The Story of Grace Vanderwaal _ Beyond America's Got Talent

Grace VanderWaal was born January 15, 2004, near Kansas City, Kansas, to Tina and David VanderWaal. The young musician, who lives in Suffern, New York, rose to fame when she performed an original song, I Don't Know My Name, on Season 11 of America's Got Talent. Grace began making up songs when she was just three years old, using a wireless microphone to perform for her family. At the age of four, she started taking piano lessons, which helped give her a good foundation and basic understanding of music. By ten, Grace had also begun playing the saxophone in her school band. It was actually a video of Tyler Joseph covering Can't Help Falling In Love that inspired Grace to learn how to play the ukulele. Grace told the Daily Beast, After seeing the video, Grace asked for a ukulele for her 11th birthday, but her parents refused thinking she'd never learn to play it. Grace instead bought her own ukulele using money she had received from her birthday allowance. A couple of weeks later, she put on her first concert for her family. To her parents' surprise, she could actually play the instrument, which she learned to play by watching YouTube videos. Since then, the ukulele has been her instrument of choice, and it wasn't long before she was performing at open mic nights in New York and New Jersey. As her confidence increased, Grace set her sights on the show that launched Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood to stardom, American Idol. Unfortunately, the age limit for the show was actually 15, and Grace was not old enough to audition. Grace explained, She shared with Teen Vogue at the time, Then one day, my mom just called me downstairs, and she had her laptop out and was like, I signed you up for America's Got Talent. Just like that. And then the next weekend, I auditioned. Grace went on to explain, When you sign up for America's Got Talent, it's not like you're signing up to go on the show. You're signing up to go on an open call audition, she said. I literally just went there to people watch. I know everyone says this, but truly, we were doing it for fun. Me and my mom were doing it for fun and to see everyone. In June of 2016, a then 12-year-old Grace VanderWaal auditioned for the 11th season of America's Got Talent, singing her original song about identity, I Don't Know My Name. From the moment she started singing, the crowd and the judges were left in awe. The song ended with a standing ovation, followed by Judge Howie Mandel calling Grace a living, beautiful, walking miracle before hitting the golden buzzer, sending Grace straight to the live shows. Tears of disbelief rolled down her cheeks as Grace's family rushed the stage and gold confetti rained down around them. Grace continued to perform her original songs, capturing the hearts of AGT viewers with her charm and talent over the course of the show. Her performances led her to the show's grand finale, and the young singer was ultimately declared the winner of America's Got Talent Season 11. With her win at only 12 years of age, Grace became the second female winner and only the second child act to win in the show's history. After winning America's Got Talent, Grace was homeschooled and enrolled in online courses for 7th grade before returning to public school for 8th grade. As the winner of Season 11, Grace was awarded a $1 million cash prize as well as the opportunity to headline a concert show in Las Vegas. Grace also explained she planned to use part of her AGT winnings to make a donation to charity and to buy two treehouses built by the team from Treehouse Masters for herself and her sister. Shortly after winning the show, Grace was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Falun. She also signed a recording deal that September with Columbia Records and released her debut EP, Perfectly Imperfect, on December 2, 2016. The EP included all four of Grace's original songs from America's Got Talent as well as another original, Gossip Girl. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 charts at number 9 and was the best-selling EP of 2016. The album's lead single, I Don't Know My Name, debuted on Billboard's Digital Song Sales chart at number 37 and on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at number 24. Another song from the EP, Light the Sky, was featured as background music for Google's Year in Search 2016 video. Grace returned to America's Got Talent to perform Frosty the Snowman for the show's Holiday Spectacular, which aired in December of 2016. Before entering the spotlight through America's Got Talent, Grace had already achieved a limited amount of attention on social media by singing covers of famous songs on her ukulele. Since her audition, fans have flocked to her YouTube channel and watched videos of her cover songs over and over again. Grace's YouTube and Instagram accounts currently have over 3 million