Grace VanderWaal facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Grace VanderWaal |
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VanderWaal in 2018
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| Background information | |
| Born | January 15, 2004 Lenexa, Kansas, U.S. |
| Genres | Pop |
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Grace Avery VanderWaal (born January 15, 2004) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is famous for her unique voice. Grace often plays the ukulele while she sings.
Grace started her music journey by sharing videos of her songs on YouTube. She also performed at local open mic nights. In September 2016, when she was just 12 years old, Grace won the TV show America's Got Talent (AGT). She impressed everyone by singing her own original songs.
After winning AGT, Grace signed with Columbia Records and Syco Music. In December 2016, she released her first collection of songs, called an EP, named Perfectly Imperfect. It became the best-selling EP of that year! Her first full album, Just the Beginning (2017), was also very popular. She released another EP, Letters Vol. 1, in 2019.
Grace has performed in many famous places, like Madison Square Garden. She also sang at the opening and closing events of the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria. She has toured with big bands like Imagine Dragons. In 2020, Grace started acting! She starred as Susan "Stargirl" Caraway in the Disney+ movie Stargirl. She returned for the sequel, Hollywood Stargirl, in 2022.
Grace has won several awards, including two Radio Disney Music Awards. She also received a Teen Choice Award. Billboard magazine has named her one of the top young music stars many times. She is the youngest person ever on the Forbes 30 Under 30 music list.
Contents
Grace's Early Life and Music Beginnings
Family and Growing Up
Grace VanderWaal was born in Lenexa, Kansas. Her parents are Tina and David VanderWaal. In 2007, her family moved to Suffern, New York. Later, Grace moved to South Carolina. She has an older brother and sister. After winning America's Got Talent in 2016, Grace was homeschooled for a while. She also took online classes.
How Grace Started Her Music Journey
Grace loved singing and making up songs from a very young age. When she was a preteen, she got ideas for songs by watching movies. She would imagine how the characters felt. She decided to learn the ukulele after seeing someone play it and watching a Twenty One Pilots video.
Grace bought her own ukulele with birthday money when she was 11. She taught herself to play by watching more videos. She also played the saxophone in her school's marching band.
In 2015, Grace began recording herself singing. She posted these videos, where she played ukulele, on her YouTube channel. She was inspired by artists like Jason Mraz and Katy Perry. Grace also started performing at open mic events near her home. She even began studying music theory.
Grace's Amazing Career
Winning America's Got Talent in 2016
On June 7, 2016, Grace auditioned for AGT. She sang her original song, "I Don't Know My Name." One of the judges, Howie Mandel, was so impressed that he chose her as his "golden buzzer" act. This meant she went straight to the live shows! Judge Simon Cowell even called her "the next Taylor Swift."
Grace continued to sing her own songs on the show. For the quarterfinals, she sang "Beautiful Thing," a song she wrote for her sister. In the semifinals, she performed "Light the Sky." For the finals, she sang "Clay," a song about dealing with bullies. The video of Grace's AGT audition has been watched over 100 million times!
In the finale, Grace sang "I Don't Know My Name" again. She also performed with Stevie Nicks, a famous singer. At the end of the show, Grace was announced as the winner of season 11! She was only the second girl and second child to win the show.
After America's Got Talent
After winning AGT, Grace signed a record deal with Columbia Records. She released her first EP, Perfectly Imperfect, on December 2, 2016. This EP included all four of her original songs from AGT. It also had a new song called "Gossip Girl." The EP was a huge success, becoming the best-selling EP of 2016.
Grace promoted her new music with many performances. She sang at a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. She also performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Grace appeared on popular TV shows like Today and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She even sang with Cyndi Lauper at a charity event.
2017–2018: Just the Beginning Album
In early 2017, Grace started working on her first full album. It was called Just the Beginning. She said it would be "less acoustic" and more produced than her EP. Grace learned to write songs with other musicians for this album.
In June, she performed a new song, "Moonlight," from her upcoming album. She released other songs from the album too. In August, Grace returned to AGT as a guest to sing "Moonlight." Her song "Beautiful Thing" was used in a Windex advertisement.
Grace released Just the Beginning on November 3, 2017. The album was very popular, reaching number 22 on the Billboard 200 chart. She then started her first solo concert tour, called the Just the Beginning Tour. All the tickets for her tour quickly sold out!
In 2018, Grace traveled to Kenya to help young people with hearing problems. She also opened for the band Imagine Dragons on their North American tour.
2019–Present: Letters Vol. 1 and Stargirl Movies
In 2019, Grace recorded her first song for a movie soundtrack, "Hideaway," for the film Wonder Park. She also toured with Florence and the Machine. Later that year, she had her own North American tour called "Ur So Beautiful." She released her EP, Letters Vol. 1, in November 2019.
In 2020, Grace made her acting debut in the Disney+ movie Stargirl. She played the main character, Susan "Stargirl" Caraway. Both the movie and Grace's acting received great reviews. Critics said she was "magnetic" and showed "heaping amounts of magnetism."
Grace released new songs in 2021 and 2022. She returned as Stargirl in the sequel, Hollywood Stargirl, released in June 2022. In 2024, Grace performed at the Kennedy Center Honors. She also announced plans to release her second full-length album in 2025. She said the new album will talk about "pretty serious and heavy topics."
Grace's Music Albums
Albums
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US |
AUS |
BE (FL) |
BE (WA) |
CAN |
JPN |
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| Just the Beginning |
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22 | 60 | 118 | 107 | 20 | 37 |
EPs
| Title | EP details | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US |
CAN |
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| Perfectly Imperfect |
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9 | 11 |
| Letters Vol. 1 |
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— | — |
Popular Singles
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Bub. |
AUS |
BE (FL) Tip |
BEL (WA) Tip |
JPN |
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| "I Don't Know My Name" | 2016 | 24 | 82 | — | — | — | Perfectly Imperfect |
| "Moonlight" | 2017 | — | — | — | 3 | — | Just the Beginning |
| "So Much More Than This" | — | — | — | 16 | 43 | ||
| "Ur So Beautiful" | 2019 | — | — | 45 | — | — | Letters Vol. 1 |
| "—" means the song did not chart or was not released in that country. | |||||||
Grace's Film Roles
Film
| Year | Title | Role(s) | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Stargirl | Susan "Stargirl" Caraway | Streaming film | |
| 2022 | Hollywood Stargirl | |||
| 2024 | Megalopolis | Vesta Sweetwater |
Grace's Concert Tours
Headlining Tours
- Just the Beginning Tour (2017–2018)
- Ur So Beautiful Tour (2019)
Opening Act Tours
- Imagine Dragons – Evolve World Tour (2018)
- Florence and the Machine – High as Hope Tour (2019)
See also
In Spanish: Grace VanderWaal para niños
