Grace VanderWaal

One Liner: YouTube star and America's Got Talent winner who seems genuinely good
Wikipedia Genre: Singer-songwriter
Spotify Says Similar To: Tori Kelly and Maggie Lindemann
Home: Suffern, NY

Poster Position: 11
Slot: Saturday, ?

Thoughts:  So, if you don't have a young girl in your household who watches YouTube Kids all day every day, then you might not have already heard of our friend Grace here.  I've heard her hit song at least 375.000 times in the last year or two, and my girls now both own ukuleles that they never play and collect dust on our playroom wall.  For the uninitiated, Grace won the American's Got Talent show by coming on and cranking up some heartfelt indie pop uke jams that blew away the judges, partly because she's good, but also because she was like freaking 12 or something.  Here she is in that performance that my kids watch 19 times a day.

64 million views on that video, and most are my children.  And even after having heard that video in the background all those times, I still get goosebumps and feels from it each time. If you aren't a little bit buzzy after watching that video then you should go live with the Grinch in the mountain above Whoville.  Simon Crowell calls her the next Taylor Swift in that video, and I can see the comparisons.  She's put out one EP and then has a brand new single out as well ("Moonlight"), but she's also got a YouTube channel where she has a bunch of videos up of her doing her thing.

Another good track, pretty impressive little girl.  Although I'd say that the arrangement of "You Don't Know My Name" that is on the EP is a little less fun, just because its got strings and more production layers onto it, and I think it is better as the pure original, but that is quibbling...  Here is that most recent tune, where she is growing up a touch.

She just seems so genuinely pleased to be noticed.  I love it.  It'll be devastating when it comes out that she is really an animatronic robot specifically formulated to appeal to humanity who has been singing pre-packaged songs written by Nashville pros this whole time.  And then we'll all elect her President and her creators will destroy us all!

Will I Go See Her?  Yes, I am going to buy separate tickets for the second weekend's Saturday just so my whole family can go see her play.