GRACE VANDERWAAL FINDS A NEW KIND OF HIGH

Grace has never chased trends. She just creates her own rhythm and lets the world catch up.

With her new single “High,” the singer and actress offers something simple and real — a song that floats between memory and emotion, soft and hazy like summer light filtering through the blinds. It’s that feeling you get in the middle of a good day, when the moment feels too perfect to end.

The official video, out today, captures that energy with beautiful restraint. Directed and edited by Palmer Wells, with choreography from Kali Hightower, it moves like a slow exhale — grounded, hypnotic, and alive. The choreography never feels performative; it feels lived-in, like motion born from a thought. Grace drifts through it naturally, her presence anchoring every frame. There’s a stillness in her that draws you in, something human and completely her own.

The song itself is full of those little flashes that stay with you — “my breath starts to slow, in the front seat saying man it’s been a long time,” and “white sugar in iced tea and porch light.” They’re fragments of life, the kind that remind you of the people and places that shape you. “High” doesn’t reach for drama or spectacle; it’s about capturing that quiet magic that happens in between things, a car ride, a long conversation, the soft rush of laughter after silence.“I went into the studio with no idea what I was going to write,” Grace shares. “I just started singing, ‘Do you wanna get high?’ and from there the idea came to make a song about those moments where everything already feels perfect… and then your friend looks at you and says, ‘You know what would make this even better?’” That easy spontaneity runs through the whole track — the looseness, the ease, the way it feels both nostalgic and right now. It’s the first glimpse of new music since her second album, CHILDSTAR, released earlier this year, her most personal project yet. On CHILDSTAR, Grace peeled back every layer, reflecting on growing up in the public eye, on identity, on the space between who she was and who she’s becoming.

Where CHILDSTAR was the sound of transformation, “High” feels like the moment after — when the dust settles and you finally breathe. It’s lighter, freer, but still introspective. You can sense an artist stepping into herself with quiet confidence, no longer trying to prove anything, just creating from instinct.

There’s a sense of clarity in this chapter of Grace’s story. The music, the visuals, the tone — it all feels connected. She’s not trying to escape her past or redefine it. She’s simply moving through it, taking the pieces that matter and letting the rest fall away.

With every new release, Grace continues to remind us that her evolution isn’t about reinvention — it’s about honesty. About growing, feeling, and staying real even when the world gets loud. “High” isn’t just a song; it’s a state of mind — a quiet rush, a small escape, a reminder that the most beautiful moments are often the simplest ones.

““I went into the studio with no idea what I was going to write. I just started singing, ‘Do you wanna get high?’ and from there the idea came to make a song about those moments where everything already feels perfect… and then your friend looks at you and says, ‘You know what would make this even better?”

- Grace VanderWaal

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