'I'm doing what I love': Grace Vanderwaal on the rise with new EP

This week, Grace Vanderwaal fans have got what they’ve been waiting for in the shape of the singer’s brand new Letters: Vol 1 EP.

The 15-year-old won America’s Got Talent in 2016, and told Music Week Letters Vol:1 is the first part of a wave of new music that she hopes will allow fans to “find out more about me”. Its best performing tracks are Ur So Beautiful (6,486,653 Spotify streams) and Waste My Time (4,516,841). Vanderwaal has 2,657,635 monthly listeners on the platform.

Vanderwaal starred in our On The Radar column earlier this month and said she’s coping well with the demands of the modern music business.

“In certain ways, yes [I feel pressure]. But I've always thought of myself as a strong person, that's one of my favorite parts of myself,” she said.

I've always thought of myself as a strong person

Vanderwaal added: “I've always really thrived on just coping and holding my head high, to keep walking through life and take what gets thrown at me and just using it to better myself.”

The singer has been meeting writers and producers to collaborate in Los Angeles and New York, and said she’s slowly acclimatising to the process.

“I've been trying to meet more producers and writers, which has been really hard, but it’s been really good for experience. I don’t think I’ve done it enough to know for sure,” she said.

Vanderwaal is signed to Syco and said she’s relishing the chance to release more music.

“I'm doing what I love,” she said. “I'm able to express myself in an accepting environment. You know, I couldn't imagine it any other way.”

Read the full interview here.