Who Is Jessica Sanchez? Everything to Know About ‘AGT’ Season 20 Winner

[WARNING: This post contains MAJOR spoilers from the Season 20 finale of America’s Got Talent.]

Jessica Sanchez was officially crowned the winner of America’s Got Talent Season 20 during the Wednesday, September 24, finale. It was a full-circle moment for the singer, as she first competed on the show when she was 10 years old during AGT‘s very first season in 2006.

As she gushed on Instagram ahead of the premiere in May, “Being 10 years old on AGT played such a massive role in me believing in something bigger for myself, for my voice. What a huge blessing it is to be able to come back and chase after my dreams again after 20 years. Can’t wait to see what God has in store for me.”

Some fans may also remember Sanchez from her run on Season 11 of American Idol, too. She was just 16 years old when she was voted runner-up of the show, losing to Phillip Phillips.

Scroll down for an update on what Sanchez has been up to in the years since her time on Idol now that she’s officially and AGT champion.

What is Jessica Sanchez doing now?

Sanchez is still pursuing a career in music and now has her $1 million AGT prize to help move her career in the right direction.

After her time on American Idol in 2012, Sanchez released her album Me, You and the Music in 2013. She followed it up with a Christmas EP in 2015. Although the singer never put out any full-length albums after that, she continued releasing songs quite regularly until 2022, but never saw much commercial success.

“I had so many amazing opportunities, worked with so many amazing people, and hit some very big stages, but I feel like I was so young at that time, I didn’t really get to, one, digest it properly, and also, I feel like I was tugged back and forth of where people wanted me to be and who they wanted me to be,” Sanchez admitted in an interview with TV Insider.

Of her decision to take a “step back” from music for a few years, she added, “I kind of just lived a normal life, which was different for me because music was really, like, my identity when I was younger. It felt like a low season, but I definitely needed that to be where I am today to be confident in myself, to know who I am, to know what I want. To come back 20 years later, back on the stage where it all started for me, I feel like I’m on cloud nine.”

She also previously told the San Diego Union Tribune that music used to “feel like a job,” whereas now, it “feels like something I’m blessed to be able to do.”

Is Jessica Sanchez married?

Sanchez married her husband, Rickie Gallardo, in 2021. The couple met in 2017 and have been together ever since. She opened up about their first meeting during an interview with FYE Channel in 2023.

“This show producer, he rented out a church as a venue. I wasn’t doing a church event, we just used the church as a venue for one of my concerts,” Sanchez explained. “Rickie used to do lights at the church, so when I was singing on stage during my concert, during my show and everything, I guess one of his friends told him, like, ‘Bro, you gotta come back to the church, do some lights, because this girl can sing,’ this and that. So he drove over and he sent me a video on Instagram of him and me in the background on stage, saying, ‘I’m gonna marry you one day,’ and all this stuff.”

 

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Sanchez admitted she wasn’t sure if it was “safe” to spark a conversation with Gallardo. “Usually I would never, ever, ever respond to someone I don’t know, no mutual friends, nothing, but I don’t know … I guess something in me just told me to go for it,” she admitted. “We hung out every day for a month and then we started dating.”

In a 2023 interview with Push, Sanchez opened up about married life and said Gallardo “changed [her] for the better.” She also revealed that her wedding was “very small” and planned “in a couple days” when she and Gallardo realized their pastor was in town. “I loved our little wedding, but, I mean, it was really small,” Sanchez shared. “Not much of his family was there and my family wasn’t there because it was so last minute.”

She said that she and her husband got their rings from Walmart and she bought her dress at the mall.

Does Jessica Sanchez have kids?

Sanchez doesn’t have any kids yet, but she is pregnant with her first child. She found out about her pregnancy just days after she auditioned for American Idol in early 2025.

“It didn’t really hinder me from wanting to take that next step back on that stage,” she told TV Insider. “If anything, it kind of motivated me a little bit because I’m like, now I get to do this with my daughter. It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

By the time Sanchez performed in the AGT finale, she was nine months pregnant and just weeks away from giving birth.