Season 19 of America’s Got Talent has officially got its winner. At the finale on September 17, 10 amazing acts gave it their all after a season full of surprising transformations, close calls and more exciting Golden Buzzers than ever before. But after four months, only one act could emerge as the winner.
Read on for AGT 2024 spoilers…
Who won AGT 19?
At the end of the live finale on September 24, host Terry Crews announced that Richard Goodall is the winner of AGT 2024, taking home the $1 million prize.
“What an end to this rollercoaster ride,” said Goodall NBC Insider just minutes after his victory. “Just absolutely unbelievable.”
Win AGT is an exciting achievement, but it’s especially exciting when you’ve just married the love of your life. Goodall and his fiancée Angie Vanoven were married on September 18, just one day after his performance at the Finals, and the soulful rock ballad he sang couldn’t have been more fitting.
The “singing janitor,” as he is affectionately known, chose Journey’s hit “Faithfully,” returning to the band that first wowed the judges at the auditions and earned him Heidi Klum’s Golden Buzzer. As he crooned, “Oh girl, you stand by me / I’m yours forever / Faithfully,” they were transfixed, and the audience swayed back and forth, waving hundreds of glowing phone screens.
Before his performance, the middle school janitor practically had to pinch himself to make sure it wasn’t all just a dream.
“Before AGTmy life was completely normal… I would never have imagined any of this. Never. You just do what you do. You don’t think you’re that special. That’s the kind of thing you see in the movies, and here I am,” said the 55-year-old during the episode with the final performance.
He later told us: “Ang and I will just take things as they come and see where this journey takes us… At my age, it was a high point between the kids and then Ang. And then you don’t choose the TV, the TV chooses you. When they make a call, Ang says you have to go. Before I got on the plane, she said, ‘You get a Golden Buzzer, you know that?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, right.’ And so I just wanted to get on a plane, sing a song and fly home and have a nice little YouTube video as a memory. And then look at me now.”
To celebrate his triumph, we look back at Goodall’s AGT Journey this season, from his audition to the finale:
Richard Goodall’s audition
Goodall’s debut will take place in AGT history as one of the most surprising. The Indiana native was almost too nervous to sing, but after a pep talk from judge Simon Cowell, he launched into an epic cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” earning Klum’s Golden Buzzer.
Richard Goodall’s performance in the quarter-finals
Once again he hit all the high notes with a cover of Michael Bolton’s “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” and dedicated his performance to Vanoven, who was in the audience for the first time after recovering from a serious health scare. Goodall described his interpretation as a “softer, more intimate version” of the hit, to NBC Insiders.
“It was so hard for me to pull myself together, probably even harder than last time. But having her there meant everything to me,” he said.
Richard Goodall’s performance in the semi-final
Goodall came back stronger than ever with a cover of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” a song originally written for the movie Rocky III. With determination in his eyes and a spring in his step, Goodall commanded the stage.
“I just want to come. I want to sing. I want to have fun. I want people to feel something,” he said NBC Insiders, and that is exactly what he did.
Richard Goodall’s final act
The shy janitor, who told us he had “no expectations” when he joined the competition, proved how far he’s come as he belted out Journey’s “Faithfully” and transformed himself into a rock star in front of America. “You are such an incredible man. You are so humble. You are so kind. You are also a little quiet,” Klum said after his performance, adding, “But when you’re behind that microphone, you are big! Rock star!”
“Wow, wow, wow. Richard, I can feel the energy behind me,” Cowell said, marveling at the deafening screams of the crowd. This time, no pep talk from the judge was needed. “You never broke down; you didn’t. You rose from the dead. We all need a hero right now, and you are our hero,” he told the singer.
Howie Mandel, who loves to make predictions, summed it up when he said, “I think you just sang yourself a million dollars.”
When he NBC Insiders, Goodall explained: “IIt’s a song I’ve been singing to Ang for a long, long time. And I started with Journey, I wanted to finish the competition with Journey. And then I didn’t know that I was going to add a big footnote at the end of the book… Phenomenal.”
With reporting by Adam Pockross.
Watch past episodes of America’s Got Talent season 19 on Peacock.
