On the 2022 track “Digits,” Austin singer-songwriter Grace Sorensen serves up an indelible hook. Pleated with glimmering guitars beside MC Megz Kelli of the genre-melding duo Magna Carda, Sorensen still sets the energy with effortless ease. She touches on the messiness of modern-day romances while flexing fluid choreography and an unremitting falsetto (plus an impeccable sense of style and ever-present set of hoop earrings, to boot). Her voice longs and looks for reciprocation amid a waning romance: “Highlights of us on replay/ Baby, tell me it’s OK/ We’re changing.”
Solidified as a top contender in the Austin scene, Sorensen channels a slick soulfulness reminiscent of various R&B cool girls across the decades while staying true to her vision of mesmerizing sonic soundscapes. There are faint traces of Aaliyah’s sleeker, pop-influenced hip-hop and H.E.R.’s iridescent melodies, sometimes in the same verse. As a lifelong scholar of lovestruck and emotionally bare ballads, she recognizes the subtle art: It’s all a matter of prioritizing the feeling.
“Listening to music completely influences my mood, and I love music that has a great energy,” says the Latina artist. “I want to make sure that my own music does that too.”
“The song is definitely written from the perspective of a woman being in her power and in control. I’ve had so many conversations about this recently: Femininity doesn’t look one way.” – Grace Sorensen on “Miss Majesty”
She bounces back from emotionally unavailable partners on tracks like “Pretty Boy” off of last year’s WHAT I NEVER TOLD YOU and 2021’s “Attraction.” After Kelli, her most recent single earns another notable Austin collaboration with production by soul establishment BLK ODYSSY, showing Sorensen at her most autonomous. Warm, flamenco-like guitar strums and airy choruses drive “Miss Majesty,” a nourishing, feminist R&B-inspired gem celebrating the virtue of self-love in its various forms.
“The song is definitely written from the perspective of a woman being in her power and in control,” says Sorensen. “I’ve had so many conversations about this recently: Femininity doesn’t look one way. I wanted to shine a little more light on different types of ways that it can look, and the different ways we express [femininity].”
Sorensen’s first introduction to the main stage was through dancing. Growing up in Round Rock, she trained in everything from hip-hop to ballet as a full-time student at her mom’s dance studio. She later took up playing piano and saxophone, as well as singing, in middle school. At home, the music that soundtracked her upbringing was similarly diverse.
“I listened to a lot of Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gaye, a lot of blues, and so much classic rock all because of my dad,” the singer says. “Reggae, a lot of feel-good music … my dad also loved Sade. My mom listened to a lot of old salsa and flamenco, and she used to dance flamenco. All of that music was very well-crafted and that’s what I strive to have in my own music – just being very intentional about all the instruments and the writing. Stuff that’s very well-baked.”
At just 11 years old, she began uploading videos of herself singing online, including a cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.” While none of them blew up, she jokes, taking her music into the public sphere eventually pushed her to start songwriting around the age of 16 while attending high school at the Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
Now 20 years old, Sorensen has already manifested a couple of her wildest dreams. On top of opening for Diana Ross at the Germania Insurance Amphitheater last year, her ACL Fest debut on this year’s BMI stage marks an exciting, bucket-list-checking new chapter, she shares. Longtime favorites GloRilla and Kali Uchis are on her list of must-sees at Zilker Park, and she’s especially hyped about the possibility of bumping into none other than famed wordsmith Kendrick Lamar.
“He has been so influential in my life,” she muses. “His writing, his choices on who to bring in on vocals. I have always dreamed of singing on something. I’m like, ‘Dude, if you need someone to go into the studio and give you a little hoot or a little holler, that’s all I need!’ Might as well dream big, you know? I might as well have some fun goals and be specific about it.”
Grace Sorensen
Sunday, 1:30pm, BMI stage (Weekend One only)Looking for more ACL Fest recommendations? Find our picks for local and Texas-affiliated acts playing Zilker Park here, as well as interviews with ACL 2023 artists Tanya Tucker, Brittney Spencer, and Bailen.
This article appears in October 6 • 2023.