Grace VanderWaal was a singer/ukulelist act from Season 11 of America's Got Talent. She was the winner of the competition, claiming the $1,000,000 prize and the headlining of a show in Las Vegas.
Background
Grace VanderWaal was born on January 15, 2004, in Kansas and is now from Suffern, New York. She lives with her mother Tina, her father David, her older sister (also her best friend) by three years Olivia, and her three dogs. She has an older brother named Jakob who is away at school. Grace started singing at the age of three. She bought her first Ukulele with her birthday money from her eleventh birthday and a few months later, she began to write songs. Before her audition, she had sung with very small audiences but had never sung in front of very large crowds. Grace is also lactose intolerant and misses ice cream really badly.
Audition
Grace VanderWaal's audition in Episode 1102 consisted of singing her original song "I Don't Know My Name," a song about finding who you are and where you fit in while playing the ukulele. Moved by her performance, Howie Mandel pressed his Golden Buzzer to send Grace straight to the Live Shows. Simon Cowell later commented that he thought that she could become the next Taylor Swift. He also revealed that he wanted to press the Golden Buzzer for her, but Howie beat him to it.
For the finale in Episode 1122, Grace VanderWaal sang her original song "I Don't Know My Name." Grace received enough votes to advance to the Top 5 instead of Sofie Dossi. Grace finished in first place in the competition in front of The Clairvoyants, Jon Dorenbos, Brian Justin Crum and Sal Valentinetti, winning one million dollars and a headline show in Las Vegas. Her debut EP, Perfectly Imperfect, was released on December 2, 2016. Her first music video Moonlight was released on July 20, 2017, and garnered over 10 million views in the first two months. On September 14, 2017, Grace announced the release of her first full-length album Just the Beginning for November 03, 2017.
America's Got Talent 2016 Finals Resullts The Bottom 5 S11E23
Top 5 Revealed
America's Got Talent 2016 Finals Resullts The Top 5 S11E23
3rd-5th Place Revealed
America's Got Talent 2016 Finals Resullts The Winner S11E23
Winner Revealed
Holiday Spectacular
As a part of AGT's Holiday Spectacular, Grace VanderWaal got to perform a holiday song, "Frosty The Snowman," with her ukulele.
Trivia
Grace is the first child act, and the first female to win since Bianca Ryan in Season 1.
At 12 years of age when she won, Grace was the 2nd youngest act to win America's Got Talent.
She is the first singing act to win since Season 6.
She is the second consecutive Golden Buzzer act to win after Paul Zerdin, but she is the first winner to have received the Golden Buzzer in the auditions by one of the main judges.
Grace was the first singing act to win AGT that performed original songs.
The YouTube video of her audition is the most viewed in America's Got Talent history with over 100 million views. Her audition video was one of the top five trending YouTube videos of 2016.
Grace was signed to IMG Models, the first AGT winner to make the transition to modeling.
She made her film debut in Stargirl, which was released on Disney+ in 2020.
