Grace VanderWaal sells out Varsity Theater on UR So Beautiful Tour
It’s fun to see a star in the making. Grace VanderWaal is only fifteen years old, but is already making waves in pop music with her powerful vocals. Now signed to Columbia Records, VanderWaal won the America’s Got Talent contest in 2016 and since then has captured the hearts of fans and celebrities like Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Shawn Mendes, and Cyndi Lauper to name a few. After opening for Florence and the Machine this year, Grace VanderWaal is now headlining her own tour and sold out the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on a beautiful Friday night.
Grace came out with a huge smile and opened with the new single “UR So Beautiful“. The all ages crowd was deafening at the start, but the energy receded as the show went on. VanderWaal owned the stage and proved right away she has the “it factor” to make it as a pop star. Strutting back and forth and jumping around bare-footed, she knew how to move the crowd. But this crowd was made up of a lot of children and their parents so things stayed pretty tame overall.
Grace VanderWaal mixed in several covers including Billy Joel’s “Vienna” as well as Rex Orange County’s song “Best Friend”. Her vocals sounded strong all night, but the music behind them was lacking and felt rather generic at times. There is no doubt that Grace VanderWaal has the potential to be a huge star however, and witnessing those flashes of youthful brilliance was exciting to see live. Keep your eye out for her.
I agree a lot with this short review. I posted something similar on the Varsity Theater website. I was in the front row, stage left and even though I was up front I was surrounded by tweens and their parents. I was afraid that if I reacted to Grace’s songs like I wished that the poor kids (mostly girls) would get an elbow in the face, so I was more subdued than I wished to be. Grace recognized the lack of audience participation in singing etc and decided during her song “Florets” to jump around , which she normally does, but she egged the audience on and praised them when they sang loud enough for her to hear. At one time she yelled out “Nice” and another she said when she heard loud singing along that “Now,we’re friends” Grace as always was, well Grace. The kid is chock full of talent, she is cute as a button,funny and remains herself-a 15 year old sophomore in high school. I am a fan forever–watch her, becaue she will take the world by storm.