Idol

Nineteen years after she was a contestant on Season 10 of America’s Got Talent at just 10 years old, Jessica Sanchez is back for Season 20. The singer, who was also the runner-up on American Idol in 2012, received Sofia Vergara‘s Golden Buzzer during her audition and will hit the stage again for the Quarterfinals during the Tuesday, September 2, episode.

Just days after she auditioned for the show earlier this year, Jessica found out she was pregnant with her first child (she married husband Ricky Gallardo in 2021). However, the news didn’t stop her from wanting to continue the process, even though she’s now several months along amid the live shows.

“This year, I just felt this immense peace, like, I’m ready to do this. I took the leap and I found out that I was pregnant a couple days later, but it didn’t really hinder me from wanting to take that next step back on that stage,” she tells 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.”

Sanchez says preparing for the live shows has been “going great” and that she’s felt “peaceful,” not stressed. “Even preparing vocally, typically your breathing and stuff gets affected when you’re pregnant, but as far as I’ve been preparing, it hasn’t really been affected tremendously and I’m so thankful for that. … Even if my voice does get a little impacted from the pregnancy, I’m excited to challenge myself on that stage.”

Scroll down for more from our interview with Sanchez, including a tease of her next performance, what she learned from American Idol, and more.

Why were you ready to return for this season after being on the show in the past?

Jessica Sanchez: Season 1 of AGT, that was the biggest stage that I had ever been on at that time. I feel like that really catapulted my dream to being a professional singer. I was like, “Oh wow, I feel like being on this stage is something I really want to do and maybe I can take this dream somewhere I never thought I could.” So I feel like AGT was a big thing for me and a big reason why I decided to pursue this music career. But with all the things that I did after, 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.

I needed to take a step back from music. So I took that step back and 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.

What have you taken from your experiences on AGT and Idol into this new journey on AGT?

It can be overwhelming for some people, but I really fell in love with that big stage and being able to use my gift to entertain people, to impact people, and just kind of navigating through how hard you have to work and the pressure of it all. I feel like it molded me as a young woman how to handle pressure throughout my life. I feel like I have thick skin. After AGT, dealing with people, feeling rejected, feeling like I wasn’t enough, it taught me how to handle all of those things. I was really young, so I did need to take a step back if I wanted to do this fully and full of purpose before I could come back and feel like I was fulfilling a purpose with my gift.

Have you kept in touch with any contestants from the past shows you’ve done?

It’s so funny because it’s not like I keep in contact where we’re hanging out all the time, but I do hear every now and then from these people, like older contestants and stuff like that. Actually, the winner from the first season, Bianca [Ryan], we follow each other on Instagram and we message each other every now and then just about life stuff, not even about music stuff, which is so cool. I love seeing that she’s killing it and she sees me doing my thing. I really love that no matter how much competition it feels like, you can still kind of detach and be like, wow, all of these amazing talents are coming in and you can share that love of the stage and stuff like that. So I kind of keep in contact with some people.

You were on a few episodes of Glee back in the day. Would you ever dabble in acting again?

I would love to. I’ve tried. I’ve put out audition tapes after doing the Glee stuff. But I’m so seasoned with singing, that is really where I shine. I feel like acting would be a fun thing to do, not really a professional, this is what I do full-time. I think it’d be really fun to start doing it, but singing is really what I’ve known from the beginning.

Anything you can tease about your Quarterfinals performance?

I don’t want to give away too much, but I feel like the first audition I really came in with a song that a lot of people did not expect me to sing and with this next song, it’s similar as in, like, a lot of people aren’t really going to expect the song. It was really fun for me to be creative with it and take it somewhere vocally where a lot of people think it wouldn’t go. I’m excited for that, that’s the only little tease I can give you.

America’s Got Talent, Season 20, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC