Grace VanderWaal

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**Grace Avery VanderWaal** is an American singer-songwriter from Suffern, New York. In September 2016, at age 12, she won the eleventh season of the NBC TV competition show *America's Got Talent*. In December 2016, she released her first EP, *Perfectly Imperfect*, on the Columbia Records label.

VanderWaal began her musical career by posting videos of her original songs and covers on YouTube and performing at open mic nights near her hometown of Suffern, New York. In September 2016, at age 12, she won the eleventh season of the NBC TV competition show *America's Got Talent* (*AGT*), singing her original songs. In December 2016, she released her first EP, *Perfectly Imperfect*, on the Columbia Records label. In November 2017, she released a full-length album, *Just the Beginning*. She released a second EP, *Letters Vol. 1*, in November 2019.

She has performed at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Madison Square Garden, the opening and closing of the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria, various benefit concerts, the Austin City Limits Music Festival and on various television talk shows. VanderWaal conducted her first concert tour in 2017 in support of *Just the Beginning*. She next toured in mid-2018 with Imagine Dragons in their Evolve World Tour, and in 2019, after opening in a tour for Florence and the Machine, she headlined her own "Ur So Beautiful" tour. She made her acting debut in 2020, starring as Susan "Stargirl" Caraway in the Disney+ musical drama film *Stargirl*.

VanderWaal won the 2017 Radio Disney Music Award for Best New Artist and a Teen Choice Award, has been named to *Billboard* magazine's *21 Under 21* list of fast-rising young music stars five times (2016–2019 and 2021), received the 2017 *Billboard* Women in Music Rising Star Award, and is the youngest person ever included in the *Forbes* 30 Under 30 music list.

## Life

Grace was born near Kansas City, Kansas, to Tina and David VanderWaal, who lived in Lenexa at the time. David is of Dutch descent. The family later moved to Suffern, New York. Since winning *America's Got Talent*, she has been home-schooled and enrolled in online courses.

Grace began composing her first songs at age three, using a wireless microphone. As a preteen, she found songwriting inspiration by watching movies and trying to imagine what a character was feeling, and "what it would be like if I were them, and wrote a song." She was inspired to learn the ukulele after watching a family friend play and seeing a Twenty One Pilots video on YouTube. She then bought one, using money she had received for her 11th birthday, and watched more videos to teach herself how to play. She has also played the saxophone in her school's marching band. After learning to play the ukulele, VanderWaal began to perform during open mic events at small venues near her home and to study music theory. In July 2016, after her audition on *AGT*, VanderWaal performed at the Lafayette Theatre in Suffern and at the Ramapo Summer Concert Series at Palisades Credit Union Park.

In 2015, VanderWaal began to record song covers and original songs, accompanying herself on ukulele, and post them on her YouTube channel, "Oh Never mind it's just me". Julia Lennox of AndPop.com reviewed 15 of VanderWaal's covers, praising her arrangements, vocal delivery, musical taste, and "the combination of sass, attitude and confidence she brings to every cover". She includes among her musical influences such artists as Jason Mraz, Twenty One Pilots and Katy Perry.

## Career

### 2016: America's Got Talent

On June 7, 2016, VanderWaal auditioned for the eleventh season of NBC's talent competition show *AGT*, singing her original song about identity, "I Don't Know My Name". She was selected by one of the show's judges, Howie Mandel, as his "golden buzzer" act to skip the next round and perform in the live quarterfinal round. Simon Cowell called VanderWaal "the next Taylor Swift." Brittany Spanos in *Rolling Stone* magazine termed the song an "emotional, catchy, quirky tune". VanderWaal continued to perform her original songs on the show; for her next performance at the quarterfinals on August 23, 2016, she sang "Beautiful Thing", a song that she wrote for her sister. For the semi-finals on August 30, she performed "Light the Sky", and for the September 13 finals, she sang "Clay", a song about dealing with bullies. *AGT*'s video of VanderWaal's audition has accumulated more than 100 million views. It was ranked as the No. 5 trending YouTube video of 2016.

