VanderWaal's emotional, catchy, quirky tune "I Don't Know My Name" that made her America's Got Talent appearance unforgettable and prompted judge Simon Cowell to declare that she's "the next Taylor Swift." "Hopefully one day I will be as successful as her," she says with a laugh.
Guiding that life path for VanderWaal is Katy Perry, one of her biggest influences as a performer and writer. "She's always stayed the same," she explains of Perry's appeal. "In her movie she said that she turned down some producers just to be herself and that could've been putting her entire career in jeopardy, but she still did it. I think that's a good thing to remember."
