Jessica Sanchez is all grown up.
Only 10 when she competed on the first season of “America’s Got Talent” in 2006 and 16 when she came in second on “American Idol” in 2012, the big-voiced San Diego native is now 29, married and pregnant with her first child. More importantly, after taking a big step away from the spotlight following the release of her commercially failed 2013 debut album, “Me, You & The Music,” she no longer sees being a singer as her defining role.
“Back then, music felt like a job. Now, I’m at a place where music feels like something I’m blessed to be able to do,” said Sanchez, whose Tuesday night return performance on “America’s Got Talent” comes 20 years after her debut on the ABC TV show. “It’s not like: ‘I have to do this.’ It’s: ‘I get to do this’.”
That realization did not come quickly or easily.
Neither did being signed to a major label recording contract when she was still a high school junior being home-schooled four hours a day. At just 16, Sanchez had yet to develop a strong identity, musically or personally. She soon learned exactly how difficult it can be to meet the expectations and demands of a music industry that quickly discards young singers who fail to click commercially in the image-driven, flavor-of-the-month world of pop music.
White House debut
The fact that Sanchez sang for President Obama at the White House, on a PBS National Memorial Day Concert telecast and at the Democratic National Convention in 2012 and 2016 was impressive. So were her guest appearances on the hit TV series “Glee” and her being represented by the same Creative Artists Agency booking agent who had overseen lucrative concert tours by Hannah Montana and helped the young Kanye West achieve stardom.
But by 2014, barely a year after her debut album was released, Sanchez had parted ways with her label, Interscope Records. Her relationship with CAA didn’t last either. And while Sanchez subsequently recorded and released a number of solo singles and vocal duets with other artists, only one of her songs, 2016’s “Stronger Together,” made any impact on the national sales charts.
Like other vocally gifted but unshaped young singers before her, the more Sanchez tried to gain a foothold and establish an artistic niche for herself, the more she became frustrated and demoralized.
“Being so young, I sort of got lost in the business a little and I kind of fell out of love with music for a while,” she said, speaking from Houston, where she now lives with her husband of four years, Rickie Gallardo. “I felt like music became a job where there were requirements I had to meet as a woman in the industry — and as a Filipino woman in the industry — and that there were standards I had to meet. You go through a lot of rejection. And being a woman, I feel it is a little bit harder.
“I was falling into insecurity and I had to take a step back and figure out who I was. I didn’t want to sell out and put a mask on. So, I immersed myself in family and faith. I moved back to San Diego from Los Angeles, and then to Irvine, which has a large Asian population. I may not be exactly what the labels want or what the industry wants. I’m not a super bubbly person or an in-your-face person. I’m more quiet and timid, and I feel like that’s okay … I don’t have to win the approval of everybody.”
‘America’s Got Talent’ debut
Gaining broad approval was precisely Sanchez’s goal when she competed on “America’s Got Talent” in 2006. She was just 10 at the time and had big, big ambitions.
“I had done a lot of (singing) competitions in San Diego before I got on ‘AGT’,” she said, referring to “America’s Got Talent’s” acronym. “There were so many amazing talents on the show and it just lit a fire in me. I was like: ‘Oh, wow. I really want to win this!’ It’s when I became really competitive, in a good way not a bad way. I thought: ‘I have this drive and passion, and I really want this and will do whatever I can to make it. I’ll give them all I can’.”
Sanchez giggled.
“I was an over-confident little girl and I was ready to show them. I was also a little nervous because it was the biggest stage I’d sung on. I feel like it opened up my dreams to a bigger perspective.”
Those dreams grew even larger in 2012 when she nearly made it to the top during the 11th season of “American Idol.” She wowed the judges and the audience with her vocal power, versatility and pinpoint phrasing, but ultimately came in second to Phillip Phillips.
‘It’s still unreal’
Now, 13 years later, Sanchez feels grounded in a way that no teenager could — especially after being thrust into the national limelight on “Idol.” Her go-to music now reflects her increased focus on her Christian faith.
“When I’m driving somewhere or cleaning at home, I mostly listen to worship music,” Sanchez said. “So, that’s on my playlist, 24/7, and I’m singing along and praising the Lord in my kitchen and the car.”
Her return to “America’s Got Talent” two decades after her debut on the show, is a full-circle moment for the diminutive vocal dynamo, whose performance on Tuesday’s show demonstrates her impressive growth as a singer. (The Union-Tribune was allowed to preview footage of her upcoming appearance but was asked not to disclose what song she is doing — or if she won the judges’ votes to move on to the next round.)
“I’m completely different now,” Sanchez said. “I’ve grown, I’ve matured and know who I am as an artist and young woman. With the years of experience I now have, it’s easier for me to figure out where I’m going in a song and my voice and tone have matured. So, I’m excited to do this familiar thing in such a different way. I’ve done it before, but it feels brand new.”
Being on “American Idol” in 2012 was also a new experience for Sanchez. In one episode, she was filmed landing in a helicopter in an empty Petco Park. In another, she was greeted by cheering crowds aboard the USS Midway and at Eastlake High, where she had attended middle school.
“Honestly, it’s still unreal,” Sanchez said. “I look back on the footage of all those things, and I was so young then that I didn’t fully digest it … Now, it doesn’t feel like my identity will be shaken. I know who I am and music is just part of my journey.”
“America’s Got Talent,” featuring Jessica Sanchez
8 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, NBC Channel 7/39
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