“I was an athlete first. I thought I was going to the Olympics first, but I knew that I could sing at 7,” Liv Warfield, the singer and songwriter Prince discovered, told me the above during an intimate one-on-one after her performance at The Howard Theatre last Sunday. She says that she never knew her journey would bring her this far, but she just knows that it was calling upon her life. “It’s a gut feeling. I’m two different people when I’m on stage and when I come off, so it’s very clear. It’s a calling for me.”

The Peoria, IL native’s parents didn’t know that she could sing, but with self-confidence and the mindset to finally find herself, she flew the coupe to spread her own wings. Warfield says once she got to Portland, Oregon to attend college, she surrounded herself with a supportive group who were there “constantly pushing me to be better and to be wiser and to grow and sometimes help me fall.” She said even when she did fall short, she wasn’t afraid to keep trying, that is the key to her success so far.

Warfield told me of a time when she was actually living out of her car and street performing. Her sole focus was on getting her music heard. She began building buzz and soon found herself  titled, “Portland’s most soulful singer” by Portland Monthly. Through networking and consistency she began to collaborate with other local artists and dabbling in various genres to find her niche. She now describes her sound as “alternative R&B Soul with a little bit of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” or a “LiV Gumbo.”

In 2006, Warfield independently released her debut album, “Embrace Me,” with the lead single I Decided. Lyrically the project is solid, but she’s proud of her growth vocally over the last 7 to 8 years. Perhaps her time in Prince’s back-up vocal group the New Power Generation served as training for the sultry powerhouse and now dynamic performer. So impressed by her audition tape, Prince offered her the chance to sing on his 2010 release “Lotusflow3r.”

In February 2014, Warfield released her second album, “The Unexpected” with lead single “Why Do You Lie?”  Currently, LiV is VH1’s Artist You Oughtta Know and can be heard on radio stations across the nation. She’s even gone viral receiving over 1 million views on Jimmy Fallon’s YouTube channel for her performance of the single and is touring the country impacting fan’s lives.

Keep up with LiV Warfield online:

Twitter @LiVWarfield

Instagram @LiVWarfield

Facebook.com/LivWarfield

LiVWarfieldMusic.com