On ‘Karaoke Queen,’ Allison Ponthier Is Returning to (and Rewriting) Her Roots

The idea of coming home has been on Allison Ponthier’s mind a lot lately.

This is partially because the indie folk-pop singer, who hails from the Dallas suburb of Allen, is playing a hometown show at Club Dada on June 20 with support from Hank Heaven.

“When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Deep Ellum and going to shows in Deep Ellum,” Ponthier tells the Observer. “I have memories of people that I listened to when I went to jazz school at UNT playing Club Dada, but I went to shows all around. I went to Trees a bunch of times. I know this isn’t in Deep Ellum proper, but the first concert I ever went to was Imogen Heap at House of Blues. I spent a lot of my time around there because it felt like an artist’s space. You walk around and you just feel like there’s art everywhere.”

Homecoming is also the subject of her latest single, “Karaoke Queen,” though it’s less nostalgic and more bittersweet. Originally written after she first signed to Interscope Records in 2020, the song tackles the very real possibility faced by up-and-coming musicians when they wind up dropped by their label and move back home to start over.

“There are many iconic musicians, performers and entertainers who come from DFW or Texas in general, but I personally did not grow up with anybody that was doing what I’m doing now,” she says. “‘Karaoke Queen’ was basically written from a place of fear. I felt a huge amount of fear that this thing had happened to me and that I had worked super hard for…there was an element of luck that it could be taken away from me at any moment.

“I really wanted to tell the story of someone’s worst fears coming true, of my worst fear coming true, and it still being okay,” she continues.

The song has been locked away in Ponthier’s proverbial vault for years. In that time, she’s released three EPs and a handful of singles (including her acclaimed Lord Huron collaboration “I Lied”). She’s toured with artists like Maren Morris and Bleachers and her campy, cinematic approach to pop has earned comparisons to the likes of Chappell Roan and Elton John, who interviewed her for his Rocket Hour podcast in 2022.

Despite these accolades, Ponthier’s fears came true and her label dropped her last year. Though this upset nearly every aspect of her life from her mental health to her finances, one aspect of moving forward as an independent artist was easy: She already had the perfect follow-up single in her back pocket.

“I’d always loved ‘Karaoke Queen.’ It always felt like a huge, pivotal moment in my songwriting,” she says. “It just felt like the right choice to tell that story because so many things had to line up to make it happen.”

Despite the parallels that made it the right statement for this moment in Ponthier’s career, the prophecy put forth by “Karaoke Queen” was only half true.

“It’s about a girl who has to move back home and while I have thought about moving back to Texas many times, I still live in New York,” she explains. “On top of that, I think what really saves her in the song is having a level of support from people that I didn’t expect to get after I was dropped. I was like, ‘People are going to turn on me. No one is going to want to listen to my music.’ […] But I oddly feel better. Like, I feel more supported because I was neglecting my support system for a long time and I wasn’t opening up because I felt like I had to be strong.”

Even though she decided against moving back to the Dallas area, Ponthier maintains a love for her roots. Her 2021 breakout single, “Cowboy,” recounts her experience as a queer Texan who gains a deeper appreciation for her home after moving away.

“It took New York to make me a cowboy,” she croons on the chorus. Years later, she feels even more protective of her home state, in spite of the political turbulence.

“When I was younger, I was very critical of Texas because obviously, I was someone who was experiencing being othered,” she says. “Even before I was out, I noticed that people were not sticking up for each other or loving thy neighbor. Not sharing those values that I grew up learning in church. I always felt like maybe I took them too literally, which was a weird cognitive dissonance.”

As she got older and became more active in activist spaces, she began to see Texas in a new light.

“I talked to [Texas State Representative] Lauren Ashley Simmons last year and her version of what being a Texan is means a lot to me,” she says. “Like, she’s a Black woman whose family has been in Texas since slaves were brought to America and I feel like that’s who people should be listening to. […] What is a Texan? What does it mean to be proud of where you come from [and to] strive to make it a better place, despite being told that they don’t belong there or that their culture is not the ‘right’ culture? So yeah, I feel very defensive of Texas.”

Despite the personal and political turmoil, her affection for Texas is the energy she’s bringing to her homecoming show at Club Dada.

“I love going back to Dallas,” she says. “I wasn’t out when I lived here and coming back […] and doing my headlining tour is so healing for me. […] Thank you to the people who support me in DFW for healing my relationship with Texas and making me truly feel like it’s home.”

Allison Ponthier will perform on Friday, June 20 at 7:00 p.m. at Club Dada, 2720 Elm St. Tickets are available starting at $26.29 here.