Bianca Ryan

Bianca Taylor Ryan (born September 1, 1994) is an American musician, singer and songwriter from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Ryan was the first winner of NBC's America's Got Talent at the age of eleven.

Singing two Broadway show tunes along the way, Ryan was announced as the winner of season one on August 17.

Ryan has acted in the feature film 12 and Holding (2005) and played the lead role in a music video by The Wrecking in 2010.

Her self-titled first album was released later in 2006, followed by two Christmas albums.

In 2006, Ryan learned that American Idol judge Simon Cowell was serving as executive producer for an upcoming competition titled America's Got Talent, and the tryouts in New York City were happening on the same day as a family outing in the city.

Ryan almost left without performing when she looked at the other contestants and saw a lady with a beard "probably about, like, Two Feet long," juggling torches.

She decided to stay when her father told her the grand prize was US$1 million.

For her televised audition, she chose the Dreamgirls show tune "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going", surprising the audience and the judges with her powerful voice.

The video of her audition performance quickly became popular on YouTube.

For the semi-finals of the show Ryan performed "Piece of My Heart".

The judges praised her performance, but they did not think the song was right for Ryan.

She rebounded for her finals performance, singing "I Am Changing" (also from Dreamgirls); judge David Hasselhoff called her "the best" in the competition, while Piers Morgan predicted she would win.

During the finale results aired on August 17, 2006, 11-year-old Bianca Ryan was announced by emcee Regis Philbin as the winner of season one of America's Got Talent.

Ryan signed a five-album record deal with Sycomusic as part of Columbia Records on September 18, 2006.

Two singles followed in 2007 and 2010.

Ryan made a brief appearance during the show's season two finale in 2007.

In a video recorded during Live Nation's Nextfest tour, she wished good luck to the top two finalists.

One week after her victory, Ryan announced on her website that she had flown to New York to meet with representatives from a record label and some of the recording industry's top songwriters.

The Northeast Times reported the same day that Ryan met with Grammy Award-winning producer David Foster and was being managed by Peter Rudge.

After a break to finish her education, Ryan recorded a cover of the John Legend song "All of Me" and posted the video to her YouTube channel in March 2014.

The independent film We Are Kings premiered in 2014, featuring Ryan as one of two down-on-their-luck teen musicians who are guided by an angel to save an elder bluesman from freezing to death.

Ryan co-wrote much of the film's music, and the video for her song "Broken Down House" was released in October.

Bianca Ryan is the second of five children of Shawn and Janette Ryan, who moved from New Jersey to Philadelphia when Bianca was three years old.

Her father, a fan of The Rolling Stones, named her after Mick Jagger's ex-wife.

Ryan is "mostly" Irish and calls herself a mix of Japanese, Irish, Italian, German and Cherokee.

"I'm basically just America ... the melting pot."

Ryan's singing talent came as something of a surprise to her family, given that she was an award-winning tap dancer as a child.

Ryan said she did not even attempt to sing until she was eight years old and started enjoying LeAnn Rimes and country music.

Shawn Ryan started sharing his record collection with his daughter, and Bianca "fell in love" with rhythm and blues and soul music.

Eventually, she began rehearsing nightly with her father.

Ryan convinced him to take her to an audition for Star Search, where her performance of "Think" impressed the judges and shocked her father.

"I'd never heard her sing like that."

During the Junior Singers competition, Bianca Ryan lost to Spensha Baker.

Ryan later won Amateur Kids Night on Showtime at the Apollo.

Ryan has sung the Star-Spangled Banner for several professional sports teams, including the Philadelphia Eagles, the New York Knicks and its Westchester affiliate, and the New York Mets.

Her original song "Alice" was self-released in May 2015.

Following a delay due to health problems, Ryan premiered her single "One Day" in May 2017; since then, she has written and released singles including "Man Down" and "Remember".

Her EP The Reintroduction, Pt. 1 was released in January 2019.

Following the release of several singles, a second Christmas EP was made available in November 2020, followed by a series of videos made for the holidays.