On September 22, the 10 finalists of “America’s Got Talent” season 15 will take the stage for the last time to show the audience why they should become the next million dollar champion act. The night will be led by only three of the season’s five Golden Buzzer acts: singers Cristina Rae and Roberta Battaglia, as well as spoken word artist Brandon Leake. There are also four other singing acts: duo Broken Roots and soloists Daneliya Tuleshova, Archie Williams, and Kenadi Dodds. Rounding out the finalists are aerialist Alan Silva, dance duo BAD Salsa, and acrobatic trio Bello Sisters.
With the finale packed with vocal talent, odds are that one of the six singing acts will take home the prize, but in our own power rankings we’ve got Leake at the very top of our picks. Below we detail why we think Brandon is the one to beat and assess the chances each of the other acts have to beat him. Agree or disagree? Be sure to make your own voice heard in the comments.
SEE ‘America’s Got Talent’ judges rankings: All 13 judges ranked from worst to best
1. Brandon Leake – 18/1 odds to win
What Brandon has going for him this season is something no other act can lay claim to: his talent is first of its kind on ‘AGT.’ He is the first spoken word artist and poet to grace the stage and, as he promises each week, has been able to deliver another momentous monologue every time he takes the mic. That Howie Mandel, the judge who hit his Golden Buzzer for Brandon, remains speechless following his performances each week is a testament to how powerful his words are. Brandon’s clarity of voice, emotional depth in his words and the unparalleled unique presence he’s offered the show this season are only three of the many reasons why he will outlast the others as the people’s choice for this year’s prize.
2. Broken Roots – 100/1 odds to win
I imagine that most of the users predicting these results are hung up on the fact that Broken Roots was eliminated in the Judge Cuts round and only re-entered the competition out of luck. But they’re forgetting that twice they have been in the top three vote-getters since then, and unanimously praised by the judges for their follow-up performances. In a finale full of singers, Broken Roots is the one that stands out from the pack simply because the rest are soloists and that gives them a huge leg up. I think they’re wildly underestimated for the win, and won’t place lower than third.
3. Cristina Rae – 21/2 odds to win
I think Cristina’s biggest advantage going into the finale is how fervent Heidi Klum‘s support of her has been throughout the season. While Heidi did take a few episodes off after picking Cristina as her own Golden Buzzer act, when she came back she was loud and consistent about her bond with Cristina and how badly she wants to see her win. That support can speak volumes for an artist that finds herself in a finale with five other singing acts and I think if Cristina can deliver another home run vocal this week then she’ll have a great chance at surprising us all with a win.
4. Roberta Battaglia – 11/2 odds to win
Based on our collective predictions, Roberta stands at the top as the artist most likely to win this season. Indeed, there are many reasons why she could, not least of which is that she’s new judge Sofia Vergara‘s Golden Buzzer act. Sofia has championed Roberta since we first heard her voice as a talent who defies what is to be expected of a girl her age. With precedent like Grace VanderWaal and Darci Lynne Farmer before her, Roberta’s age is an advantage in the finale and that shouldn’t be taken lightly. But, that being said, the competition is stiff this year — especially for singers — and there very well could be some vote-splitting between the four female soloists that could hurt them all, but none more than our odds frontrunner.
5. Daneliya Tuleshova – 72/1 odds to win
6. Bello Sisters – 100/1 odds to win
The thing with vote-based shows is that once you get to the finale you have a pretty good sense of which acts the public will select based on their overall support of them throughout the season. For Daneliya and the Bello Sisters, they will find themselves on the outside looking in at a top four that also advanced to the finale based on the audience vote. In that regard they could find themselves vaulting to the top tier with really strong performances, but in such a stacked year it’s hard to make an argument for either of them getting more support than any of the four above.
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7. Kenadi Dodds – 100/1 odds to win
8. Alan Silva – 100/1 odds to win
9. Archie Williams – 100/1 odds to win
10. BAD Salsa – 100/1 odds to win
Then, at the bottom of the pack, are the four acts that made the final by the skin of their teeth, either with the Dunkin Save or because the judges saved them. In that four is Kenadi who is the fourth female solo singer in the finale and will suffer from severe vote-splitting with the other three. Archie could also take a hit as another singer, and while personal journeys always play a part in ‘AGT’ voting I think that his biggest disadvantage will be not being quite up to par with the other vocalists. Alan and BAD Salsa will both benefit from being the only finalists in their genre, but for BAD the problem is overcoming the precedent that a dance act has never won the show and for Alan he will have to prove that he can do something different and more daring than he’s done in any of the previous rounds.
