Where is AGT’s first-ever winner now? Not many know that she even sang a Christmas classic
'America's Got Talent' has been going on for almost 20 years now, with various performers and artists having made a huge name for themselves using the world's largest stage. 'AGT' was the first show back in 2006 that welcomed all kinds of talent, be it singing, dancing, acrobatics, magic, or anything for that matter. If you could wow the judges, 'AGT' has a place for you. That said, the very first winner of 'AGT' Season 1 was an 11-year-old girl by the name of Bianca Ryan, a singer who left everyone stunned with her strong vocals as she went on to nab the very $1 million prize money of the show.
The show ended in August of 2006. Just four months after her win, Ryan went on to release her self-titled debut album with the holiday track 'Why Couldn't It Be Christmas Every Day?' Since then, the song has garnered 253,000 streams on Spotify and 1.5 million views on the official YouTube music video. You can find this song in many of the Christmas playlists, as it has gone on to become somewhat of a Christmas classic.
As reported by NBC, after releasing her album in 2006, Ryan underwent "multiple surgeries to correct vocal cord complications." After almost 12 years, Ryan returned to AGT's stage for 'America's Got Talent: The Champions', which brought back various contestants from different years of 'AGT' as they competed for the ultimate title of 'World Champion'. While Ryan didn't win this competition, she confessed how she was nervous about coming back on stage.
As reported by Goldderby, Ryan stated, "Coming back now at 24 after having two vocal surgeries and a stomach surgery and going through so much with my voice, I just wasn't sure if [Simon Cowell] was gonna like my new voice or my voice after surgery and think that I was still as good." Since then, Ryan has mostly been away from the internet. While the Pennsylvanian songwriter has released a slew of singles since 2015, her online presence hasn't been that noteworthy.
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The first-time 'AGT' winner does post clips from time to time, such as reaction clips to her show moments or performing the national anthem for an Eagles vs. Cowboys game. She has mostly been AWOL since 2023; that was until the record-breaking movie 'Wicked' was released. Ryan then went on to post a video of her singing 'Defying Gravity' by Cynthia Erivo as she wrote in the caption, "Wicked was released the first year I ever started singing, around 9 years old, and the show's songs were some of the first 20 songs I ever learned to sing. Here is to defying gravity and never letting anything bring you down."