Episode 33: Barbara Padilla

Soprano Barbara Padilla came into the public eye while a contestant on NBC's America's Got Talent. Her voice enchanted the audience and the judges. Barbara's performance of Ave Maria, watched by an audience of 15 million viewers, left notoriously tough judge Piers Morgan "speechless."

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Barbara grew up listening to opera. As an adult, Barbara graduated college in Mexico with a degree in Music Instruction. In 1996 she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease. A friend arranged for her to visit the renowned M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. While Barbara was in Houston, another friend scheduled her an audition with Peter Jacoby of the University of Houston's Moores School of Music. Jacoby offered her an undergraduate and graduate scholarship on the spot. Barbara has since graduated, married, become a mother and is working on her first album.

Barbara's talent and spirit are an inspiration. She believes her illness gave her far more than it took away, and as America's Got Talent judge David Hasselhoff once said to her, "You are exactly where you are supposed to be."