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18-year old Alyssa Grace has skyrocketed to a place in the internet's hearts, charming listeners with her achingly relatable folk-pop songs. Writing about love, loss, friendship, family, and everything in between, she pairs vulnerable lyricism with undeniably alluring melodies, pulling at our heartstrings immediately. We wanted to know more about this talent before she inevitably tours the world – and in the few days between speaking with her and finishing this article, she's hit the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Read on for more about Alyssa Grace, the singer-songwriter you need to be watching: 

OnesToWatch: Who are you? 


Alyssa Grace: I’m Alyssa Grace. Who am I? I’m 19 this month, but right now I'm 18. 

Happy preemptive birthday. 


Thank you so much. 

Are you a Gemini?

I'm a Gemini. I don't know much about it, but I remember in high school, everyone was trying to inform me. I accept it. 

You're 18 years old and then you decided to do the hardest thing on earth: to write and create music and find an audience. 


What's even harder, though, is to share everything you're going through with the entire world. 

Well, that's your choice. 

But it's what people find relatable, and how they feel heard, when they see an artist diving deep into their own experiences. 

I have a great intern who said your songs are very sad… why are you so sad? 

I'm a teenage girl, I go through the things that teenage girls go through. I go through hardships with boys and friends and family and experience teenage things and teenage things are kind of sad, you know? It's just real. I write when I'm in my hard times. 

Are you doing reckless things just because it will make a good song? 

You know what? I would like to say no, but there was a time in my life where things were getting kind of boring, so I had to stir it up and go out a little bit and explore some things to really have stuff to write about. 
But I'm a pretty outgoing person, so I would have done it no matter if I was stirring the pot or not. 

When did you first write songs with the intention of sharing them with complete strangers? 

When I first wrote my song, “dog with a bone.” That was back in October, and it was my first real moment of having this intention.
I actually had written a couple smaller songs that touched some pretty personal topics, but my song “dog with a bone” got some attention. 

I'd say it went viral. 

Thank you, it did a little thing… I'd say that was when it set in that everyone's gonna hear this now, so I gotta be aware of what I’m saying. 

Were you immediately comfortable with that idea? 


No. Well, yes and no. I would say I was fine with the internet seeing it. But then people I knew started to hear it. My family was, like, “Everything okay?” My grandma always jokes about it and she's like, when are you going to write something that's happy? And I don’t know! It's just what I relate to. Things are great, so I don't worry about how it works. 

How long would you say you've been writing songs generally? 


Dude, I have been writing since I was little. I actually had a couple songs out before I ended up getting signed. They were very Disney Channel, feminist pop songs. Girl anthems. I had a song called “What's a Girl to You?” 
High school was great, having those songs out. But yes, I've always written, and I've always been very passionate about what I write. So I think that's one thing that I didn't really lose, was the passionate part, but the vibe of the music did switch. 

What's something you've learned about yourself while songwriting? 

It's the most validating thing. I would really struggle with second guessing and spiraling thought, but writing about really balances out what I’m thinking. It’s really validating being able to put those thoughts into something and then have people relate. 

So, everyone's sad. 

Maybe. I feel like everybody's going through something. I was just talking to my team about this – music is so up to interpretation. Even though my songs are specific to me, you could listen to them and hear your own struggle. Everybody's sad in their own way. 


There's something about your music that's interesting, because your voice doesn't sound very young. You have some gravitas to it. Was that always the case? 

No. Last summer when I was getting out of a relationship, I was writing very soft toned songs. Like Phoebe Bridgers. Until I wrote “dog with a bone,” I hadn’t ever sung with the voice cracks, vocal flip kind of thing. That's when I really found my voice. I had been holding back a lot when I would sing. 

Well, that seems to have worked for you. 

I mean, at first, it was rough because I was just finding my voice. A lot of people didn't like it at first. I got some comments on it. But exploring that voice ultimately led to me finding the best way to turn my feelings into sound. 

