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Jackie Evancho is one of the world’s top-selling sopranos, is destined to earn millions and Simon Cowell thinks she’s got the voice of an angel...and she’s only 11...

This year’s Britain’s Got Talent was a lacklustre affair. Semifinalists included a bloke doing unimpressive impressions of Simon Cowell, a dog trainer whose animals seemed not to have mastered “sit” and a bouncing keyboard player more suitable for a village hall than a Royal Variety Performance. Even with favourite Ronan Parke and winner Jai McDowall, there was a general absence of “wow”. But then after all the acts had performed the oomph finally came – when presenters Ant and Dec introduced a guest artiste ineligible for the contest, having come second in America’s Got Talent last September.

At 11 years old, Jackie Evancho embodies a trend towards everyounger performers in these shows. We had already seen 12-year-old Parke and heard the largely unbroken voices of boy band New Bounce so her age was no novelty but what happened when she opened her mouth was. It was a rerun of that unforgettable Susan Boyle moment when a woman who looked and spoke as if she belonged behind the till at Aldi burst into song with the voice of Maria Callas. So it was that tiny Jackie embarked on a flawless rendition of 'Nessun Dorma', the Puccini aria made famous by Luciano Pavarotti.

It was not just that she sang it with warmth and passion. The remarkable thing was the maturity of her voice. If you heard it without looking at the screen you would assume you were listening to a 35-year-old diva with the waist of a carthorse and a bosom you could ski down. Instead the voice was coming from a tiny girl with a toothy smile dressed for a children’s party. So incongruous is her voice that many people’s immediate reaction is that she must be lip-synching. That view was proved wrong in the United States when one of the America’s Got Talent judges asked her to sing a few notes off the cuff.

In her home country, Jackie is huge. Her YouTube clips have been viewed 31 million times and she is the youngest solo artist ever to have achieved platinum recording sales. She is about to release her second album, duetting not only with Boyle but also with superstar Barbra Streisand. She has performed on Oprah and sang at President Obama’s official Christmas tree lighting ceremony. But she nearly never made it onto America’s Got Talent at all. She first demonstrated her talent after a family outing to see The Phantom Of The Opera at her local cinema in Pittsburgh. Her mother Lisa bought the DVD and Jackie started singing the songs around the house. She entered a talent competition and came second but when she went to Philadelphia in two successive years to audition for the national talent show, she was rejected both times.

She made up for the disappointment by releasing an independent record called 'Prelude To A Dream'. (Now withdrawn from sale, this has become a collectors’ item on eBay.) It was only when America’s Got Talent announced a strand of auditions on YouTube, where entrants could post a clip and viewers could vote, that she was finally successful. Her parents had already filmed Jackie singing Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro, best known from the soundtrack of the film A Room With A View. They duly posted that and Jackie won the most viewer votes. That finally earned her an appearance on the programme proper last August.

Her performance had the audience on its feet and the judges tripping over each other to give lavish praise. “I can’t believe that from this tiny body, this huge mature voice you have,” said Sharon Osbourne, with more passion than grammar. Piers Morgan said: “This is one of the most extraordinary performances I have ever seen on America’s Got Talent”, while the third judge, Howie Mandel, said: “You’re an angel. You’re a superstar.” Jackie eventually came second to a soul singer called Michael Grimm but that didn’t stop her fulfilling Mandel’s prediction.

Simon Cowell signed her up to his label Syco and in November she released an EP called 'O Holy Night' which sold more than 1.5 million copies. This month she brings out a new album, 'Dream With Me'. It was produced by the Grammy award-winning David Foster who is credited with discovering singers Celine Dion and Michael Bublé. “I can say without a doubt that working with Jackie was truly phenomenal,” he says. “Her natural ability and the depth of her understanding of the musical process left me speechless. I think we have created a musical experience that will thrill audiences of every age. She was a joy to work with and I had a front-row seat for one of the next great talents of our time”. Jackie's father Mike has abandoned his video security business to support Jackie’s career but the Evanchos, who have another daughter and two sons, are clearly determined to keep their star daughter’s feet firmly on the ground. She was accompanied by a tutor on the America’s Got Talent tour but returned to school when she got back to Pittsburgh. Her chores around the house include looking after the family’s pets – three dogs, two cats, two guinea pigs, a lizard, four ducks, three frogs and nine hermit crabs – while her favourite pastime is playing on her garden swing. Her public utterances are partly carefully drilled showbiz gush – “Susan Boyle has an amazing voice and I was so happy when she agreed to be a part of my album” – and partly endearingly childish – “the best part is performing in front of large audiences and hearing the clapping after I finish my songs”. That latter quality may be what Cowell is referring to when he says: “She is very charming. She is really sweet and completely unaware how good she is”.