Who actually sang ‘Never Enough’ in ‘The Greatest Showman?’

You know the feeling when you hear a song for the first time and it feels like you’ve been struck by electricity? The way you become hypnotized and swept away for just a moment? Your breath turns shallow, your heartbeat becomes irregular, and when it’s finally over you come back to yourself and think “What the heck just happened?” 

Music can do that to us, and so can a perfectly sung song. For many, a similar experience occurred the first time they watched The Greatest Showman in 2017. The film, starring big names like Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Zendaya, and Michelle Williams, was inspired by the real-life events of circus visionary P.T. Barnum (Jackman) of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Virtually every song up and down the soundtrack enraptured us, from Jackman’s Tony Award-winning appeal to Efron’s seductive baritone notes, but none swept us off our feet as much as the pivotal ballad in the middle of the movie, “Never Enough.”

Just like Jackman’s character Bartumn, when “Never Enough” began we were all shell-shocked and completely glued to our seats, hanging onto every word Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson) sang. The song, and the soundtrack as a whole, did big things for the movie, catapulting it into arenas where only soundtracks like The Sound of Music and Titanic lay.

5.3 million copies of The Greatest Showman (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) sold, and it spent 11 weeks at the top of the charts beating the UK record previously set by Adele’s album 21. The Greatest Showman became a phenomenon, and the ballad “Never Enough” earned itself the title of one of the most iconic songs of any movie soundtrack in the world, per Simon Cowell. You’d think with a song as big and recognizable as that, we’d all know the person who sang it, but that’s not the case here. 

So, who actually sang “Never Enough” in The Greatest Showman?

Loren Allred is not a household name, even though her voice is. To be a song we all recognize is one thing, but to be the voice behind that song is another thing entirely. You’d think the success of one would equal the success of the other. For Allred, that wasn’t the case. 

In 2012 Allred joined season three of The Voice on NBC. Her time in the singing competition was short-lived, incurring nothing more than wonderful memories and not a lot of musical opportunities. Until one day several years later while bartending to support herself, Allred was approached to offer reference vocals for the actors on The Greatest Showman. As Allred explains it, Rebecca Ferguson who played Jenny Lind recommended that Allred’s voice remain on the track and that she, Ferguson, lip sync the song instead. Apparently, even Ferguson recognized the future hit when she heard it.

Years later, after The Greatest Showman and “Never Enough” made their worldwide splash, Allred quietly walked on the stage of Britain’s Got Talent in 2022 and informed the public that it was actually her voice we all heard behind Ferguson’s performance. Like the U.S. version of the show, Britain’s Got Talent has a Golden Buzzer in the competition; any contestant who blows the judges away can be given the Golden Buzzer and get sent directly to the live semifinals.

Well, when Allred shared that she was the voice behind the hit song, let’s just say Simon Cowell and the judges were starstruck. As you watch the performance you can see the awe in their faces. Here is a singer we’ve all heard and whose song has become a staple in singing competitions like Britain’s Got Talent, and yet we knew nothing about her. It was a moment that captured the eyes and hearts of millions of viewers across the globe, who showered Allred with the praise she so rightfully deserves.

Why was Allred not soaking up the spotlight after The Greatest Showman? As she told Simon and the judges, it was because she had always felt safer singing behind the scenes. Well, anonymity went out the window after her Golden Buzzer video attracted close to 57 million views on YouTube, with many of those viewers heading over to the “Never Enough” performance from The Greatest Showman just to revel in her vocals even more.

Allred’s Golden Buzzer sent her straight to the semifinals where she landed in first place. During the grand finale, she scored ninth place and was eventually voted off. Since her time on the show, Allred released a six-song EP titled I Hear Your Voice, which includes the original song she sang in the grand finale of Britain’s Got Talent, “Last Thing I’ll Ever Need.”

Allred’s voice might have been her most recognizable feature before Britain’s Got Talent, but not anymore. Now we have a face to put to the pipes, and we can’t wait to see what those pipes deliver next.