Let’s talk about “bloodstream,” your latest single. Origin stories, lore, how did this come about? 

I had originally written the song about a guy that I had been seeing and how much I really wanted the relationship to work and for both of us to change for the better. I'd gone on a date with a different guy, and then got a text from the guy that I was dating from a long time ago, and it just took me back. I had written the song five minutes before I posted it, and my team had been advising me to pause on posting new songs and snippets and such. But I was like, I have a good feeling about this song. Something in my gut was telling me to post it. I'm glad that I did. It started off about a boy, but then a lot of people were talking about how they related to it in regards to family matters. So I rewrote the song to be more universal, so people can listen and relate to it about anything. 

I get what you mean, that’s smart. What are your ambitions? It sounds like you're already happy with “bloodstream,” but do you have an ambition for it separate from just releasing it? Do you want this song to do something? 

I feel like everybody has that intention when putting out music. My biggest dream for releasing music, though, is having people hear it and feeling less alone. To think, “Okay, I'm not crazy.” So many teenage girls and young girls feel so alone. I've been in those times, and I’m striving to make people feel like it’s okay, that they’ll get to the other side of that feeling. 

That's beautiful. I'm going to pivot to some fun questions. At your most peaceful state, where are you? What are you doing? 


I'm probably watching some YouTube. I've been bedazzling things recently. 

Oh, wow. Okay, say more about this. 


I've been bedazzling lighters and wallets and makeup items, and watching Slushy Noobz. Do you know Slushy Noobz? 

Maybe… 

I’ll either watch that or Love Island. Eat some chocolate. 

That sounds like a pretty set night. If you could bend space and time, is there a place in either the past or the future you'd want to visit? Anywhere in space and time. 

Like on vacation? 

You don't have to go on vacation. 

Oh wow, I want to go into the future to see how it is. I like the curiosity of it all. I'm curious to see where I'll go on tour. I really want to go to Paris and some really cool spots in the world. 


Well, that set up my next question. What is your dream vacation? 


I want to see the Bahamas. The water seems so clear, and I've heard there were a lot of water pigs. And they look kind of cute. 

If you were to dream up your favorite festival building with you playing, who would you want to perform with? Who would be on the bill? 

Probably Noah Kahan. I've been a fan of Noah Kahan since I was in middle school, when his first couple of albums were coming out. I love Gigi Perez, too, and Joshua Slone. He’s probably one of my favorite songwriters and singers right now. 

Works for me. All right, your friends ambush you, and they're hungry. Can you whip up a meal? And if you can, what is it?


I probably couldn't cook anything, but I could order. 

Where would you order from?

I would order from Cava, and everybody in my fan base knows this. I'm trying to get that brand collab going. I have it like three times a week. I try to recreate their lemon herb tahini and tzatziki sauce but it’s just not as good. 

Last couple of questions. I would love a non-music recommendation. So what would you put your friends onto? 


Probably the Twilight series. I'm a big Twilight fan.


You read everything? 

No, I can't read. 

You can't read. 

I’ve got some reading comprehension problems, ADHD and stuff. I'll read a line and have to reread it a million times but I'm not processing what I'm reading. There were a couple summers ago, we had a reading book assignment and my mom and I had to cut the pages out of the book and highlight them as we went, because I couldn't read. I didn't end up finishing the book. I couldn't do it. But the Twilight movie series is so bad, but it's so good. 

We'll take it. For the record, I’m dyslexic and have ADHD, too. To go with our non-music recommendation, we'd love a music recommendation. Who's been inspiring you lately?

Joshua Slone is definitely up there. He's crazy good. I'm a big fan. 


What do you like about him specifically?

It's just catchy, and his voice is so good. His writing is insane. 

Love it. Lastly, anything you want to end on, your words. 

I don't really have many words. I talk a lot, but I don't really know what I would say. I’m at a loss for words. Maybe those are my words. Stream my song.

Yes, that's a nice word too. Thank you so much. 

Thank you.