‘AGT’: Nene Royal Reveals Music Plans After Winning Season 21

It was a nail-biter until the very end, but singer Nene Royal, a 16-year-old from Phuket, Thailand, was crowned the winner of Season 21 of America’s Got Talent on September 23. Magician Geno Ploeger, who hails from Hartland, Wisconsin, was the runner-up. Now, the talented acts are opening up to TV Insider about what’s next.

Royal says the most memorable part of her AGT journey was early on in the process when she first began auditioning for the talent competition series. “I was making my own version of ‘Zombie’  from The Cranberries,” Royal recalls.  “I saw how the crowds would just stand up and they got the vibe, the energy. I got four ‘yeses.’ And then I got a callback. Then, I performed other songs.”

Of all the times she took the stage this season, though, she’s most proud of her finale performance of “Seven Nation Army,” adding, “I always practice and I’m very proud of myself that I made it through to the Finals and that I’m the champion.”

Royal doesn’t have an exact timeline for her return to her native Thailand, but she says it will be soon. And while she has some original music already recorded, she shared that there was no timetable as to when it would be released. Her dream list of collaborators in the future include System of a Down, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, and The Warning.

“I just want to work [in] music,” Royal says. “That’s all.”

Host Terry Crews is charged with announcing who the winner is each year, and he’s highly aware of the fact that while one finalist has had his or her dream come true, the runner-up has fallen just shy of a total victory.

“It’s extremely stressful, but I train for it,” Crews says of the two-hour finale live show, which is preceded by hours and hours of rehearsals.

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“I literally train for it,” he says to make sure he has the stamina to handle the emotionally-charged and physically-draining day. “I make sure my breath is right. I make sure my voice is right. You don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. There have been many times when the prompter has gone out.”

Above all, Crews is aware that these contestants are also human beings whom he’s dealing with. “These are not objects,” he points out. “These are people, who are either super happy or they’re super disappointed. And you do not want to mess with people’s hearts. I treat everyone as if they were my family member. These are my brothers. These are my sisters.”