subscribers each. Some of her most popular covers include Elle King's X's and O's, Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass, and I Can't Help Falling In Love With You by Elvis Presley. The America's Got Talent video of her audition has accumulated more than 95 million views and was ranked as the number 5 trending YouTube video of 2016. In May of 2017, the then 13-year-old singer won her first ever award, taking home Best New Artist at the Radio Disney Music Awards. The next month, Grace launched her Perfectly Imperfect EP in Japan, performing and meeting with fans there. She also started the Little Miracles Foundation, which brings music to school districts without access to it due to lack of funding. It's really important to me because I feel like music is such a creative escape, especially for kids who don't quite know how to express their feelings yet. It can get very frustrating and I feel like music is such a release of all those feelings, she says. She donated funds to help establish an elementary school choir in the East Ramapo Central School District. In addition, she also sponsored scholarships for graduating seniors from Ramapo and Spring Valley High Schools who are pursuing music. In September of 2017, she appeared on Treehouse Masters in an episode about the treehouses that she had planned since winning America's Got Talent. That same month, Grace modeled at New York Fashion Week for Marc Jacobs and also signed with IMG Models Worldwide, who will represent Grace for her modeling jobs. Grace also began promoting her upcoming debut album, Just the Beginning, with performances on The Ellen Show and the Austin City Limits Music Festival. She released the album on November 3rd of 2017 and it debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart at number 22. Two days later, she embarked on her first solo concert tour, the Just the Beginning Tour. The tour ran through February of 2018 and tickets for all 13 cities were sold out months before the first tour date. In March of 2018, Grace traveled to Kenya with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to help hearing-impaired youth. The sound of music is so important to not only Grace's career but her personal life as well, making her work with Starkey Hearing Foundation a perfect fit for the singer. In April of 2018, Grace became the opening act for Imagine Dragons on the North American leg of their Evolve World Tour. The tour kicked off at Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, New York and wrapped up in August at the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheater in Tampa, Florida. Later that year, Grace teamed up with legendary guitar maker Fender to design two limited edition ukuleles. Grace was the first ukulele player to have a Fender signature model as well as the youngest. What I think is cool about Fender and what originally drew me to them was the Fender electric guitar headstock, which I've never seen on another ukulele, she said. I felt like a rock star when I'm tuning it. I wanted these ukuleles to be pretty but also have a great sound. Fender perfectly accomplished that and made my dream ukuleles come true. The end of 2018 saw Grace featured on two prestigious music-related lists. In November, Forbes included Grace on its 2019 30 Under 30 Music list. At 14, Grace was the youngest person ever to land on the list. Billboard Magazine also announced Grace had made its 21 Under 21 list of Fast Rising Young Music Stars for the third consecutive year. The new year saw Grace releasing new music with a single and music video for her song Stray. She explained the song is about finding your way through that unsure ground as you grow up and allowing your personality to mature with you. Grace also recorded her first soundtrack song Hideaway for the animated film Wonder Park. More recently, the New York Senate presented Grace with the New York State Senate Woman of Distinction honor in Albany, New York. Every year, the New York State Senate honors a select group of exemplary women whose contributions have greatly enriched the quality of life in their communities and beyond. Grace received the award earlier this month after being nominated by New York State Senator David Carlucci. Grace is also set to make her acting debut as the title character in an upcoming Disney film Star Girl. The film will be shown on Disney's new streaming platform and is expected to be released this year. America's Got Talent recently returned for its 14th season and will crown a new winner this summer. But many fans will see Grace VanderWaal as AGT's all-time top winner. A recent online poll ranked Grace VanderWaal number one out of all AGT winners, with season 12 winner Darcey Lynn Farmer ranking second and Ventriloquist Terry Fader ranking third. Do you agree? Is Grace VanderWaal the most popular America's Got Talent winner? Let us know in the comments below and thank you for watching!