Grace VanderWaal denied Grammy nomination

The Grammy Award nominations were revealed this morning, but Grace VanderWaal was not among the nominees.

There had been speculation that the Suffern resident would be among the nominees, potentially for Best New Artist, but that category included Alessia Cara, Khalid, Lil Uzi Vert, Julia Michaels and SZA. She was not nominated in any other category.

GRAMMY NOMINEES: Full list from Grammy.com

VanderWaal has had a meteoric rise from middle school student to international superstar in under two years. The video of her acoustic ukulele performance of an original song back in June 2016 on "America's Got Talent" became an immediate viral hit; VanderWaal ultimately won the competition, setting into motion a fast-track to music success after signing first with judge Simon Cowell's Syco Records and then Columbia.

Why we thought she might get a nod

1. She's already racked up a bunch of awards: She was named "Next Big Thing" on the TeenChoice Awards; got The Ardy for "The Freshest – Best New Artist" at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards. And, on Thursday, VanderWaal will be honored with the "Rising Star" award at Billboard's annual Women in Music ceremony; fellow Lower Hudson Valley native Mary J. Blige will receive the "Icon" award.

2. Her EP "Perfectly Imperfect" and studio album "Just the Beginning" charted in Billboard's top 200; VanderWaal was also named to Billboard‘s “21 Under 21” as a rising star.

3. It looks like the Grammys like her: There's a video of Grace on the Grammy website in which she talks about singing with her idol Jason Mraz:

4. She's really popular: VanderWaal has a huge following with almost a million Facebook followers; 2 million Instagram followers and nearly 300,000 on Twitter.

5. It would be great TV: VanderWaal would be one of the youngest performers ever to get a nomination and potentially a win as Best New Artist. LeeAnn Rimes won the award in 1997 when she was 14 years and 182 days old. VanderWaal turns 14 in January.