It’s not often you see people lining up around the corner to get inside Neumos on Capitol Hill. But it's equally rare to get a chance to hear one of music's fastest rising stars.
She may be young, but Grace VanderWaal's talent is beyond her years. It's the 14-year-old's first tour and the first time in Seattle, so you'll have to forgive her if she doesn't know the sites just yet.
"My mom is always raving about the Seattle Needle (the Space Needle?), the Space Needle, yeah!"
VanderWaal burst on the national scene with a jaw-dropping audition on season 11 of America's Got Talent when she was just 12-years-old.
After winning the show, one of the first things she did with her million dollar prize was enlisting the construction skills of a Fall City, Washington man.
A fan of the show Treehouse Masters, VanderWaal hired Pete Nelson's Washington based company to make a custom tree house for her and her sister. She wrapped up 2017 by putting out her first full-length album, Just the Beginning. Not bad for a girl who got her start on a reality tv talent show.
"I just feel Iike, I've learned a lot since then and learned how to carry on in my new little life."
Seattle is the last stop on her tour. But the next time she hits the road she'll be playing venues a little larger than small clubs.
"My mom called and said, ‘don't freak out I don't want you to get your hopes up or be sad but you got an offer to open for Imagine Dragons on their tour’, and I was like, cool, yeah. I'm not getting overhyped," Remembers VanderWaal. "Inside I'm like, oh my god I can't, I'm getting up my hopes so much I'm doing exactly what she doesn't want me to do!"
But whatever size stage Grace VanderWaal steps onto, she believes that's where she should be.
"I love the path I'm on right now and honestly I don't care wherever it goes as long as I'm happy and I'm satisfied with the way my life is going that's my dream."
