Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., 37, a car washer from Logan, W. Va., was the surprise winner of “America’s Got Talent” last night.
The uncanny Frank Sinatra sound-alike, who was raised on welfare and was homeless by the age of 19, was overcome with emotion and began tearing up when host Nick Cannon called his name.
“Thank you so much for believing in me and letting me be myself,” he said before receiving a group hug from the 42 members of Silhouettes, which came in second place.
“It has been a long hard journey. I have been busting my butt out here doing this for a long time — since I was a kid.”
The winner of the national talent contest will take home a $1 million prize.
“He deserved to win,” last year’s runner-up, singer Jackie Evancho, told The Post last night.
The dreadlocked crooner sealed his victory Tuesday night with a rousing rendition of “My Way,” which judge Piers Morgan called his “million-dollar performance.”
“My whole thing was just to go to New York and sing Frank Sinatra songs without getting booed, without getting the X,” Murphy said of his decision to audition for the show. “This experience has changed my life tremendously.
“I started out as a dancer, impersonating Michael Jackson,” he said.
“I got into Sinatra while playing basketball. Instead of trash talking on the court, I would sing. After dunkin’ on people, I would go ‘Fly me to the moon …’ ”
Murphy, a father of four, was a fan favorite from his first audition in New York.
“Your life is never going to be the same,” judge Howie Mandel told him after his first TV performance.
But after weeks of covering “Ole Blue Eyes” songs — and sounding just like him — the singer’s appeal began to fade.
“He has got to be careful,” judge Sharon Osbourne cautioned in late August. “He shouldn’t do another Sinatra song. Because he is too one dimensional right now.”
Murphy says he will use the show’s prize money to invest in his children’s future.
“I just turned 37 but I have had this talent all my life,” he said. “If anybody in their right mind would have taken the time to invest in me then, it wouldn’t have taken me this long to get here.”
He will headline three shows at Caesars Palace with other acts from “America’s Got Talent” in late October.
Murphy becomes the sixth winner of “AGT” since the show began as a summer TV staple in 2006. Despite the presence of dancers, magicians and other types of performers on the show, all but one winner has been a singer.