His musical influences, as stated in his Idol confessionals, include the Beatles, Jamie Cullum, Jason Mraz, Pat Monahan, John Mayer and Michael Jackson.

[8][9] During college, he participated in Christian missionary work around the world, including in Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, South Africa, Spain and Thailand.

[8] Allen also served as a worship leader for New Life Church in Conway and Little Rock, AR, as well as for the Chi Alpha campus ministry.

[8] He dropped out of college in the middle of his junior year to pursue music professionally, performing in local bars and working as a shoe salesman to make ends meet.

[10][11] Allen planned to go back to college to finish his degree and "get a real job",[9][11] but instead was persuaded to audition for American Idol along with his brother Daniel and his friend Cale Mills.

He worked as a shoe salesman at a sporting goods store during the day to make ends meet and continued playing gigs in Little Rock and Fayetteville at night.

[13] In 2007, Allen wrote and self-produced an album entitled Brand New Shoes with college friends and bandmates Michael Holmes (drums) and Chase Erwin (bass).

His performance of "To Make You Feel My Love" as part of the Top 11 earned praise from the judges, with Simon Cowell commenting, "I am genuinely beginning to think you have a shot of doing well in this competition.

On the second Top 7 show, Allen brought back the guitar for the fourth time and performed an original, acoustic version of "She Works Hard for the Money", complete with bongo drums and the band on stage.

[28] Allen performed at three concerts in Little Rock and Conway, Arkansas, playing many of his popular songs during the competition, including "Man in the Mirror", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Falling Slowly" and "She Works Hard for the Money" at the venues, as well as "Come Together" at the studio of local Fox affiliate KLRT-TV.

Before the results were announced, Allen performed "We Are the Champions" with eventual runner-up Adam Lambert and Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen.

[31] Certain commentators labeled the win as an "upset" since runner-up Adam Lambert had received a significant amount of media attention throughout the season and was widely perceived to be the show's front-runner.

[32][33][34][35][36] However, during the Top 3 results show, host Ryan Seacrest had revealed that the margin between Allen and Lambert was fewer than a million votes.

[41] On June 7, 2009, Allen performed the National Anthem at Game 2 of the 2009 NBA Finals to a packed house including Adam Levine, Jack Nicholson, Rihanna, Paula Abdul and Leonardo DiCaprio.

[43] On his self-titled debut album, Allen collaborated with Claude Kelly, David Hodges, Jon Foreman of Switchfoot, Salaam Remi and Joe King of The Fray.

[44] He also worked with Toby Gad,[45] Alex Band of The Calling, Dan Wilson of Semisonic,[46] Chris Daughtry[47] and Mat Kearney[48] for the album.

In a break with Idol tradition, Allen chose not to include his coronation single "No Boundaries" on his debut album, choosing instead to record a new version of his cover of "Heartless" as a bonus track.

[59] On February 19, 2010, Allen traveled to Haiti with the United Nations Foundation in order to raise awareness for the disaster relief efforts there as the UN and other groups continue to rebuild after the earthquake.

[60] The second single released from the album was "The Truth" featuring Pat Monahan, the lead singer of the Grammy award-winning rock band Train, who co-wrote the song.

[63][64] Allen hit the road for his first solo tour during June and July 2010 with Green River Ordinance and Justin Gaston as opening acts.

[66] Allen co-wrote a song, "Still Got Tonight", with Andrew Frampton and Steve Kipner that appeared as the second single on Glee's Matthew Morrison's self-titled debut album released May 10, 2011.

Allen co-wrote a song, "Blindfolded" with Lindy Robbins and Toby Gad that appeared on the first season South African Idol winner, Heinz Winckler's album 24/7/365.

Allen co-wrote a song, "Raise Your Hand", with Andrew Frampton and Kevin Hughes that appears on The Voice first season winner Javier Colon's debut album Come Through For You released November 21, 2011.

[72] On December 3, 2011, Allen along with Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and producer, David Hodges and Andy Davis, founder of Music Empowers Foundation were celebrity judges for The Alchemy Songwriting Competition in Conway, AR.

The song was co-written by Allen, Nasri, and Adam Messinger, and it is available for download on iTunes and an exclusive version consisting the remix from the Finnish duo Maison and Dragen on Walmart since March 26, 2012.

[citation needed] The tour consisted of 40 dates with bandmates, Cale Mills and Chris Torres, and newcomer Andrew St. Marie on the piano.

Prior to appearing on American Idol, Allen participated in missionary work in several countries around the world, including Burma, Thailand, Mozambique, Morocco, and South Africa with the University of Central Arkansas' Chi Alpha campus ministry.

[116] In Morocco, during his first mission trip, Allen contracted a rare form of hepatitis that left him sick for an entire year after returning home.

[117] A couple of years later, while on a mission trip in Thailand, Allen became moved when he saw a worship leader struggling with poor music and sound equipment during a church service at a refugee camp.

The visit was part of the True Spirit of Christmas tour, where Allen also made a short video clip singing "Silent Night.