VanderWaal a ready-made star at 13, from TV to stage
Grace VanderWaal started writing songs when she was 11, became famous at 12 and, at 13, is just about to release her full-length debut album, “Just the Beginning.”
In the summer of 2016, she went on the televised talent show “America’s Got Talent,” armed only with some songs she had written and her ukulele. “It was terrifying and stressful, every emotion (rolled) into one,” says VanderWaal, on the phone from her home outside New York City. “But looking back on it, I just have totally good memories.”
VanderWaal won the show’s million-dollar prize. A preternaturally poised, unusually good folk-pop singer who could be the offspring of Jewel or Feist, VanderWaal may be the closest thing to a readymade star the show — or any reality talent show — has produced.
Getting famous was easy for VanderWaal, who signed to Columbia Records soon after her win. Now comes the hard part: protecting her greatest asset, her strippeddown, unforced naturalness, from a record industry that wants to turn her into somebody else, preferably Taylor Swift.
Before her mom signed her up for “AGT,” VanderWaal sang covers on YouTube and performed at open mic nights, though she seemed to lack the eerie, career-focused single-mindedness of many child stars. Most singing competition contestants are adults by the time they compete — they’re old enough to know how bad they want it. Is VanderWaal ready to live a life dominated by the album-tour-album-tour cycle? “Yeah, I guess so,” she says. “I don’t know. It’s all new to me.” Is that what she wants? “Um, yeah? I think?” If she didn’t want that, who would she tell? “My dad.” And he would tell her she could stop anytime she wanted? “Yeah, absolutely. So would my mom.”
Since her win, VanderWaal has worked seemingly nonstop, releasing a top 10 debut EP, “Perfectly Imperfect,” and appearing on “Live With Kelly,” “Ellen,” a Windex commercial, awards shows and the Austin City Limits festival. VanderWaal, who recently told a Teen Vogue interviewer that she didn’t have many friends, has been in and out of regular school. “Regular school is one bajillion times easier than online school,” she says. “I want friends. I want a social life. I want that experience in my life.”
Like Swift, she is slowly transitioning from acousticbased pop to built-up, popstar pop. VanderWaal insists her label had nothing to do with this transformation. “The label people and businesspeople weren’t really involved in the actual music-making process at all,” she says.
It’s a lot to figure out at 13. “I’m trying to get through it, I guess, and see exactly what’s best and what’s ahead of me,” she says. Nov. 19 birthdays: Talk-show host Larry King is 84. Fashion designer Calvin Klein is 75. Sportscaster Ahmad Rashad is 68. Actress Allison Janney is 58. Actress Meg Ryan is 56. Actress Jodie Foster is 55. Director Barry Jenkins is 38. Rapper Tyga is 28.