Bianca Ryan

Hailing from Philadelphia, 12 year-old Bianca Ryan is the winner of NBC's summer hit series America's Got Talent. "Bianca Ryan is potentially one of the best singers I have ever heard in my life," said Simon Cowell, executive producer of the show. Bianca Ryan showcases her incredible vocal ability on her self-titled debut album, which features such covers as "The Rose," "I Believe I Can Fly," and "You Light Up My Life." The album also boasts original songs written and produced by the best in the business, including the very catchy "Why Couldn't It Be Christmas Everyday?"

America's got talent, sure, but nobody who tuned in to that Simon Cowell-produced TV show could have guessed it was quite so pure and unblemished. Bianca Ryan, like LeAnn Rimes before her, is an absolute baffler--a voice this big and expressive shouldn't belong to a 12-year-old. As anybody who watched the apple-cheeked starlet make her way across the "Talent" stage knows, though, it does--there's no dismissing this slam-dunk of a debut on studio wizardry (note to skeptics and naysayers: take it somewhere else). Part Celine Dion, part Christina Aguilera, and part untapped country crooner, Bianca inhabits each of these songs with the kind of vocal dexterity pop hopefuls twice her age take pokes at but never quite nail; she's all past-her-years wisewoman on the pretty "I Wish That," a Diane Warren composition, and all skillful but lighthearted chanteuse on "Pray for a Better Day," a David Foster and Kara DioGuardi number. Sad movie lovers and moms will want to scoop her up and hug her for "The Rose," "You Light Up My Life," and "I Believe I Can Fly," but her seventh-grade peers will skip straight to the sugary "Superstar," the Simpson-sisters-esque "Pure and Simple," and "Why Couldn't It Be Christmas Every Day," a joyful carol that, come December, could elevate her to the superstar orbit of her idol, Hilary Duff. --Tammy La Gorce