Get to know Jackie Evancho, Trump's Inauguration Day singer

While the inauguration will be the first time some listeners hear Evancho perform, for her young age, the singer has a surprisingly prolific career. Famed music producer David Foster helped launch the star’s career in 2009, and by the next year, she was singing for judges Piers Morgan and Howie Mandel on AGT. Since then, Evancho has released an EP and six albums, including covers of classic movie songs and several Christmas collections, and became the youngest performer to headline Lincoln Center in New York City solo.

She was only 10 when she appeared on America’s Got Talent. Evancho auditioned for AGT twice before finally landing on the show, placing first in its 2010 YouTube competition. She impressed the judges with her takes on opera and classical staples, performing Ave Maria as her final song. In the end, Evancho finished second to singer Michael Grimm. After the show ended, she performed on the America's Got Talent: Live Tour and signed a record deal with SYCO music and Columbia Records before releasing her first album on a major label, the album 'O Holy Night', in Nov. 2010.

She was accused by critics of lip syncing - and proved them wrong. Evancho’s performances on America’s Got Talent left some viewers wondering if a 10-year-old’s impressive voice was actually hers. After she performed the Italian aria 'O Mio Babbino Caro' on the show’s quarterfinals, rumors circulated on the Internet that she was lip-syncing. On the next night’s show, Howie Mandel brought Evancho onstage to sing a few notes for the audience, to prove it was really her voice they were hearing. “There was no lip-syncing," producer Jason Raff told USA TODAY in 2010. During rehearsals, "the whole crew was saying it looked like she's lip-syncing. And on the close-ups, her mouth is moving a different way than the sound coming out. It is weird, but it's just how she sings".

She performed for President Obama. Performing on Inauguration Day won’t be the first time Evancho has sung for a president. In 2010, she sang at the National Christmas Tree lighting for the Obama family, before returning to Washington to perform for the president at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2012.

Her sister Juliet is trans. Jackie has an 18-year-old transgender sister, Juliet, who came out publicly in 2015. Juliet will not be attending the inauguration, she told the New York Times in a joint interview with Jackie, saying she'll be there "in spirit". “My family is kind of a big target. I have a transgender sister and so a lot of hate goes towards us,” Jackie told People last year.. “I also get a lot of love. We pay most attention to that”. While Jackie has stayed silent about her political beliefs ahead of singing at the election, Juliet is currently part of a lawsuit in Pennsylvania over restroom access, suing her school district for making her use bathrooms corresponding to her assigned sex, rather than her gender. The singer reaffirmed her support of her sister, joking that, “I knew she would be a prettier girl than me, but that’s okay”. “I actually cried because what worried me was that she was going to get teased,” she said about Juliet'a transition. “She told me she was transgender, and I was actually very happy for her because she finally found herself, and she can be who she wants to be”.

She’s an actress and model, with Broadway dreams. When she's not making music — her new still-untitled album is expected this spring — Evancho has also appeared in movies, playing Robert Redford's daughter in the 2013 film 'The Company You Keep'. "I don't know the full story, but from what I know, Robert Redford had called my mom and asked me if I could send in an audition," she told Billboard in 2012. “From what I heard, he thought that it was a pretty good audition, and I got in.”