Grace VanderWaal

**Grace Avery VanderWaal** (born January 15, 2004) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and model.

In 2016, Grace competed in and won the popular American television show, *America’s Got Talent,* when she was only 12 years old.

Since then, Grace has released 2 EPs, 1 album, 14 singles, toured 4 times (2 of which she headlined), won several awards, and starred in the Disney Plus movie, *Stargirl*. She is known for her distinctive vocals, often accompanying herself on the ukulele in early performances.

## Early Life

Grace was born in Lenexa, Kansas to parents Tina and David VanderWaal. She stayed in Kansas until 2007, when her father become the Vice President of Marketing at LG Electronics and the VanderWaal family moved to Suffern, New York. Grace has an older brother named Jakob and a younger sister named Olivia.

Grace has been writing and singing original songs since she was three years old.

Grace became inspired to play the ukulele after someone from Brazil that stayed at their house played it. Grace told *Access Hollywood Live* “She played the ukulele and so I wanted one because she played one and I really liked it, her hand looked so cool when she played it. And so I asked one for my 11th birthday and I remember my mom did not buy me one because she thought I would never play it!” So, Grace used her 11th birthday money to buy her very first uke.

In July 2015, Grace started performing at open mic nights at the Bean Runner Cafe in Peekskill, New York with her ukulele. She also started uploading the covers she sang at the Bean Runner and even at her own home to her YouTube channel titled Oh Never Mind It’s Just Me - Grace VanderWaal.

## Career

**2016-2017: America’s Got Talent and Perfectly Imperfect**

Grace auditioned for *America’s Got Talent* on March 4, 2016 with her original song “I Don’t Know My Name” at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California. Her performance was received very well by the judges and the audience. Howie Mandel pushed the Golden Buzzer, which meant Grace would advance to the live shows.

All throughout the live shows, Grace sang original songs. Grace performed “Beautiful Thing” for the Quarterfinals on August 23, 2016. On August 30, 2016, she sang “Light The Sky” for the Semi-Finals. For the Finals on September 13, 2016, she performed “Clay”. On the night of September 14th 2016, Grace performed “I Don’t Know My Name” for the finale and was then declared the winner of the eleventh season of *America’s Got Talent*.

In September 2016, Grace signed a record deal with Columbia Records.

She recorded her debut EP, Perfectly Imperfect, and Greg Wells produced *Perfectly Imperfect*, which was released on December 2, 2016.

She kept singing several of the songs on *Perfectly Imperfect* in addition to covers and doing interviews both nationally and internationally, from the time after she won AGT up until mid 2017.

**March 2017-2018: Just The Beginning, getting signed as a model, Clearly, the Evolve tour, and Stargirl**

In March 2017, *Billboard* announced Grace was working on *Just The Beginning,* her debut album, saying “But six months after her life-changing win, VanderWaal is already working hard on her debut album... she’s looking forward to releasing her first full record later this year.”

*Moonlight*, the first single of *Just The Beginning*, came out on June 20, 2017. Grace’s very first music video, Moonlight, came out on July 20, 2017.

On August 16, 2017, Grace announced she would be headlining her own tour called Just The Beginning and came back to *AGT* to perform *Moonlight* in Hollywood, California at the Dolby Theatre.

On Sep 12, 2017, IMG announced Grace had signed a contract with their agency to be a model. On Sep 13, 2017, Grace attended her first runway show for the Marc Jacobs Spring 2018 Collection in New York.

On Sep 14, 2017, Grace announced her debut album, *Just The Beginning*, would come out on November 3, 2017.

At the Austin City Limits Festival held on October 7 and 14, 2017, Grace performed most of the songs from *Just The Beginning* along with “I Don’t Know My Name” and “Home” by Edward Sharpe.

On November 1, 2017, Grace announced she would be working with Fender and she would be making her Signature Ukulele with them in 2018. Fender announced Grace would be the youngest Signature Artist in Fender history.

On November 3, 2017, the day *Just The Beginning* was released, Grace appeared on *Megyn Kelly Today* to sing “Moonlight”.

From November 5th to November 15th of 2017, Grace was on the road for the first part of her Just The Beginning tour and then continued the second part, starting on February 5th to February 23rd of 2018.

On March 30, 2018, Grace released *Clearly*, a re-interpretation of Johnny Nash’s song “I Can See Clearly Now”.

Grace appeared as a guest on the Evolve Tour with the band, Imagine Dragons, from June 5th to August 10th of 2018.

On June 5, 2018, it was announced that Grace would star in *Stargirl*, a Disney adaption of the Jerry Spinelli book *Stargirl*.

Graced started filming *Stargirl* from late September of 2018 to mid November of 2018.

On October 2, 2018, two Grace ukuleles, a Signature Ukulele and a Moonlight Ukulele, were released by Fender.

On December 6, 2018 at the Billboard Women in Music awards, Grace announced her new music would be coming in early 2019. Grace told *Billboard*, “My music is genuinely the same [as before], except you hear what I’ve been through and you hear me growing up a little bit, I can’t wait for you to hear it, though. It’s so soon.”

**2019: LETTERS VOL. 1, singles, music videos, and touring**

On Jan 18, 2019, Grace announced that she finished filming her first music video of the year for *Stray*, the first single, of the *LETTERS Vol. 1* EP.

Grace performed *Stray* at the Slipper Room in New York on February 21, 2019 and on February 22, 2019, *Stray* was released along with a music video.

Grace attended the *Wonder Park* movie premiere that took place in Los Angeles, California on March 10, 2019 since a song she sang for the movie titled *Hideaway* would be featured in the movie and released on March 15, 2019.

Grace was a guest on the Florence and the Machine: The High as Hope Tour on the following dates: June 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th of 2019.

On June 28, 2019, the second single of *LETTERS Vol. 1*, *Ur So Beautiful*, was released along with a lyric video that was shot by Grace over the span of a few months. The music video for *Ur So Beautiful* was released on July 24, 2019.

On August 9, 2019, the third single of *LETTERS Vol. 1*, *Waste My Time*, was released.

From August 10th to September 21st of 2019, Grace headlined her own tour called Ur So Beautiful.

On October 18, 2019, the fourth and final single of the *LETTERS:* *Vol. 1* EP, *I Don’t Like You*, was released. Grace co-directed her own music video for *I Don’t Like You* with Joakim Carlsson, which came out on November 12, 2019.

The *LETTERS: Vol. 1* EP was released on November 22, 2019.

**2020: Stargirl, Chanel, and Quarantine**

The trailer for the *Stargirl* movie, featuring Grace VanderWaal and Graham Verchere, came out on January 15, 2020 and it was announced that *Stargirl* would be coming to the streaming service, Disney Plus, on March 13, 2020.

On March 3, 2020, Grace attended her first Chanel fashion runway show in Paris. On March 11, 2020, Grace attended the *Stargirl* premiere in Los Angeles, California along with the cast and director of *Stargirl*.

On March 19, 2020, the music video for Grace’s single, *Today and Tomorrow*, (written by Grace for *Stargirl*) was released.

Over the COVID Quarantine, Grace spoke out about Black Lives Matter and started self producing her own songs at home. She attended boarding school in the fall of 2020 and has said new music will be coming soon.

**2021: Hollywood Stargirl**

On February 22, 2021, it was annouced that Grace would be starring in the Disney plus sequel of Stargirl, Hollywood Stargirl. Filming was completed over the summer and it should be released in the spring of 2022.