'I want to sing at Simon Cowell's wedding': Meet the little girl with the huge voice

Since her Susan Boyle moment on last year’s America’s Got Talent, 11-year-old Jackie Evancho (who eventually came second) has become one of Simon Cowell’s hottest new voices. But, as she tells Kate Bussmann, her boss won’t be calling all the shots

Jackie performing on the America's Got Talent tour in Los Angeles last autumn

When Jackie Evancho took to the stage of America’s Got Talent last summer, US television got its very own Susan Boyle moment. Seeming entirely without nerves, she gave a spine-tingling performance of ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’ (the Puccini aria made famous by the film A Room With a View) that appeared so effortless, viewers wondered whether she was miming, and the internet instantly erupted with conspiracy theories – could that really be the voice of a ten-year-old?
If any doubt remains, it’s blown away when I arrive to meet the Evancho family (pronounced ev-an-ko) at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Sarasota, Florida. Jackie, now 11, is here to perform a concert that will be recorded for national broadcast in the US, but right now, she, her two brothers (Jake, 12, and Zack, eight) and little sister (Rachel, seven) have a few hours to splash around in the swimming pool. Every so often, she sings a few notes to herself and everyone turns to marvel at the self-described ‘little girl with the huge voice’.