Cheryl Porter Turned Vocal Coaching Into A Global Brand — Now She’s Teaching Others How To Scale Their Gifts

Most people don’t accidentally stumble into building a multimillion-dollar empire. But then again, if you’ve ever been in the room with her (or connected with her through a screen), then you know Cheryl Porter has never really fit into a “most people” narrative.

The classically trained opera singer, who’s performed for the Pope (how many can say that?!) and shared stages with icons like Andrea Bocelli and Mariah Carey, never set out to become the world’s most followed vocal coach. She actually pushed against it in the beginning. “It sort of happened by accident,” Porter revealed in an interview with Bombshell. “I started vocal coaching because in Italy the vocal coaches were just so horrible and you know, it was just bad.” 

That accidental beginning grew into something bigger than she could’ve imagined. She’s amassed a following that’s now over 22 million followers on TikTok, 12 million subscribers on YouTube, and hundreds of millions of views across platforms, “Mama Cheryl” has built what she calls the Cheryl Porter Vocal Method into the number one vocal training method in the world. And in August 2025, she took another unexpected leap, making her Broadway debut in & Juliet, carrying her infectious energy and world-class technique onto one of the biggest stages in the world. Now if that’s not boss status, we don’t know what is.

But Porter’s journey is really about what happens when you refuse to be silenced. “I grew up on the south side of Chicago, where kids who have a song are often silenced before they ever get a chance to sing it,” she shared at ESSENCE’s Black Women in Business luncheon this month. “I was one of those kids, the daughter of a janitress, my mother, Christine, a single mother, who was the very definition of elegance and essence.”

And like so many Black women, she made sure her gifts made room for her. She’s performed in over 50 countries, recorded more than 20 albums across genres, and made history as the first African-American and first American to have her voice featured in a Disney film in Italian, singing “The Circle of Life” for the 2019 live-action Lion King remake. She landed in Italy over 30 years ago to further her opera studies and ended up building a life there, performing at venues like the Vatican and alongside icons including Luciano Pavarotti, Tito Puente, and Bono.

What makes Porter’s method different? She breaks it down, so it can forever and consistently be broke (my Love Jones fans will get this one). “You have to love yourself, love your voice, accept your voice for how it is today and then get ready to actually train your voice. My vocal method in and of itself, it attacks vocal flaws at the root. A lot of singers have different problems,” she explained. “Vocal technique is divided into so many different little parts. Traditional vocal coaching doesn’t attack the individual parts.” 

Her comprehensive program divides vocal training into 10 strategic sections covering everything from vibrato and power to breathing boot camp and vocal registers. But it’s not just technical precision that sets Porter apart. It’s the joy she brings to every lesson, every video, every interaction.

When the pandemic hit, a lot of creatives froze. Porter didn’t. She pivoted. “In 2020, me, little old Cheryl Porter, the daughter of a janitress, went on social media. And I told, at the time, three million followers that I was launching my very first online singing course,” she recalled at the ESSENCE luncheon. “No marketing, no funnels, no opt-ins, no fancy strategy.”

That leap changed everything. By turning her in-person masterclasses into accessible digital courses, she made high-level vocal training possible for anyone with Wi-Fi and a little courage. She brought elite technique to people who’d been told singing wasn’t for them. And in doing so, she became a teacher of belief as much as of music. Her students have gone on to compete on The Voice, X-Factor, America’s Got Talent, and Eurovision. She’s coached everyone from NBA players to beauty influencers like James Charles, proof that her method works for any voice—and any person—willing to be heard.

Porter’s rise may have started by accident, but it didn’t continue that way. It was built on decades of mastering her craft, paying attention to what wasn’t working in traditional vocal training, and being willing to meet people where they were, even when the world turned digital. 

And perhaps most critically, she didn’t let perfectionism or ego stop her from starting. As a multilingual Black woman who’s traveled to over 50 countries, Porter knows something the rest of us are still learning: “The world is yours. And don’t let anyone tell you that the doors are closed. You are the key.”At the ESSENCE luncheon, Porter dedicated her Black Women in Business honor to her mother and “everyone who’s ever felt small, unseen, or told that their voice did not matter. Because it does matter.”

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