Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Evancho (/iːˈveɪŋkoʊ/ ee-VAYNG-koh; born April 9, 2000) is an American classical crossover singer who gained wide recognition at an early age and, since 2009, has issued an EP and five albums, including a platinum and gold album and three Billboard 200 top 10 debuts. She has made three solo Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) specials.
Between 2008 and 2010, Evancho entered several talent competitions; made singing appearances, including the US national anthem at a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game and in concerts with Tim Janis and David Foster; issued an independent album, Prelude to a Dream; and attracted interest on YouTube. In 2010, at the age of ten, she gained wider popularity with her 2nd place finish in the fifth season of America's Got Talent. With the 2010 holiday release of her O Holy Night EP, Evancho became the best-selling debut artist of 2010, the youngest top-10 debut artist in US history and the youngest solo artist ever to go platinum in the US. She performed at the 2010 National Christmas Tree lighting in Washington, D.C. In 2011, her first full-length album, Dream With Me, produced by Foster, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, and she became the youngest top-5 debut artist in UK history. Billboard ranked Evancho the top Classical Albums Artist for 2011. Later that year, Evancho released another album, Heavenly Christmas, and became the youngest person ever to give a solo concert at Lincoln Center in New York City as part of her Dream With Me Tour.
Evancho is the ambassador for Mission: Humane, a US Humane Society program that encourages children to help protect animals. A national cotillion organization listed her as one of the "ten best-mannered people of 2011". From late 2012 to 2014, she toured the US, performing songs from her 2012 album, Songs from the Silver Screen, which was Evancho's third top-ten album debut. In 2013 she headlined benefit concerts at Carnegie Hall, the LDS Conference Center and with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas for the One Drop Foundation. She also appeared in the 2013 Robert Redford film The Company You Keep and modelled for Guess Kids clothing. Evancho's 2014 album, Awakening, was her fifth consecutive No. 1 release on the Billboard Classical Albums chart. Since then she has toured in support of Awakening and released several singles and collaborations in between her public school studies. She is expected to release a new album in 2016.