Grace VanderWaal

At 20 years old, Grace VanderWaal has this physical status:

Career

VanderWaal auditioned for the 11th season of NBC's talent competition show AGT on June 7, 2016, performing her original song about identity, "I Don't Know My Name." Howie Mandel, one of the show's judges, selected her "golden buzzer" act to skip the next round and appear in the live quarterfinal round. VanderWaal is Simon Cowell's nicknamed "the next Taylor Swift Swift." In Rolling Stone magazine, Brittany Spanos called the song a "emotional, catchy, quirky piece." VanderWaal continued to perform her original songs on the program; for her upcoming appearance in the quarterfinals on August 23, 2016, she performed "Beautiful Thing," a song she wrote for her sister. She performed "Light the Sky" in the semifinals on August 30, and "Clay" in the September 13 finals, a song about bullies. VanderWaal's audition video on AGT has received more than 100,000 views and has been ranked No. 1. Of the five most popular YouTube video of 2016.

VanderWaal's "I Don't Know My Name" appeared on the September 14 finale results show, before Stevie Nicks opened her own version with VanderWaal's. VanderWaal was crowned the season 11 champion at the end of the program. She was the second female winner and the second child champion in the show's history.

VanderWaal planned to make a donation to charity and to purchase two tree houses, built by the Treehouse Masters team, for herself and her sister. VanderWaal appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in September and October, a sensation, and she headlined four sold-out concerts in the Las Vegas Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in October, where she appeared with other AGT finalists. She appeared on NBC in December as "Frosty the Snowman," during her set-up.

VanderWaal signed a recording contract with Columbia Records in September 2016 and debuted Perfectly Imperfect, her debut EP, on December 2, 2016. The EP features five of VanderWaal's original songs as well as another original, "Gossip Girl," all produced by Greg Wells. "Missing You," a Walmart version of "Missing You (Coffeehouse Version) was included in one of the Coffeehouse Version). The EP debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart at No. 1. 9 was the best-selling EP of 2016. "I Don't Know My Name" lead single debuted on Billboard's Digital Song Sales chart, ranked No. 27. 37 and a 37 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, at No. 102. 24. "Light the Sky," another song on the EP, was included as background music in Google's "Year in Search 2016" video.

VanderWaal launched the EP with a line of appearances and performances. On NBC's Today show and "I Don't Know My Name" in the 2016 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Madison Square Garden, New York City, where she also sang "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 and "I Don't Know My Name" during a She performed "I Don't Know My Name" on The Wendy Williams Show in December, Cyndi Lauper's annual holiday fundraiser, and at Madison Square Garden for Z100's Jingle Ball Tour 2016. "One of the night's most popular performances was for Grace VanderWaal, a precociously thoughtful 12-year-old singer-songwriter-ukulele player," Jon Caramanica of The New York Times said. VanderWaal performed "Light the Sky" on NBC's Today Show later this month.

On Live with Kelly in January 2017, VanderWaal sang "I Don't Know My Name." At the Valentine's Day lighting display in February, she appeared at the Empire State Building for engaged couples. In March 2017, she appeared at We Day Illinois at Allstate Arena to commemorate young people's participation in social issues. At the annual benefit gala "One Night for One Drop," led by Cirque du Soleil at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, she also performed "Light the Sky." VanderWaal appeared twice at the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria, due to Jason Mraz's appearance at two of his songs and her own song at the closing ceremony. She appeared at WE Day charity concerts in Seattle and Los Angeles in April, as well as the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards. A fundraiser for The Valley Hospital's children's services at Ramapo High School in New Jersey in May was one of her May appearances. VanderWaal's Perfectly Imperfect in Japan appeared and spoke to supporters. She donated funds to help establish a preschool show choir in the East Ramapo Central School District in the East Ramapo Valley High School District, as well as another show choir at Chestnut Ridge Middle School.

VanderWaal's debut EP was released in early 2017, with the addition of "more produced... really the same sound... [but] less acoustic] than her debut EP. "I've never done this before; I've never done this before; it's kind of strange to walk into a room with mainly a 30-year-old man and write a very personal song!" she wrote to an interviewer for Rookie magazine about how her process changed for the album. In June, she appeared in VidCon's opening show, YouTube OnStage, in Anaheim, California, where she premiered "Moonlight," the first single from the forthcoming album. Later in the year, she would release additional singles from her album. She appeared at the Starkey Gala in St. Paul, Minnesota, in July to raise money for hearing charities. She returned to AGT in August as a guest artist on "Moonlight." Windex used "Beautiful Thing" for a Japanese advertisement, Honda used her cover of "Over the Rainbow" for a Japanese advertisement, and SheKnows Media ranked "I Don't Know My Name" as one of the 16 most empowering songs for women so far in 2017. VanderWaal appeared on Live with Kelly and Ryan in September. She appeared on Treehouse Masters in an episode about the tree houses that VanderWaal had designed since her appearance on AGT and modeled at New York Fashion Week for Marc Jacobs last month.

VanderWaal performed Just the Beginning on Ellen and in October at the Austin City Limits Music Festival, where she was "[o]ne of the festival's best breakout acts"... her soaring voice and sweet pop songs charmed a large audience. "The crowds are enormous." In October and St. Paul, Minnesota, she appeared at more WE Day activities in Vancouver, British Columbia. On November 3, 2017, VanderWaal published Just the Beginning. On the first day, she performed "Moonlight" on Megyn Kelly Today. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, placing it at No. 1. 22. On November 5, 2017, she began the Just the Beginning Tour, her first solo concert tour, which ran into February 2018. The tour had sold out by September 2017. VanderWaal returned to Japan in late November to market the album. She appeared on the Today show in December.

VanderWaal and the Starkey Hearing Foundation sent a young youth to Kenya in March 2018. She appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in April. In the North American leg of their Evolving World Tour from June to August 2018, she was the opening act for Imagine Dragons. She appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden and at the 2018 LoveLoud Festival. In December 2018, she and Kelly and Ryan appeared on Live with Kelly and Ryan, as part of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"'s Season.

VanderWaal's first soundtrack song, "Hideaway," was released in early 2019 for her animated film Wonder Park. She made several tour stops in the United States with Florence and the Machine in June 2019 and developed her own North American tour, titled "Under the Beautiful" in August and September 2019, with an additional appearance in November. She appeared at the Trevor Project gala later this year to avoid suicide among LGBT people. VanderWaal performed many songs in 2019 and also released Letters Vol. In November 2019, there were 1, which was the first in November 2019. "It's vibrant, futuristic, and eclectic," Music Week describes it as "spiky, futuristic, and diverse."

Susan "Stargirl" Caraway, based on the 2000 book of the same name, appeared in VanderWaal's debut in 2020. Both the film and VanderWaal's performances received high marks. "She ropes us into the mystery of her character's revelation," Courtney Howard of Variety said. It's no surprise that the music-driven scenes really showcase her talent." She continued to perform in 2021 and 2022 as she began to publish songs.

In the 2022 sequel, Hollywood Stargirl, VanderWaal portrayed Stargirl. On Disney+, the film was released on June 3, 2022. "VanderWaal is now a magnet presence," courtney Howard said in Variety. Megalopolis, written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is a young actress starring Emily Johnson, who will debut in 2022.

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