NEED TO KNOW
Singer Grace VanderWaal is mourning the loss of her mother, Tina.
VanderWaal, 21, announced Tina’s death in an Instagram post on Tuesday, Oct. 21, writing that she “can’t yet find the words.”
“I love you mommy. So much. I wake up and want to call you. I don’t know how to move forward without you. I love you,” she captioned her post.
The post included a carousel of photos and videos of the America’s Got Talent winner and her mom, including a screenshot of a text message in which Tina told her daughter, “Whatcha doin today? Miss you so much.”
VanderWaal’s father Dave shared additional details in a public Facebook post, writing that Tina died on Oct. 20, a year-and-a-half after she’d been diagnosed with cancer. She was 53.
“She was a fighter to the end of her long, 17-month battle with cancer, always finding a positive outlook no matter what — for herself and, even more importantly, for others facing the same difficulty,” he wrote. “Tina truly was the heart of our family, filling our lives with creativity, laughter and love. Whether she was designing beautiful jewelry, teaching others to discover their creative spirit, or making every holiday and family moment special, she brought light and joy to everything she touched.”
Dave and Tina, who was a silversmith and glass artist, were married for 27 years, and shared daughters Grace and Olivia, 25, and son Jakob, 26.
Tina was open about her cancer journey on social media, and in September shared a video to Instagram announcing that she’d finished her second radiation treatment, and had eight left to go. On a fundraising page, she wrote that she’d been diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in June 2024.
In an essay published in Teen Vogue in April, VanderWaal praised her mom, calling Tina “literally the funniest, most loudest, most just everything woman.”
“You’ll hear her laugh watching the TV from three floors up,” she wrote, later adding, “As I was experiencing this early success, this viral fame, I felt like I was in control, but there are a lot of environmental variables that people don’t take into account. My mom was with me everywhere I went.”
VanderWaal won America’s Got Talent in 2016 when she was just 12 years old, and released her debut studio album Just the Beginning in 2017. Her most recent album, Childstar, came out in April.
