Jackie Evancho Informations

Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Evancho (/iːˈvæŋkoʊ/ ee-VANG-koh; born April 9, 2000) is an American classical crossover singer who gained wide recognition at an early age. Since 2009, she has issued a platinum-selling EP and eight albums, including three Billboard 200 top 10 debuts. She has also been the subject of three solo PBS concert specials.

Between 2008 and 2010, Evancho entered talent competitions, sang the US national anthem at a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game, issued her first album, Prelude to a Dream, and attracted interest on YouTube. In 2010, at the age of ten, she gained wide notice with her 2nd-place finish in the fifth season of America's Got Talent. With the 2010 holiday release of her O Holy Night EP, Evancho became the best-selling debut artist of 2010, the youngest top-10 debut artist in US history and the youngest solo artist ever to go platinum in the US. In 2011, her first full-length album, Dream with Me debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, and she became the youngest top-5 debut artist in UK history. Billboard ranked Evancho the top Classical Albums Artist for 2011. Later that year, Evancho released a full-length holiday album, Heavenly Christmas, and became the youngest person ever to give a solo concert at Lincoln Center in New York City as part of her first concert tour.

In 2012, Evancho released Songs from the Silver Screen, her third top-10 album debut. In 2013 she headlined benefit concerts at Carnegie Hall and elsewhere. She also appeared in the 2013 Robert Redford film The Company You Keep and modelled for Guess Kids clothing. Later album releases include Awakening (2014), Someday at Christmas (2016), Two Hearts (2017) and The Debut (2019, her eighth consecutive release to reach No. 1 on the US classical albums chart). In 2017, Evancho performed the US national anthem at the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump and became the youngest person ever to perform a concert series at Café Carlyle. As of 2019, she continues to tour.

Evancho was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Lisa and Michael Evancho. Her father operated a video security business until 2010. She has an older transgender sister Juliet, a younger brother Zachary, and a younger sister Rachel. She was raised in a suburb of Pittsburgh in a Catholic family. Evancho began her education in the Pine-Richland School District, but at various times, after her career bagan, she received online schooling. She attended Pine-Richland High School, graduating in 2018.

After Evancho saw the film version of the musical The Phantom of the Opera as a young girl, she began singing the songs at home. Her parents have stated that they did not recognize that her voice was unusual until her first talent competition, which she entered just before her 8th birthday. In the competition, Kean Idol, Evancho finished in second place. She began taking voice lessons and singing at events, churches and nursing homes, mostly in Pennsylvania. She also started a YouTube channel, sang in the Children's Festival Chorus of Pittsburgh (now Pittsburgh Youth Chorus) during its 2008–09 season, and performed the title role in a 2009 school musical version of Little Red Riding Hood.

In 2009, Evancho competed in Las Vegas in the 15th annual USA World Showcase Talent Competition, where she finished in second place. At the 2009 Kean Idol contest, she was again runner-up. In other 2009 talent contests, she won the Golden Ribby Award – WonderworldTV and the Talent Quest TV Show (both in Massachusetts). Also in 2009, she sang "Ave Maria" in composer and conductor Tim Janis's PBS television special "Celebrate America" and performed in other concerts and TV shows with Janis, who sought her out after seeing her on YouTube. She made various singing appearances around Pennsylvania in 2009 and 2010.

Evancho first caught record producer David Foster's attention in 2009. She was selected for the regional semifinals of his "Hitman Talent Search Contest", finishing as runner-up, and in October 2009 she sang in the "David Foster and Friends" concert at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

In November 2009, Evancho released her independent debut album, Prelude to a Dream. The album featured mainly covers of classical crossover songs such as "Con te partirò", "The Prayer", "To Where You Are", "Concrete Angel" and "Amazing Grace". It debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 121, and at No. 2 on the Billboard Classical Albums chart, in August 2010, after Evancho's first performance on America's Got Talent. Evancho's parents withdrew the album later that month, citing Evancho's vocal progress since its release.

After two earlier unsuccessful auditions for the show, Evancho was accepted as a contestant on the fifth season of NBC's America's Got Talent (AGT) by placing first in its 2010 YouTube competition. On August 10, 2010, Evancho performed the aria "O mio babbino caro" in the show's quarter-final round. The judges' reactions were effusive. Afterwards, commentators queried whether her performance had been lip-synched. On the next evening's live show, Evancho sang an impromptu voice exercise to demonstrate that the broadcast was of her live voice. In an interview, judge Howie Mandel addressed the issue: "[W]hat people are ... really saying [is] that it's really too good to be true."

