NBC’s America’s Got Talent is one of the country’s leading talent competition shows, and Billboard is looking back at the many gifted winners who’ve made history on the series so far.
Created by former American Idol judge, X Factor mastermind and Syco Entertainment founder Simon Cowell, the global talent competition premiered in the U.S. on NBC in 2006. The idea was to find the best talent of any age in the country — whether they specialized in singing, dancing, performing magic tricks, acting as a ventriloquist or even training dogs to do tricks — and then have them headline a show on the Las Vegas Strip on top of winning a $1 million cash prize.
The show has seen a number of stars grace its judges’ panel, with the just-wrapped season 19 featuring Cowell alongside Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara and Howie Mandel, as well as host Terry Crews. Each of the judges recruits viewers’ votes to help crown the most talented contestant, and each season’s top pick runs the gamut of skill sets.
A handful of musicians have come out on top in the past, including the show’s first-ever champ, then-11-year-old singer Bianca Ryan, whose tiny frame belied her massive pipes on the Dreamgirls showstopper “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” Other musical winners include late opera singer Neal Boyd (season 3), jazz singer Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. (season 6), then 12-year-old singer/songwriter Grace VanderWaal (season 11), and blind and autistic singer Kodi Lee (season 14) — plus the latest champ, 55-year-old singing janitor Richard Goodall. Two singing ventriloquists have taken home the prize too, with Terry Fator winning season 2 and then-12-year-old performer Darci Lynne winning season 12.
Below is a complete list of which talented act won at the end of every season.
