SAN DIEGO — Jessica Sanchez is living proof that it may be time to revise F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famed dictum that here are “no second acts in American lives.”

On Wednesday night, the very pregnant 30-year-old Chula Vista native sang her way to first-place honors — and $1 million in prize money, to be paid in annual annuities — on the nationally televised “America’s Got Talent.” Her win came 13 years after she placed second on “American Idol,” and a full two decades after she competed as a 10-year-old contestant on the 2006 debut season of “America’s Got Talent.”

The 5-foot-1-inch singer with a very big voice is due to give birth to her first child, a girl, in two weeks. She still sounded giddy about her “America’s Got Talent” triumph during a phone interview Thursday afternoon with The San Diego Union-Tribune.

“It’s so crazy. I feel like I’m in a dream!” Sanchez said, speaking from Los Angeles

“There are a lot of people that saw me on Season 1 when I was just 10. To come back, 20 years later, and give this dream another shot — and do it with my first child in my belly and sharing the stage with me — it’s just been so surreal and so amazing.”

Sanchez laughed when asked if she had suffered any morning sickness during the past two months of filming “America’s Got Talent.” She acknowledged that even singing informally while pregnant posed challenges, let alone doing so in front of a national TV viewing audience of millions.

“Not really morning sickness, but a lot more fatigue because my body is a lot heavier,” Sanchez said.

“And then the hormones also affected my vocal cords, and my breathing with my diaphragm, because she’s growing so quickly. It’s been definitely a challenge trying to teach myself how to sing again and deliver the best that I can for each and every performance. But I’m so blessed that I was able to and that America agreed with me on that, and then decided to crown me the winner. I mean, this, this is just so amazing.”

She laughed again when asked if her baby kicked during any of her televised performances.

“Yes, when I sang ‘Golden Hour’ for the semifinals,” Sanchez said. “Every single time I would sing that song, or when I was practicing, she would be moving around so much. I take that as a sign that she loves the song! (Being) able to share the stage with my daughter was just such an amazing, special experience. But then you do have the disadvantages where my breathing is now restricted, and I’m having to learn how to deliver the songs in a different way, and learning my vocal capabilities at this point in my pregnancy.”

Sanchez’s cinched her win Wednesday night with her impeccably modulated version of the Lady Gaga/Bruno Mars hit, “Die With A Smile.”

Her performance earned lavish praise from the show’s four judges.

“It’s perfection,” said actress Sofía Vergara. “You look like a little pregnant angel. I mean, you look beautiful, your voice, I’ve never heard anything like that. Bravo Jessica.”

Former Spice Girls’ mainstay Mel B. agreed, adding: “No mater what song you sing, your vocals are just flawless and pitch-perfect every single time.”

Reflecting on “Golden Hour” on Thursday, less than 24 hours after her win, Sanchez said: “It’s a beautiful song and vocally huge. I think my mindset for the (show’s) season was to take songs that were more unexpected for me to sing and kind of make them my own.”

Sanchez can still belt out her vocals with impressive power. But her singing now is less showy and more nuanced and carefully modulated.

“I think when I was younger, I just wanted to prove to everybody that I deserve to be there,” she said. “And of course, there are still elements of that. I do want to prove myself, maybe not to every audience, but to myself. Like: ‘I deserve to be here.’ I feel like the biggest battle sometimes (is) with yourself, you know, mindset-wise.”

Sanchez, a Filipino American, now lives in Houston with her husband, Rickie Gallardo. The two met at a church function in San Diego. She does not currently have a manager, an agent or a record contract, although that could change following her “America’s Got Talent” win.

“My biggest supporter and my rock is my husband, so he’s been helping me with everything,” Sanchez said.

“I’ve actually been staying away from social media as much as I can. Because mentally and emotionally, I don’t think I’m at this state right now, being nine months pregnant, to look at everything. But he’s been filtering everything for me and he’s just been so amazing at, you know, giving me updates on what everybody’s saying. He’s been helping me manage everything so far.”

Sanchez’s 2012 run on “American Idol” thrust her into the national spotlight.

Far fewer people are aware of that, after her debut album failed to take off and her concert dates dried up, she withdrew from music altogether. Having done so makes her return — and her Wednesday night victory — all the more sweet.

Or, as “America’s Got Talent” judge Simon Cowell told her during the telecast: “Not only are you talented, you’ve never given up.”

“My identity was really wrapped into music,” Sanchez said. “I felt like if I was a failure in music, I was a failure in life. For a while I stepped away from music, because I needed to figure out my identity away from music.

“And now, I feel like music is a huge part of my life, but it’s not who I am. It’s a beautiful thing that I’m able to do and am blessed to do. It is huge for me knowing that my identity isn’t just in music, but that I am my own person, and I’m so excited to share even more of myself with the world.

“I’m a lot more mature now and know exactly why I’m doing this. Every time I step on stage, I think the biggest goal for me is to inspire other people and to dream bigger than my own dreams, to touch people’s hearts with the platforms that I’ve been given.”

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