Jessica Sanchez‘s got talent.
The singer was named the winner of America’s Got Talent‘s 20th season, beating out freestyle rapper Chris Turner to take home the top prize on the Sept. 24 episode.
But the for 30-year-old—who first auditioned for the NBC competition in 2006, but failed to make it to the season one grand finale—her big feat was something “20 years in the making.”
“I was on season one when I was 10 years old, and just going through all those years of feeling rejected and feeling like a failure, I had to pick myself back up and believe in myself again,” she told Billboard in an interview published Sept. 25. “I continued to fight for my dreams, and throughout the 20 years, it’s been really hard trying to find myself as an artist and as a woman.”
Not only was Jessica’s victory a full-circle moment, but it also cemented her in the AGT history books for winning while nine-months pregnant with her and husband Rickie Gallardo‘s first baby.
