LiV Warfield and her band members react to Warfield getting the Golden Buzzer on “America’s Got Talent.” (Photos by Trae Patton/NBC)

LiV Warfield remembers walking to track meets at Peoria Stadium with track shoes on her shoulders.

“I was being put in track and field,” Warfield said. “The catalyst was I started running at Von Stuben (Middle School) in seventh and eighth grade. I wanted to be a heptathlete. I planned to go to the Olympics.

“Track was the kind of thing that was pushed by my family, but I wanted to be in show choir, be a sportscaster, but no one knew it.”

Her running ability earned her a scholarship to Portland State University. Hearing Warfield sing all the time, a teammate invited her to karaoke.

“That was the catalyst. I needed somewhere to try out,” Warfield said. “The first time, I did a Whitney (Houston) song. I was so nervous I wasn’t able to stand, but I did the lyrics and that was it. I was like ‘I’m going to be discovered. This is the way.’

School became less important, and Warfield was doing karaoke from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. four or five days a week.

“I stopped going to class. I had a yearning inside me,” Warfield said. “I wanted a chance just to try performing, but you don’t know how to get there.

“The calling is like a howl. I just kept at it.”

Warfield said as she performed, she developed social and performance skills.

She then moved to state karaoke competitions.

“I was doing competitions as a way to feed myself,” Warfield said.

Getting started

Warfield, now a Chicago resident, gained national attention this summer with her Golden Buzzer-worthy performance on “America’s Got Talent.”

Warfield performs during the NBC show.

However, she is far from an overnight sensation. She produced her first album, “Embrace Me,” in 2006.

When she let her family know that music, not track and field, was her calling, they were stunned.

“They were like, ‘You’re kidding us,’” Warfield remembered. “I had a show in Portland and invited my family. My mom would not come out, but my brother came.

“He went back and told my parents, ‘You really have to see this girl.’ They came to a show at Jimmy Mak’s in Portland, and they were floored.

“They then tried to calculate things. They were like ‘You never sang around us, but you were part of the Whitney Houston Fan Club.’ It took a while for my love of music to emerge.”

Warfield’s love and passion for music was on full display Monday when the LiV Warfield Xperience was conducted at Teatro ZinZanni, a Chicago cabaret and cirque show. For one night, Warfield, who stars in the current ZinZanni production, provided a live performance. It was Warfield’s first public show with her band after performing on this summer’s “America’s Got Talent” series, where judge Simon Cowell gave her the Golden Buzzer, and she finished fifth overall.

Earlier in her career, Warfield was at a hair salon getting extensions, when she got a call from Prince’s assistant after the artist had seen a YouTube clip of the Peoria native.

“Prince called me and said, ‘I love your voice’ and asked me to come to Paisley Park (in Minnesota),” she said. “A month later, I was learning 40 songs.”

She called Prince “the most amazing performer” and loved being on tour with him for seven years as a backup vocalist.

“There will never be another performer like him,” Warfield said. “I feel blessed to have worked with him. It was one of the biggest shows in the world.”

In the industry

She had made appearances on late-night television with David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon.

Warfield, who has been in the music industry for nearly two decades now, said the attention she has gotten since her “America’s Got Talent” appearance is amazing.

“It was another thing that I said, ‘Let me try.’ It was another burning thing for me to do,” she said. “People asked me, ‘Why don’t you try out for ‘The Voice?’ I picked AGT because it’s about the experience.

“I wanted to showcase my experience. When I was doing the shows, I wanted the world to see the hard work I had done,” Warfield said. “The purpose of me on the show was so much bigger than me. It made me understand why I was in the business.”

Warfield said it was daunting being judged on AGT for the first time.

“I wanted to give the best performance I could. I knew it was going to be live on the internet forever,” Warfield said. “Inside, I felt pressure.”

When Simon Cowell hit the Golden Buzzer, advancing her to the finals, she had one thought.

“‘Do not ugly cry in front of all these people,’” she thought. “I tried to hold it together. I thought of my career instantly.

“I wanted people to know that if there is something that you want to do, then go for it.”

Warfield said she is still sitting in awe as the AGT performances were only a few months ago.

“I love it so much,” she said of performing.

Warfield said acting on using the gift she was given took time, “I discovered I had a gift at age 8, but the catalyst for that gift didn’t come until I was 21 years old.”

Warfield said she has been on quite the journey.

“Even now, it is hard to grapple with the instantaneous world,” the singer said. “I am trying to figure it all out.”

“It’s been amazing. I still think of myself as Olivia from Peoria,” Warfield said. “I am introverted, very introverted. I am a quiet soul. The one thing that brings me peace is the stage.”

kbeese@chronicleillinois.com