General Discussion: Entertainment - etc - #4 - Jul 2023 to Present

[amg1977]

The video for "What's Left of Me" is visually beautiful, but the key is the song itself.  It is a clinic on how to make a great alt/pop song.  The lyrics are as emotionally raw as anything she has done since "Darkness Keeps Chasing Me."  With lyrics about a relationship that ended badly and a dense production, you get this emotional pull.  But at the same time, the chorus has a hook that you can instantly hum.  She said today in the interview that the album is complete and there is also two songs coming from Megalopolis (she didn't mention if they will be on the album).  That would mean she will have more originals released in a period of a few months than she released in the previous five years.  Between that and all the modeling gigs and red carpet appearances, I guess her vacation is over.

[colt46]

Grace has the ability to go from we’re she left off to take off again and soar to new heights !

[Grace Fan]

Sept 18, 2024 13:49:11 GMT -5 amg1977 said:

The video for "What's Left of Me" is visually beautiful, but the key is the song itself.  It is a clinic on how to make a great alt/pop song.  The lyrics are as emotionally raw as anything she has done since "Darkness Keeps Chasing Me."  With lyrics about a relationship that ended badly and a dense production, you get this emotional pull.  But at the same time, the chorus has a hook that you can instantly hum.  She said today in the interview that the album is complete and there is also two songs coming from Megalopolis (she didn't mention if they will be on the album).  That would mean she will have more originals released in a period of a few months than she released in the previous five years.  Between that and all the modeling gigs and red carpet appearances, I guess her vacation is over.

Grace and her team did a great job all around. The visuals; the emotionally gripping song; I'm really loving it. Grace recently mentioned in her CP24 interview that she "loves to be busy and do good creative projects," so I'm sure she's happy for her "vacation" to be over.

[amg1977]

A photograoher associated with the group that made both of Grace's recent videos posted a set of eight promotional photos to go with the video for "What's Left of Me."

http://instagram.com/p/DAEq5Vby5UZ

[amg1977]

Variety did an interview with Grace talking about her new album, Megalopolis, and putting her AGT image in the rearview mirror. On the latter, she seems to be having fun doing so.

Eight years after Grace VanderWaal won “America’s Got Talent,” people still see her as the bashful 12-year-old girl from Kansas who floored everyone with her ukulele-playing and contemplative songs.

“I had the weirdest experience recently,” VanderWaal, now 20, tells Variety over Zoom from L.A., the blunt bangs of her tween years replaced by a sleek platinum bob. She recounts how, on a night out with friends, she crossed paths with a woman coming out of the bathroom.

“She was like, ‘You’re a woman! You’re a grown-up!’” VanderWaal says, mimicking the tipsy fan’s shock. “I was like literally gentle-parenting her through this, but she wouldn’t get over it. She couldn’t handle it.”

Lately, VanderWaal has been running into that kind of reaction — fans who can’t stop seeing her as a symbol of the purity and innocence of youth — a lot, even though she’s long since shed the ukulele and her pixie-girl image. 

“I’ve been so afraid to shatter that dream for people,” she says. “But like, I want you to ask yourself, why do you feel personally affected? It is really sad, but it’s been very liberating to reclaim that for myself.”

After winning “America’s Got Talent,” VanderWaal released her debut EP, “Perfectly Imperfect,” which became the bestselling EP of 2016. Her first album, 2017’s “Just the Beginning,” built on the folky ukulele-driven sound that captivated America. But in the years since, VanderWaal has been breaking out of that mold, releasing a string of singles that have shown an edgier side, with more complicated production.

Now VanderWaal is gearing up to release her second full-length album, and maybe the first that has felt truly representative of who she is. This year, she signed with Pulse Records, and began pushing the project in a “conceptual” direction — one she teases will take fans by surprise.

“It’s definitely going to upset people and make people really uncomfortable,” she says of the album (whose title and release date are yet to be revealed). “I’m talking about some pretty serious and heavy topics, which isn’t super mainstream sellable.” 

She says she pitched the album several places and “scared a lot of grown men” in the process. Pulse was the only label that didn’t back away from her ideas. 

“I was saying crazy shit and Pulse is just like, ‘Oh, we love it! Yes!’” she says. “They were genuinely like, ‘Yeah, let’s freak people out together.’”

