Grace Vanderwaal Releases Deeply Personal Sophmore Album “Childstar” + New Performance Video; “ChildStar: Final Act”.
Internationally acclaimed artist and actress Grace VanderWaal releases her highly anticipated sophomore studio album, CHILDSTAR today via PULSE Records. Undoubtedly her most personal body of work to date, on CHILDSTAR VanderWaal amplifies the sound of healing scars, shedding skin, and stepping into her power.
CHILDSTAR: Final Act, a short film co-directed by Grace VanderWaal with Luca Renzi and Jacob Boehme, and co-choreographed by VanderWaal and Renzi. The video features five captivating performances from CHILDSTAR, including ‘Proud’, ‘Brand New’, ‘Homesick’,’Behavioral Problems’, and ‘Fade’. Heartbreaking, captivating and cathartic all at once, Grace bares her soul, sharing her experiences growing up in the public eye through song, dance and raw emotion in each of these five performances. Watch CHILDSTAR: Final Act HERE from 2.30pm AEDT Friday 4 April.
Next month, Grace takes CHILDSTAR on the road, with a six city North American headline tour, marking her first since 2019.
Speaking about the album, Grace reveals “I felt for a long time I was a walking shadow of myself. I felt stolen. My name, my face, my body. While writing CHILDSTAR, I realized, I have something no one can take away, and that’s my story. This album gifted me something I’m eternally grateful for, and that’s my power. To you reading, thank you endlessly for listening. I hope this album grants you a gift as it did to me.”
The arrival of CHILDSTAR follows a whirlwind 2024 for Grace VanderWaal, which included a spine-tingling performance at the 2024 Kennedy Center Honors (WATCH) and a featured role from the legendary Academy® Award-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, in his epic, "Megalopolis”, starring alongside Academy Award® nominees Adam Driver and Laurence Fishburne. The film, which made its premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, received a seven-minute standing ovation for the famed director’s work.
VanderWaal’s debut EP, Imperfectly Perfect was the biggest selling EP in 2016, entering the Billboard 200 albums chart at number nine. The following year, she released her first full-length studio album, Just The Beginning to vast critical acclaim. Between releasing music, she has toured with everyone from Florence + the Machine to Imagine Dragons. Among many accolades, she earned a Teen Choice Award in addition to receiving the Billboard “Women in Music” Rising Star Award and becoming “the youngest person ever” to be featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 music list. Not to mention, she starred as the title character in the Disney+ film series Stargirl.
Finding herself independent again in 2024, she dove into creating what would become her next musical statement. With a pen in hand, she’s writing the next chapter of her story—on her own terms.
