Black Mona Lisa. In an interview with Vulture, Porter talked about his earlier attempts to make it big in the music industry in the 1990s.Porter, 54, says that he quickly grew frustrated with how music executives tried to mold him into something he is not.
However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was when his label took a song he’d recorded and gave it to Celine Dion.Porter grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
He first came to national attention in 1992 on the talent show Star Search in 1992. He won $100,000 and interest from the music industry.
Despite already appearing on Broadway, Porter still had dreams of becoming “the male Whitney Houston.”This led to him releasing his first album, the R&B-influenced Billy Porter, in 1997.