For the first single, VanderWaal chose a track that would make for “a nice, gentle reintroduction.” “Call It What You Want” — a grunge-tinged guitar-pop number that debuted Aug. 16 — is a little tamer than the rest of the record. “We were like, let’s not throw people over the edge,” she says.

But her latest release, the anthemic ballad “What’s Left of Me,” out now, hints at the album’s darker themes as VanderWaal chews over a life-changing breakup.

“I really wanted to depict this very specific feeling of, not even sadness, but this disgust of this person,” she says. “It’s like, ‘Oh, you changed me and you made the woman that I am, but you don’t deserve that.’”

Lately, art has also imitated life on-screen. After leading Disney’s 2020 “Stargirl” teen movie and its sequel, VanderWaal does a 180 by playing Vesta Sweetwater — a virginal pop star who gets snagged in a deep-fake sex scandal — in Francis Ford Coppola’s forthcoming “Megalopolis.” As Vesta, VanderWaal performs a wholesome original song during a key scene before it all comes crashing down — causing her to initiate a career rebrand.

Coppola had been tracking VanderWaal’s career for years, and when “Megalopolis” finally got off the ground, he looked her up. At their meeting, he told VanderWaal about the project and her character, whom she “definitely connected” to. He offered her the job — which included writing two songs for the film — on the spot.

“It was just so collaborative, and I was shocked,” she says of working with the director. “You’d think Francis Ford Coppola, at his stature — I would never, ever anticipate the experience that I had. He truly just wanted to follow the art and what was best for the movie.”

So much so that VanderWaal had a significant hand in shaping her character, “almost to the point where I was like, ‘I need to not abuse this power,’” she says.

“I obviously had some personal investment in her, but I also saw her more of like a caricature of the trope that I also participated in,” VanderWaal adds.

Although she came away from “Megalopolis” with “lots of good and crazy memories,” VanderWaal is keeping music her main focus.

“I don’t think I would ever do anything just for a check or to be on-screen,” she says. “Honey, I spent my whole childhood on-screen.”

variety.com/2024/music/news/grace-vanderwaal-new-music-megalopolis-americas-got-talent-1236147242/

[colt46]

I think it is smart of Grace to put AGT PAST HER !

[eulenspiegel]

Sept 20, 2024 11:03:20 GMT -5 amg1977 said:

Variety did an interview with Grace talking about her new album, Megalopolis, and putting her AGT image in the rearview mirror. On the latter, she seems to be having fun doing so.

variety.com/2024/music/news/grace-vanderwaal-new-music-megalopolis-americas-got-talent-1236147242/

This just shows the problem of AGT…and all the old videos out there..often it is harming.

“I had the weirdest experience recently,” VanderWaal, now 20, tells Variety over Zoom from L.A., the blunt bangs of her tween years replaced by a sleek platinum bob. She recounts how, on a night out with friends, she crossed paths with a woman coming out of the bathroom.

“She was like, ‘You’re a woman! You’re a grown-up!’” VanderWaal says, mimicking the tipsy fan’s shock. “I was like literally gentle-parenting her through this, but she wouldn’t get over it. She couldn’t handle it.”

[Socal Fan]

Sept 20, 2024 11:31:08 GMT -5 colt46 said:

I think it is smart of Grace to put AGT PAST HER !

It's not a question of being smart. Everybody knows that in order for an artist to stay relevant, they have to grow and develop. Grace had the songwriting talent, the acting talent, and the charisma to allow her to do that. Jackie didn't, or at least not yet.

[amg1977]

Sept 20, 2024 11:51:12 GMT -5 eulenspiegel said:

Sept 20, 2024 11:03:20 GMT -5 amg1977 said:

Variety did an interview with Grace talking about her new album, Megalopolis, and putting her AGT image in the rearview mirror. On the latter, she seems to be having fun doing so.

variety.com/2024/music/news/grace-vanderwaal-new-music-megalopolis-americas-got-talent-1236147242/

This just shows the problem of AGT…and all the old videos out there..often it is harming.

“I had the weirdest experience recently,” VanderWaal, now 20, tells Variety over Zoom from L.A., the blunt bangs of her tween years replaced by a sleek platinum bob. She recounts how, on a night out with friends, she crossed paths with a woman coming out of the bathroom.

