Grace VanderWaal: the next Taylor Swift?

The ukulele-playing Grace VanderWaal has captivated TV audiences since her audition for 'America's Got Talent.' Will she be the next star to emerge in this era of young female musicians? 

Twelve-year-old Grace VanderWaal, a ukulele player and vocalist from Suffern, N.Y., has awed judges and new-found fans alike with her original compositions after her "America's Got Talent" audition went viral in June and again last night in her performance in the semi-finals.

Grace's girlish charm, confidence, and sophisticated vocal talent not only got her fast-tracked to the next round with judge Howie Mandel’s golden buzzer, but has earned her the title of "the Next Taylor Swift" and put her in the position to really influence music in the coming years.

"This is very simple. Every idea comes from you, the songs come from you, and you sing for a new generation," Simon Cowell told Grace on stage last night. "I am so flattered you chose to come on 'America's Got Talent.' "

Singing for a new generation, or rather singing for the generation she knows, Grace could be poised to join a line of female musicians who, in recent years, have collectively pushed the message of female self-worth to dominate popular music in a way never seen before. 

And it may just be that Graces's husky vocals and folky pop style will signal a transition into the next decade of popular music, a subtle transition that could supersede Swift herself.

Pop culture columnist Justin Martin explored this rising trend of young female musicians in a 2010 opinion piece about country musician Swift’s crossover appeal:

But in each case, as a new generation came into adulthood, it put its own unique stamp on a musical genre that then retained its popularity for two decades as the musical tastes of both the older and younger members of that generation were united. Swift’s rise to fame is an early signal that a new musical genre is about to take over America’s popular music culture again.

It is the potential for huge culture-shifting popularity, rather than a musical similarity, that many, including Grace, see in the comparison between Grace and Taylor.

"The only word I could I think of is 'honored,' " Grace told Entertainment Weekly of the Swift comparison. "I obviously want to be my own person and be original, but I think that's not what [Simon Cowell] meant [when he made the comparison]. I think he meant the success. Everyone knows who Taylor Swift is. She's extremely successful as a singer/songwriter and to be compared to that is just unbelievable."

So far, Grace has performed a number of original pieces in her "America's Got Talent" appearances including "I Don't Know My Name" as the audition piece that got her fast-tracked to the next round with judge Howie Mandel’s golden buzzer, "Beautiful Thing" in the quarterfinals, and "Light the Sky" in Tuesday night's semifinals.

The judges are optimistic about Grace's success going forward.

"You are a superstar," Heidi Klum said after Grace's semi-finals performance. "You are the real deal. I wouldn't be surprised if you are one of the last two people standing."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Grace VanderWaal: the next Taylor Swift?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Music/2016/0831/Grace-VanderWaal-the-next-Taylor-Swift
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe