It is indeed hard for a singer to have both a distinct voice and also show and maintain emotions throughout a performance, However, the Kansas City born singer Grace VanderWaal makes it look easy and simple.
Grace Avery VanderWaal is an American singer and songwriter, known for distinctive vocals, and often found on stage with her ukulele.
Born on January15, 2004 to Tina and David VanderWaal, she showed an immense interest in music from an early age, singing and making up songs at three years of age . As she grew, she found inspiration by trying to recreate along with imaging what the specific character was feeling, simultaneously while watching films, and TV shows. She was influenced to play the ukulele by watching Twenty-One Pilots and Au Pair.
After this she urged her mother to buy her the instrument, which request she refused, thinking that Grace would never learn to play it. But Grace’s determination took her far enough to spending gift money she received for her 11t birthday to buy herself one, and watch YouTube videos on how to play it.
Songs and wins
In 2015, Grace recorded song covers and original songs accompanying herself on her beloved ukulele, and posting them on YouTube In 2016, she auditioned for Simon Cowell’s show, America’s got Talent Season 11, singing her original song I don’t know My Name, for which she received more than 100 million views on YouTube, ranking it as the 5th trending song in 2016.
After the spectacular performance Howie Mandel chose her as his Golden Buzzer of the Season resulting in a move towards the quarterfinals without the upcoming selection round, Moreover Simon Cowell called Grace “the ne xt Taylor Swift”.
Soon, her song was termed as “emotional, catchy, quirky tuned”. For her quarterfinal and semifinal acts, she performed Beautiful Thing dedicated for her sister and Light up the Sky respectively, for which she was highly recognised by professionals.
She cast her final spell by singing Clay, a song about dealing with bullies. At the end of the day, Grace VanderWaal was crowned as the winner of Season 11 on AGT. She was the second female winner and second child act winner in the show’s history. In the same year, VanderWaal signed a recording deal with Colombia Records to debut as a solo artiste as a result of her fame gained by winning AGT.
Her first extended play(EP) Perfectly Imperfect included all four of her primal songs from AGT plus a collection of other songs such as Gossip Girl. Amazingly the singer’s EP debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart at No.9, making it the bestselling EP of 2016, While Light The Sky was featured as background music in Google’s Year in Search 2016 video. Following this she performed one of her earliest creations Jason Marz at the 2017 Special World Winter Olympic Games held in Austria.
Album
She released her album, Just the Beginning on November 3, 2017. Which comprised of her big hit Moonlight, Better Life, City Song Sick of Being Told and many more. In early 2019, the artiste released a single Stray while creating a soundtrack song for the animated film Wonder Park.
Amid tough situations, in 2020, Grace VanderWaal appeared in her first movie StarGirl as the title character Stargirl Caraway, based on the novel of the same name. She received favourable reviews for her role in the film.
Grace’s reputation has reached a very bright slot the industry. Many categorise her voice as “endearingly croaky” while others called it “raspy” or “timelessly soulful”.
A certain number of critics praise her vocals as being similar to Taylor Swift, whereas some agree that it is close enough to Sia’s Vocals. “The songs written and performed on AGT were not only catchy but emotional and unique in her own way, a mix of raw and folk” the New York Magazine stated once.
Accolades
Nevertheless, she has also received accolades such as ‘ Best Push Artiste’ at MTV Europe Music Awards, and ‘ Best New Artiste’ at Radio Disney Music Awards in 2017. Billboard magazine named Grace to its ‘21 under 21’ list in music’s youngest stars for four consecutive years from 2016-2019 following her receiving the award for ‘Women in music- Rising Star’ by Billboard .
She was included in Forbes ‘ 30 under 30 music list’ making her the youngest person to be on the list.
By 2018, VanderWaal had accumulated eight million followers collectively on social media. As of 2020, she has 3 million followers on Instagram, another 3 million on YouTube including a million on her Facebook page.
Grace VanderWaal might have not done much, but her small steps have created a huge wave and into the bargain her tough determination and courage has earned her an incomparable reputation together with a immense popularity unthinkable for her young age She is often recognised for her deep-cutting lyrics and sharp visuals.She is a great inspiration for many girls around the world to follow their dreams while working hard like she always says “Stars are dull compared to You and I”