Grace VanderWaal, a generational talent
August 28, 2017 1:40 PM   Subscribe

Fifteen months ago, a tiny (4' 10") 12 year old girl named Grace VanderWaal took the stage in front of thousands of people at an audition for America's Got Talent. Accompanying herself on ukulele, she sang a truncated version of her original tune, "I don't Know My Name." At one point she stumbled over her lyrics, singing the first line of a verse she had taken out in order to shorten the song to the allotted 90 seconds. The live audience and the judges responded with an enthusiastic standing ovation. The video of this performance was one of the top five viral videos of 2016, with over 200,000,000 views between YT and FaceBook.

Before Grace started her audition, Simon Cowell asked her whether she thought she could win AGT. Her response: "Well, miracles can happen, so possibly." As we now know, she DID win, performing an original song at each of the four appearances, something no one had ever done. Each performance over a period of a few months showed amazing growth in songwriting and stage presence from the previous, in order after "I Don't Know My Name," "Beautiful Thing," "Light the Sky, and "Clay." She wrote and arranged "Light the Sky" in the two week interval after her previous appearance.

Most of the other contestants were professional entertainers who had practiced their acts for years, but at the time of her audition, Grace's performing experience was limited to a few "open mikes" in coffee houses. Eighteen months earlier she had bought a ukulele with money she got for her eleventh birthday. She learned to play it from YouTube videos. After that, she started writing her own songs. (The YouTube channel where she learned to play the uke now includes her songs in the lessons!)

Grace VanderWaal is the most profound popular music prodigy since "Little" Stevie Wonder burst on the scene at the age of 13 a couple of generations ago. Her songwriting is already at the Grammy level. For her live performances she has added to her ukulele an ensemble of cello, drums and piano. Her arrangements are fairly stark, but have subtle and sophisticated rhythmic patterns that set them apart. Her singing voice is fully mature, unique, haunting and above all emotional. Her lyrics have nothing to do with love and loss of love, because she is still a kid. Instead she writes about experiences we have all had, with a depth of poetry that should not be possible for a seventh grader. A live performance is visual as well as musical, and all this talent is packaged in the most adorable child who ever "graced" a stage.

Nine months after the inexperienced 12 year-old auditioned for AGT, she performed in front of 20,000 people in a stadium in Austria. The difference is amazing, because at the age of thirteen she owns a stage with the authority of Tina Turner or Bruce Springsteen. She doesn't have a rock band, dancers and backup singers, typical of pop-teen performances, because she doesn't NEED them to distract the audience from her incandescent stage presence.

This child is absolutely in charge of her art, a point she made clear with her newest release, "Sick of Being Told." Apparently she wrote this in protest of the adults who tried to direct her TV performances, choose the material, etc. SHE is in control of everything, including the visuals in her videos, the arrangements, instrumentation, and even the stage sets for her big TV performances.

Despite the fact that the TV audience votes propelled Grace to the $1,000,000 top prize on the talent show, there were plenty of detractors, who felt strongly that she did not deserve to win.

Grace will laugh about that all the way to the bank. Two of Grace's AGT songs have already been used as backgrounds for video ads, "Light the Sky" in the Google 2016 "Year in Search," and "Beautiful Thing" in "The Story of Lucy," a Windex ad that may be the most emotional commercial ever made. Her EP "Perfectly Imperfect," which has her four AGT songs and one other ("Gossip Girl"), debuted at #9 on the Billboard charts a month before her 13th birthday, and despite being released in December, was the biggest seller of 2016. Her YouTube channel, where she covers material by other artists, gets millions of views. Her first tour sold out every venue within hours of being announced.
posted by Repack Rider (14 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Hey there, sorry for the late delete. This is a nice appreciation but is really more of an article for your own blog than a post for Mefi. The framing (lots of "my personal opinion" and some parts sounding almost like promo material) isn't how posts are made at Metafilter. Get in touch at the contact form if you'd like to talk about editing this to work here. -- LobsterMitten



 
Her songwriting is already at the Grammy level

You say that like it's a good thing
sorry
posted by thelonius at 1:45 PM on August 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


Is AGT like American Idol, where the winner is locked into a record deal?
posted by thecjm at 1:51 PM on August 28, 2017


Is AGT like American Idol, where the winner is locked into a record deal?

