Glennis Grace

Glenda Hulita Elisabeth Batta (born 19 June 1978), known professionally as Glennis Grace, is a Dutch singer. In 2005, she represented the Netherlands in the 50th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, and in 2018 she appeared on the 13th season of America's Got Talent and made it to the finals. Glennis Grace has received online attention due to the similarity between her voice and that of Whitney Houston.

Life and career
Batta was born in Amsterdam to a Dutch mother and a father from Curaçao.

She was discovered in 1994, at the age of 15, after she won the Dutch TV talent show called Soundmixshow, where she performed the Whitney Houston song "One Moment in Time".

Eurovision Song Contest
In 2005, Glennis Grace accepted the offer to participate in the Nationaal Songfestival, the national selection in the Netherlands for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. Glennis Grace performed the ballad "My Impossible Dream" and won the final with this song. She then represented the Netherlands in Kyiv, but ultimately did not qualify for the final.

In April 2011, she reached the top of the Dutch singles chart with a rendition of "Afscheid", a 1998 hit song of the Dutch band Volumia!, which she sang in the Dutch television program Beste Zangers.

In 2012, Glennis Grace founded the Dutch supergroup Ladies of Soul, together with fellow Dutch artists Candy Dulfer, Berget Lewis, Edsilia Rombley and Trijntje Oosterhuis. Oosterhuis left the group in 2017.

Glennis Grace was set to perform during the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, as an interval act alongside DJ and music producer Afrojack. The event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The performance eventually took place during the rescheduled Eurovision Song Contest 2021, where Grace performed "Titanium", which was co-produced by Afrojack.

America's Got Talent
Glennis Grace appeared on the 13th season of America's Got Talent in 2018. During the audition rounds (episode: June 27, 2018) Glennis Grace sang Whitney Houston's "Run to You". Glennis Grace received 'Yes' votes from all four judges and went on to the next round, where she performed "Nothing Compares 2 U" from Prince. She received rave reviews from the judges and earned a place in the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals Glennis Grace sang "Never Enough" from the film The Greatest Showman to reach the semifinals. In the second semifinal, she performed the Kate Bush song "This Woman's Work". This resulted in a spot in the finals together with nine other finalists. In the final she sang the song "Run" from Snow Patrol and got a standing ovation from the judges and the audience. A day later in a separate final broadcast Glennis Grace performed the song "Meant To Be" with American singer Bebe Rexha. She eventually did not make it into the top five finalists.

The Voice of Holland
In July 2021, it was announced that Glennis Grace would replace Jan Smit as a Coach on the twelfth series of The Voice of Holland. After two audition episodes aired, the series was suspended indefinitely, due to sexual misconduct claims by (former) participants, allegedly going on for years, and aimed at the show's band leader, but also implying lax behavior of some (ex-)coaches.

Arrested for supermarket fight
On February 12, 2022, Glennis Grace was arrested along with two other persons, on suspicion of a fight with adult supermarket employees in the Jumbo supermarket at the Westerstraat in Amsterdam. Her 15-year-old son had come home, face covered in blood and had told her the staff had beaten him up. His 15-year-old friend confirmed this, but unfortunately, they had not told the truth. Her son had misbehaved and got a push, fell and hurt himself. Glennis went to the store with her boyfriend at that time and the 2 boys. She had told the friend of her son to call his father, because he claimed he got hit too. His father was at the store with 2 others. The court found no communication on her phone, apart from with her boyfriend at that time. Without talking to each other, they went into the store. It got out of hand and turned into a fight. She was kept in custody for three days, after which she was released on February 15, 2022. She was formally charged on February 22, 2022. The same day, two new suspects were arrested.

She was sentenced to 200 hours of community service on November 9, 2022, for the group fight, but she was acquitted of assault. The whole incident was captured on security cameras, which were thoroughly investigated by the court. She was shown on security camera giving a push or slap with an open hand to the manager who she thought had beaten up her son. The victims claimed in February she had caused no pain or harm, in April and October they wanted to change that statement, but the judges didn't allow that. The money claims of the victims were also denied. One of the victims had also claimed she threatened someone, but the prosecution asked for acquittal because the other 9 witnesses didn't mention anything, including the person she allegedly said it to. The one that mentioned it, didn't mention the threat in February but only in April. The court acquitted her of that as well. She was shown on camera trying to stop violence from others, but it was not sufficient for a total acquittal. She had decided to go to the supermarket and had said during questioning she felt responsible for the incident.

During the 9 months between the incident and the court case, she could not talk about the incident, because of the ongoing investigation. The media during this time and even after only showed one side of the story. Many rumours were spread, for example, that she had beaten up children, which turned out to be completely false, the victims were 21, 26 and 28 years old. A week before the trial, she broke the silence, after the prosecution had confirmed to the media they had added Threat to the charges, without mentioning they were going to ask for acquittal. She gave her side of the story in a talk show. A week later the security camera footage and court case confirmed what she said in that interview.

She has publicly apologised and offered to talk to the victims after the trial. They agreed to that.