VanderWaal again performed "I Don't Know My Name" at the September 14 finale results episode, then introduced a performance by Stevie Nicks, who compared her own style with VanderWaal's. At the end of the broadcast, VanderWaal was announced as the season 11 winner. She was the second female winner and the second child winner in the show's history.

#### Post America's Got Talent

VanderWaal planned to use part of her *AGT* winnings to make a donation to charity and to buy two tree houses, built by the team from *Treehouse Masters*, for herself and her sister. VanderWaal was a guest on *The Ellen DeGeneres Show* and *The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon* in September 2016, and she headlined four sold-out concerts in the PH Showroom at the Las Vegas Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in October, performing with other *AGT* finalists. She also headlined the *America's Got Talent Holiday Spectacular* in December on NBC, where she performed her arrangement of "Frosty the Snowman".

VanderWaal signed a recording deal with Columbia Records in September 2016 and released her debut EP, *Perfectly Imperfect*, on December 2, 2016. The five songs on the EP include all four of VanderWaal's original songs from *AGT* and another original, "Gossip Girl", all produced by Greg Wells. A Walmart version featured one additional song, "Missing You (Coffeehouse Version)". The EP debuted on the *Billboard* 200 albums chart at No. 9 and was the best selling EP of 2016. The lead single, "I Don't Know My Name", debuted on *Billboard*'s Digital Song Sales chart at No. 37 and on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at No. 24. Another song on the EP, "Light the Sky", was featured as background music in Google's "Year in Search 2016" video.

VanderWaal promoted the EP with a series of appearances and performances. In November 2016, she performed "Light the Sky" and "Riptide" at halftime during a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and "I Don't Know My Name" in the 2016 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, on NBC's *Today* show and at the Christmas tree lighting at South Street Seaport, in New York City, where she also sang "Light the Sky". In December, she sang "I Don't Know My Name" on *The Wendy Williams Show*, at Cyndi Lauper's annual holiday fundraiser at the Beacon Theatre (where she also duetted with Lauper on "True Colors"), on CBS's *The Talk*, and at Z100's Jingle Ball Tour 2016 stop at Madison Square Garden. In reviewing the last event, Jon Caramanica of *The New York Times* commented: "One of the loudest receptions of the night was for Grace VanderWaal, a precociously thoughtful 12-year-old singer-songwriter-ukulele player". Later that month, VanderWaal returned to NBC's *Today Show* to sing "Light the Sky".

### 2017 - 2018: Just The Beginning

In January 2017, VanderWaal sang "I Don't Know My Name" on *Live with Kelly*. She performed atop the Empire State Building for engaged couples at the building's Valentine's Day lighting event in February. In March 2017, she performed at We Day Illinois at Allstate Arena to celebrate young people's action on social issues. She also sang "Light the Sky" at the annual benefit gala "One Night for One Drop", organized by Cirque du Soleil at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The same month, VanderWaal appeared twice at the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria, duetting with Jason Mraz on two of his songs at the opening ceremony and performing her own songs at the closing ceremony. In April, she performed at WE Day charity events in Seattle, and Los Angeles, and she appeared at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards. Her May appearances included a fundraiser at Ramapo High School in New Jersey for The Valley Hospital's children's programs. In June 2017, VanderWaal launched *Perfectly Imperfect* in Japan, performing and meeting with fans there. She donated funds to help establish an elementary school show choir in the East Ramapo Central School District, sponsored scholarships for graduating seniors from each of Ramapo and Spring Valley High Schools pursuing music and another show choir at Chestnut Ridge Middle School.

