Ten acts are left in the 'America's Got Talent' final and only two of them sing. Will a singing act win on Sept 23?
79% of users predicted NO — the community missed this one. 14 predictions cast.
America's Got Talent crowned Nene Royal, a 16-year-old singer-guitarist from Phuket, Thailand, as its Season 21 winner on September 23, 2026, awarding her the $1 million grand prize. Royal, one of only two singing acts among the ten finalists, closed the show with a cover of the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" and later joined Linkin Park onstage for a live rendition of "The Emptiness Machine." Magician Geno Ploeger finished as runner-up.
Royal built a viral following throughout the season, drawing more than three million social media followers after auditioning with covers of the Cranberries' "Zombie," Muse's "Hysteria" and Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun." Her combination of guitar musicianship and vocals set her apart from a finale field dominated by magicians, dance and variety acts, and America's votes ultimately decided the outcome, as they do each season.
The Predict Six community got this one wrong: only 21 percent of voters expected a singing act to win, reflecting the assumption that novelty and variety acts, which made up eight of the ten finalists, held the edge. Royal's win instead continued a pattern of AGT crowning musical acts in recent seasons, despite skeptics who viewed the reality-competition slate as favoring non-musical spectacle.