Grace VanderWaal's admirers are queued up around the block outside the Irving Plaza theater two hours before her first big headline event in New York City, cuddling together against the mid-November chill. The age range is wide: braces-wearing children mingle with older folks who are largely serving as chaperones.
VanderWaal, who is only 13 years old and has only been a folk-pop celebrity for a year, is warming up onstage for her soundcheck. This is a venue that has hosted legends like Paul McCartney and the Ramones, and this year's winter lineup includes popular bands like SZA and Cam'ron. But none of this seems to bother VanderWaal, who is bouncing around onstage in Keds and a flowing dress, shouting out her new hit track "Moonlight." Tina, her mother, and pug Frankie, who is wearing canine-friendly headphones, are watching from above.
"I did it!" she exclaims gleefully towards the song's conclusion. "However, I'm completely out of breath."
Last year, VanderWaal wowed fans — and judges Howie Mandel and Simon Cowell — on America's Got Talent, where her ukulele playing, distinctly raspy warble, and precocious songwriting earned her national acclaim and a landslide victory. She's since signed with Columbia Records, released the acoustic-focused EP Perfectly Imperfect and a full studio album Just the Beginning, signed with Fender guitars, and been named to Billboard's "21 Under 21" and dubbed a "Rising Star."
But it's only now that she's beginning to take the performance on the road, all while continuing to attend school as a regular eighth grader in Suffern, New York. However, most ordinary teenagers do not have more than two million Instagram followers. Most ordinary teenagers aren't hailed as the "next Taylor Swift."
"It doesn't matter. "It's a praise," she says of the popular connection. "All the artists I've been compared to — obviously, Taylor's been the biggest — it's a compliment." "It has no bearing on what I do." Unless I'm in an interview, I don't really think about it." She is concerned with her own performance. During soundcheck, she acknowledges to her backing band, "I'm overthinking it," after one take's timing felt off.
After completing his performance onstage, VanderWaal gets a slice of cheese pizza and settles onto a swivel chair in the green room, one eye on Frankie in his cage. She's buzzing with anticipation for the big presentation, but she's also ready to reflect on her work and the past year.
She admits, "I never, like, dreamed of being on a New York stage." "It's unbelievable – really overpowering." VanderWaal has just returned from her first gig at L.A.'s famed Troubadour, and she acknowledges that juggling school and performing has taken its toll. She underlines, "It's terribly exhausting." So she prays while listening to her upbeat tunes – her current favorites are Cher Lloyd's "Want U Back," Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," and Demi Lovato's "Sorry Not Sorry." She'll also pet Frankie. VanderWaal's stage preparation is modest except than that.
She got up today, did school, attempted to arrange her hair (she wants it to grow out), dressed, and applied a little powder "so I don't seem crazy shiny in the lights." She's thrilled to be performing new material other than the folksy ukulele ballads that made her famous during her America's Got Talent audition. Aside from the trip, VanderWaal's concerns are fairly typical of a preteen: she wants her complexion to heal up, she wants to remodel her home treehouse, and she enjoys school, especially after an ill-fated journey into online schooling. ("It was the absolute worst," she adds.)
While VanderWaal confesses that the songwriting process for Just the Beginning was "awkward" at times as she grew accustomed to working alongside adults, she isn't easily intimidated. "I am certain of my abilities. She argues, "Especially since I'm a woman, and especially because I'm extremely young," emphasizing that musicians like Kesha have tried to make the studio environment safer and more hospitable for young stars like her. "People are extra friendly and open to all your ideas," she observes, "because they don't want to be branded as the cruel producer or whatever." She's also not scared to make mistakes.
"You just have to keep going," she says of songwriting, encouraging others to be less critical of themselves. "Simply be yourself." I've met a lot of individuals, and I've seen a lot of them online, who are just trying to be a pop star. And, to be honest, they'd be a lot more successful if they just were themselves, because people can sense it."
The chant begins two minutes before her concert begins: "We want Grace!" Grace is what we want!" The theater is completely full of children and grownups. VanderWaal is accompanied by one of those thunderous collective screams of preteen girls, the kind that propels pop heroes and boy bands to stadium performance success. She performs a combination of old favorites (the kids sing along to her ukulele chords) and newer, more polished songs, as well as a cover of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' famous folk song "Home."
"Don't cry," she tells one of the young girls in the front row. VanderWaal is exhausted at the end of the show, having spent nearly an hour singing and dancing in her own flamboyant style. As a send-off, she encourages the crowd, "Drink water, be zen, and have a fantastic remainder of the night."
She changed into an oversized hoodie and jeans in the green room thereafter. Label reps, relatives, and friends have all paid her a visit to wish her well. VanderWaal is noticeably disappointed that she wasn't able to offer a signed ukulele to one of her biggest fans at the concert. However, her father assures that they will have more opportunities to split prizes in the future. She'll be sleeping — and inhaling steam for her vocal cords — tonight.
Tomorrow, I'll be in Chicago for another performance. Next year, I'll be in high school. Then what? This is only the beginning, as VanderWaal's album title suggests.
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