Entertainment

America’s Got Talent winner dies aged 42

Opera singer Neal Boyd scooped the show’s one million dollar prize in 2008.
Opera singer Neal Boyd scooped the show’s one million dollar prize in 2008. Opera singer Neal Boyd scooped the show’s one million dollar prize in 2008.

Neal Boyd, an opera singer who won America’s Got Talent and dabbled in Missouri politics, has died at the age of 42.

Scott County coroner Scott Amick said Boyd died around 6pm on Sunday at his mother’s house in Sikeston.

Boyd suffered from a number of medical issues, including heart, kidney and liver problems. He was seriously injured in a car crash in 2017.

He won the NBC TV show and its one million dollar prize in 2008. He released the album My American Dream in 2009, and performed at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.

Boyd also ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a south-east Missouri seat in the US house of representatives seat, losing in the general election in 2012 and in the primary in 2014.