“She was like, ‘You’re a woman! You’re a grown-up!’” VanderWaal says, mimicking the tipsy fan’s shock. “I was like literally gentle-parenting her through this, but she wouldn’t get over it. She couldn’t handle it.”

A lot depends on the individual and how they approach the "instant fame."  It has been easier to shed that image for Grace because she was never really invested in it.  She never was the girl AGT made her out to be.  You can see a bit of the remnants of that image even in the Variety article where they refer to her as "the bashful 12-year-old girl from Kansas."  They marketed her as this freshly scrubbed kid from America's heartland to pull as the strings of everyone's heart and ensure people following her trail through the series.  Good thing she didn't have a dying relative or that would have been front and center too.  

The reality is she has never been bashful and her family moved from Kansas to New York City when Grace was three..  She was a New York City rich kid with pink hair who did local theater and open mike nights at the coffee house.  So after AGT, she had no problem ditching the image because it wasn't really her.  People here can argue over how much Jackie's image was distorted but I think we can all agree it was a lot more difficult for her to toss aside the AGT image.  Grace was not the major breadwinner for her family.  She wanted to do music she liked and, if it didn't work out, she would either have a more low key career or do something else with her life.  It might be that her "vacation" was at least partly to put more distance between herself and AGT.  Jackie no doubt wanted to move in a pop direction but she has always had to have one eye looking over her shoulder to see how her audience reacts.

[Grace Fan]

Grace played a toy piano while singing her new song. She probably thought it was a funny idea, but she really put her all into the singing. She sounds great!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAJ8sTevQ1V

[eulenspiegel]

Sept 20, 2024 18:49:47 GMT -5 Grace Fan said:

Grace played a toy piano while singing her new song. She probably thought it was a funny idea, but she really put her all into the singing. She sounds great!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAJ8sTevQ1V

What about putting this in her own thread..? In this chaotic, unstructured thread it is lost after 2 hours.. 
This thread is bs..what about giving some..to the forum..

JE..JE Thread etc..

And General Discussion Thread only General Discussion about entertainment..so no discussion about trans, daddy JE, house etc. 

[colt46]

I like Grace’s video playing the piano 🎹! She looks cute 🥰 by the way!

[amg1977]

Since everyone has their idea of how best to run somebody else's forum, let me put in my two cents.  First off, I think the forum should be run however Socal Fan wants to run it.  But I will make a few suggestions and leave it to him.  Now, if Socal Fan has been thinking of changing things, it is best he do it in the next week or so as we are getting close to that 1000 page total where he will start yet another General Discussion: Entertainment section (#5).  My idea would be to make it, beginning with #5, a temporary holding place for all entertainment discussions.  After everyone has had a chance to see and discuss it, then move it to the appropriate section (either the Jackie section or the other artist section).  For non-Jackie posts, the limit would be one week.  For Jackie posts, one month.  If the discussion is still ongoing, there can be an extension at the discretion of the moderator. This way any topic not generating continued discussion will disappear quickly and unclutter things. Eventually, one could do the same for the earlier General discussion sections and get rid of the clutter of multiple general discussions entirely. Of course, my suggestion would require at least one additional moderator to specialize in just moving things around.

Any thoughts?? 

 

[donkey]

Sept 20, 2024 20:56:55 GMT -5 amg1977 said:

Since everyone has their idea of how best to run somebody else's forum, let me put in my two cents.  First off, I think the forum should be run however Socal Fan wants to run it.  But I will make a few suggestions and leave it to him.  Now, if Socal Fan has been thinking of changing things, it is best he do it in the next week or so as we are getting close to that 1000 page total where he will start yet another General Discussion: Entertainment section (#5).  My idea would be to make it, beginning with #5, a temporary holding place for all entertainment discussions.  After everyone has had a chance to see and discuss it, then move it to the appropriate section (either the Jackie section or the other artist section).  For non-Jackie posts, the limit would be one week.  For Jackie posts, one month.  If the discussion is still ongoing, there can be an extension at the discretion of the moderator. This way any topic not generating continued discussion will disappear quickly and unclutter things. Eventually, one could do the same for the earlier General discussion sections and get rid of the clutter of multiple general discussions entirely. Of course, my suggestion would require at least one additional moderator to specialize in just moving things around.

Any thoughts?? 

 

Sounds like a lot of work for Socal to me.

[colt46]

This forum is like the WWE , ONE BIG FREE FOR ALL !