In the 18 months since winning the 11th season of "America's Got Talent," Grace VanderWaal has indisputably proven that singing and playing her way into the hearts of millions of viewers en route to taking home the grand prize on NBC's flagship talent competition truly was just the beginning.
And the hits just keep coming. To wit, VanderWaal has some exciting news to share with her growing community of fans. A community which now counts some 2.5 million Instagram followers amongst its ranks, by the way. Starting this April, the young phenom will be joining GRAMMY-winning rock band Imagine Dragons as their opening act on 40 (!) show dates on the North American leg of their upcoming Evolve World Tour.
In just the last 12 months, VanderWaal has won awards, she's been featured in ranked lists of the hottest rising talent in music, she's performed at the Special Olympics, she was called one of the "biggest breakout acts" at Austin City Limits 2017, she sold out her debut headlining tour, and she released her debut studio LP Just The Beginning. In short, it's been a pretty busy year for the 14 year-old singer/songwriter.
Amid such a torrent of activity, Ii's all the more impressive that VanderWaal has also made a commitment to leverage her platform as a rising star to take action to give back to the community through working to help promote music education and music programs in schools.
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Utilizing a portion of her winnings from the "AGT" competition, VanderWaal was able to partner with school officials and politicians to bring funding for arts programs back to a public school in her district where those programs had been cut. Along with donations of instruments and microphones from companies like Fender and Shure, VanderWaal put together a show choir at the school called "the Little Miracles" and performed with them in the school's auditorium. The initiative was documented by Uproxx and Honda as part of Honda's "Backstage" documentary series on rising stars.
VanderWaal's upcoming tour appearances with Imagine Dragons will kick off on April 21 at Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, N.N, and run through Aug. 10, wrapping up at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater in Tampa, Fla. Presale tickets for most dates went on sale on March 2. Tickets and full show date listings can be found on VanderWaal's official website.
