Porcelain Black

Alaina Marie Beaton better known by her stage name Porcelain Black, is an American pop-rock singer-songwriter. She started her music career at 18 under the stage name Porcelain and the Tramps with Virgin Records. However, Black and Virgin could not agree on the music that she recorded and she spent 3 years trying to get out of the contract. She signed with RedOne's Universal Republic imprint late in 2009 and began working on her debut. "This Is What Rock n' Roll Looks Like", Black's first single, features Lil Wayne, and was a modest hit on Billboard's Dance Club chart. Her second single, "Naughty Naughty", peaked at number 6. Black grew up in Sterling Heights, Michigan.Her father was a hairstylist. He owned a hair salon and brought her along to fashion shows and photoshoots.Her parents separated when she was 6 years old. After her mother remarried, they settled in Rochester where she attended high school. Having lived in less affluent areas prior to the move, Black found that she did not fit in with her privileged classmates, becoming an outcast. She discovered that her biological father had cancer when she was 15, which affected her so much that she was expelled from school in three months for fighting. Two months later, she was expelled from another school. He died when she was 16. Black had taken part in national competitive dancing, taking jazz, hip-hop, tap and ballet lessons, since young and at one point was training to perform on Broadway. She also considered becoming a backup dancer. After being expelled from her last school, Black ran away from home. She started begging, doing drugs and drinking while crashing at friends' houses at night. After going on tour with Armor for Sleep, she returned to Detroit and stopped taking drugs.