That seems unlikely, because many if not most of the performers on AGT are not musicians, or only do cover songs. As many have noted, great singers who only perform familiar material are not going anywhere once the show is over. Grace is just getting started, because she is the most complete entertainment package to ever come out of AGT. She is visually appealing, and a musical genius who writes and performs compelling material.

Grace does have a record deal, and it is with Simon Cowell. No one is going to push her around though.
posted by Repack Rider at 1:57 PM on August 28, 2017


I may have first seen her through a Uke Hunt link.
I love her voice.

I'm also in favor of musical acts that feature the music over dancing and fireworks.
posted by MtDewd at 2:00 PM on August 28, 2017


To be fair the upcoming tour may be sold out, but there are some small venues for what it is. The listed capacity of her Houston venue, for example, is 450 people.

This isn't to detract from her popularity, success, or music, which I enjoy quite a lot. But saying that her tour sold out should come with the same tongue-in-cheek that comes with saying that the SNES Classic sold out.
posted by parliboy at 2:01 PM on August 28, 2017


Grace VanderWaal is the most profound popular music prodigy since "Little" Stevie Wonder burst on the scene at the age of 13 a couple of generations ago.

She's talented, granted, but I think it's a bit premature to include her in the same company as Stevie. And if we're going to talk about gifted young musicians, I think Sungha Jung needs to be part of the conversation.

I guess what I'm saying is that she's great, but time will tell if she's one of THE greats.
posted by vverse23 at 2:02 PM on August 28, 2017 [5 favorites]


She's adorable, talented humble and just real, I look forward to seeing what her career brings.

Her music makes me happy.
posted by dreamling at 2:07 PM on August 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


Mod note: Hey, Repack Rider, once you make the post, the practice here is to let it sit and let other people comment, not to try to steer the conversation too much as the original poster.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 2:13 PM on August 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


This is the first time I've heard of her and it is fantastic. I hope the music bizz doesn't destroy her.
posted by Pendragon at 2:28 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


To be fair the upcoming tour may be sold out, but there are some small venues for what it is. The listed capacity of her Houston venue, for example, is 450 people.

Yeah, I used to work for an online concert startup, and this whole thing is written just like what what the artist/label management folks send out when trying to inflate the possible carrier trajectory of the artist. Bragging about selling out The Troubadour (the LA venue) screams marketing/management.

Also, "I signed with Simon Cowell's entertainment company, but I'm control of all aspects of my art" absolutely does not compute.

If this post was written by an actual superfan, and isn't just management trying to get buzz by posting to MeFI, I suggest toning it down a bit.
posted by sideshow at 2:34 PM on August 28, 2017 [9 favorites]


I'm at work so I can't check out the actual content here yet, but oh boy does this post read like a particularly breathless press release. Not really what I'm accustomed to seeing on Metafilter. I'm sure she's impressive and I'm definitely going to check out the videos, but man.
posted by Caduceus at 2:45 PM on August 28, 2017 [5 favorites]


That's a good song and performance, but the way her voice creaks at 2:13 spells trouble. Doing that sound repeatedly leads to permanent vocal cord damage.
posted by ikalliom at 2:45 PM on August 28, 2017


To be fair the upcoming tour may be sold out, but there are some small venues for what it is. The listed capacity of her Houston venue, for example, is 450 people.

LOL clearly not someone who has ever booked a tour. 500 cap venues are no joke, you need to be significantly popular to fill them. They are not small.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:47 PM on August 28, 2017


Metafilter post or press release? You decide.
posted by davebush at 3:08 PM on August 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


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