The 15th season of “America’s Got Talent” has been a rather unconventional one. Like other pandemic-era reality TV competitions, it had to make adjustments on the fly to accommodate social-distancing mandates.
And then the judges’ panel lost its leader when Simon Cowell suffered a serious back injury.
But it still gave fans10 standout acts, and by the end of Wednesday night’s two-hour season finale, one was left standing:
Stockton’s own Brandon Leake!
Country-rock duo Broken Roots finished in second, while Cristina Rae took third place, Roberta Battaglia fourth and Alan Silva fifth.
Earlier in the show, five other acts were eliminated: singers Archie Williams and Kenadi Dodds, dancing duo Bad Salsa, singer Daneliya Tuleshova and acrobats Bello Sisters.
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Leake, a 27-year-old counselor at Stockton’s Delta College, came to our attention nearly three months ago when he made history by becoming the first spoken-word artist to ever appear on the show. He immediately blew everyone away with an emotional poem dedicated to his late sister, who died as a baby and was awarded the Golden Buzzer by Howie Mandel.
Cowell, who was still with the show at the time, told Leake, “there’s something very, very special about you.”
During Tuesday night’s final performance episode, Leake delivered a beautiful ode to his 6-month-old daughter, Aaliyah, in another emotional spoken-word piece.
Leake beat out nine finalists to capture a $1 million prize, a new car and headliner status for an “AGT” show in Las Vegas.
Before Wednesday’s finale, Leake took to Instagram to deliver a heartfelt thank-you to “AGT” fans for their support.
“There’s a bunch of talented people here who all deserved an opportunity to be able to win, and I put my best foot forward and they did as well,” he said. “The fact that you guys believed in me is the biggest part of it.”