By early 2017, VanderWaal began working on a full-length album, eventually titled *Just the Beginning*, that she called "more produced ... really the same sound ... [but] less acoustic" than her debut EP. She told an interviewer for *Rookie* magazine about how her process changed for the album, writing songs "on demand" with a collaborator: "I've never done this before; it's kind of weird to go into a room with usually a 30-year-old man and just be like 'Oh, let me open up about my life to you and write a super personal song!'" In June, she participated in VidCon's opening show, *YouTube OnStage*, in The Arena at Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, where she premiered the first single from the upcoming album, "Moonlight". She later released additional singles from the album. In July, she performed at the Starkey Gala in St. Paul, Minnesota, to support hearing charities. In August, she returned to *AGT* as a guest performer, singing "Moonlight". The same month, Windex used VanderWaal's "Beautiful Thing" as the soundtrack to an advertisement, Honda used her cover of "Over the Rainbow" for a Japanese ad, and SheKnows Media ranked "I Don't Know My Name" as one of the 16 most empowering songs for women so far in 2017. In September, VanderWaal performed on *Live with Kelly and Ryan*. The same month, she appeared on *Treehouse Masters* in an episode about the tree houses that VanderWaal had planned since her appearance on *AGT*, and modeled at New York Fashion Week for Marc Jacobs.

VanderWaal promoted *Just the Beginning* with performances in September on *Ellen* and in October at the Austin City Limits Music Festival, where she was "[o]ne of the fest's biggest breakout acts ... whose soaring voice and sweet pop songs charmed large ... crowds." She performed at more WE Day events in Vancouver, British Columbia, in October and St. Paul, Minnesota, in November. VanderWaal released *Just the Beginning* on November 3, 2017. She sang "Moonlight" on *Megyn Kelly Today* on the release date. The album debuted on the *Billboard* 200 albums chart at No. 22. She began her first solo concert tour, the Just the Beginning Tour, on November 5, 2017, which ran through February 2018. By September 2017, the tour had sold out. VanderWaal returned to Japan in late November to promote the album. In December, she appeared on the *Today* show.

In March 2018, VanderWaal travelled to Kenya with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to help hearing-impaired youth there. In April, she performed on *The Late Show with Stephen Colbert*. She was the opening act for Imagine Dragons in the North American leg of their Evolve World Tour from June to August 2018. During the tour, she also performed on *The Late Late Show with James Corden* and at the 2018 LoveLoud Festival. In December 2018, she returned to *Live with Kelly and Ryan* together with Ingrid Michaelson to perform their duet from *Songs for the Season* of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree".

### 2019 - Present: Letters Vol. 1 and Stargirl

In early 2019, VanderWaal released the single "Stray" and recorded her first soundtrack song, "Hideaway", for the animated film *Wonder Park*. She made several tour stops in the southeastern US with Florence and the Machine in June 2019 and conducted her own North American tour in August and September 2019, with an additional performance in November, Later in the year she performed at The Trevor Project gala to prevent suicide among LGBT youth. VanderWaal released several songs in 2019 and released an EP, *Letters Vol. 1*, in November 2019. *Music Week* describes it as "spiky, futuristic, diverse".

In 2020, VanderWaal appeared in her first film as the title character in *Stargirl*, based on the 2000 novel of the same name, which was released on Disney+. She received many favorable reviews. For example, Courtney Howard, in *Variety*, commented: "She ropes us into the mystery of her character reveal with heaping amounts of magnetism and grounded authenticity. It's no surprise that the music-driven scenes really showcase her power". VanderWaal is set to reprise the role in a sequel titled *Hollywood Stargirl*.

## Discography

### Singles

- I Don't Know My Name (November 18, 2016)

- Moonlight (July 21, 2017)

- Sick of Being Told (August 11, 2017)

- Moonlight (BKAYE Remix) (August 18, 2017)

- Clearly (March 30, 2018)

- Stray (February 22, 2019)

- Hideaway (from "Wonder Park") (March 14, 2019)

- Ur So Beatiful (June 28, 2019)

- Waste My Time (August 9, 2019)

- I Don't Like You (October 18, 2019)

- Today and Tomorrow (March 6, 2020)

- Don't Assume What You Don't Know (March 5, 2021)

- Repeat (April 15, 2021)

### Albums

1. ↑ ‘The next Taylor Swift’: Meet the 12-year-old singer-songwriter who won ‘America’s Got Talent’ by Izadi, Elahe. Article released on September 15, 2016.