibly have for it … I'd love for the the album to make an impression. For everybody to hear it."



Still offering encouragement along the way has been Christina Aguilera, who always told her, "'You know what you’re doing, just go do it.'" Their relationship has a further development in that Porter's boyfriend, Justin de Vera, is a dancer in Aguilera's stage shows.



"She's actually employing my boyfriend. She's definitely a part of my life … She's an amazing person and an amazing artist. She's a huge reason why I have the confidence to keep going."



Keeping going and the hard work is complemented as well as compounded by the fact that she is a mom.



"It's hard. It's definitely a balancing act. It's putting all my eggs in one basket. If I'm mom I'm mom at home. If I'm recording, it's putting everything into that. But it can be crazy. Thank God for grandparents."



Charlotte Klein lives nearby in California these days after moving from Worcester.



"She's great," Porter said.



"She's out here being a great-grandmother, taking me out to lunch."



Contact Richard Duckett at richard.duckett@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @TGRDuckett.