Her semifinal performance was "Time to Say Goodbye". She advanced to the Top 10 round, where she performed "Pie Jesu" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem and was voted into the Final 4. Pittsburgh leaders declared the following week "Jackie Evancho Week". Her final competition performance, on September 14, 2010, was of Gounod's "Ave Maria". The following evening at the AGT season finale, Evancho sang "Time to Say Goodbye" together with guest artist Sarah Brightman; then Evancho was announced as the runner-up, finishing second to singer Michael Grimm. Many viewers and commentators felt that Evancho should have won, and Grimm expressed surprise at the outcome. The show brought Evancho wide exposure to American audiences, as up to 16 million viewers watched her performances. The finale show was AGT's highest-rated episode in three years. She was a guest on The Tonight Show a week after the finale, where she sang and gave her first late-night interview with Jay Leno. Evancho was featured and interviewed in the 2013 book Inside AGT: The Untold Stories of America's Got Talent.

Later in 2010, Evancho performed in 10 cities with the America's Got Talent: Live Tour, signed a record deal with SYCO music and Columbia Records, and performed in Las Vegas with David Foster. From June 2010 until mid-2011, Evancho coached with Yvie Burnett, who has worked with other singers appearing on AGT.

Evancho's first release on a major record label was a Columbia Records EP titled O Holy Night. It was released on November 16, 2010, and entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2, making Evancho the top-selling debut artist for 2010 and the youngest solo artist ever to debut in the top 10. It also launched at No. 1 on Billboard's Classical Albums chart and No. 2 on Billboard's Holiday Albums Chart. The album sold 239,000 copies in its first week. The EP was certified platinum by the RIAA, making Evancho the youngest solo artist ever to go platinum in the US.

Evancho promoted the album with TV interviews and performances beginning with The Oprah Winfrey Show in October 2010. Her other appearances included performances and interviews on The Today Show,The View,Martha Stewart Living and Fox and Friends. Evancho performed in the 2010 My Macy's Holiday Parade in Pittsburgh, on NBC's Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting special, at the 2010 National Christmas Tree lighting in Washington, D.C., on The Tonight Show and at the 27th annual Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade, on ABC television.

Billboard ranked O Holy Night at No. 1 on its 2011 year-end Classical Albums chart. It also ranked the album as the No. 15 best-selling album of 2011 in the US and the No. 31 Canadian Album of 2011.

Evancho's second full-length album, Dream with Me, produced by David Foster for Sony and Syco Music, was released on June 14, 2011. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, reached No. 1 on Billboard's Classical Albums Chart, and was certified gold by the RIAA. With this album, Evancho became the youngest artist ever to debut in the UK in the top 5. The album includes popular songs ("Angel"), classical arias ("Ombra mai fu") and original songs, including the title track, for which Evancho contributed to the lyrics. It also includes duets with Barbra Streisand ("Somewhere") and Susan Boyle ("The Prayer"). Target released a deluxe edition with four bonus tracks.Allmusic gave the album 3-1/2 stars out of five,[100] and USA Today commented that Evancho's "sweet, unblemished vocal tone and slow, careful vibrato hardly betray her young age. ... But Dream's predictable and often bombastic odes to love and faith can undermine the tween's most appealing quality: innocence."[101]

Evancho promoted the album on television and at concerts.[102][103] Her first solo concert television special for the 2011 PBS Great Performances series consisted of performances of largely the same songs as the album.[104][105] The special, titled Dream With Me In Concert, was the most broadcast program of the year on the PBS network.[106] It "became one of the most viewed specials in the 38-year-history of the Great Performances series [and] raised record amounts of money for PBS stations."[107] Evancho was the youngest person ever to have a special on the series.[108] The concert was hosted by David Foster,[109] with guest Conrad Tao.[110] The CD/DVD release[111] reached No. 1 on Billboard's Top Music Video chart.[112] Evancho performed "Nessun dorma" as a guest artist at the June 2011 season finale of Britain's Got Talent,[113] and at the September 2011 season finale of America's Got Talent.[114]

In July 2011, the singer began her first solo tour across the United States to promote the album.[115] It consisted of 18 performances with orchestras,[110][116] including Evancho's New York City concert at Avery Fisher Hall in November 2011,[110] when she was the youngest person ever to sing a solo concert at Lincoln Center.[108] In December she headlined a concert with David Foster and Kenny G in Las Vegas.[117] After a concert in Tokyo in January 2012 with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra,[118] the tour continued in the US[119][120] and concluded in June 2012.[121][122]

On its 2011 year-end charts, Billboard ranked Dream With Me as the No. 2 best-selling classical album for the year and as the No. 45 US album of 2011.Dream With Me was listed on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks[123] and the Classical Albums chart for 74 weeks.[124]Billboard ranked Dream With Me In Concert the No. 21 music video album of 2011[125] and the No. 16 music video album of 2012.[126]Dream With Me In Concert was ranked on the Billboard.biz Top Music Video chart for 64 weeks.[127][128]

Evancho's 2011 Christmas album, Heavenly Christmas, was produced by Rob Mounsey.[129][130] The selections include traditional Christmas carols like "The First Noël" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem", standards like "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "White Christmas", and newer songs, such as "Walking in the Air" (from the 1982 animated film The Snowman) and "Believe" (from the 2004 movie The Polar Express).[130] The album was released on November 1, 2011, exclusively by Walmart in the US[131] and elsewhere in the US in October 2012.[132]

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