AceShowbiz -

Grace VanderWaal has scored a major record deal, Billboard learns. The winner of "America's Got Talent" season 11 joins the likes of Adele, Beyonce Knowles and Bruce Springsteen at Columbia Records after her deal with Simon Cowell's Syco Music landed at Sony Music's subsidiary.

"It's a lot to take in, but I've got to hand it to her," Cowell gushed about the 12-year-old singer who drew comparison to Taylor Swift. "She's a very smart, calm, focused girl and I think she knows what she wants to achieve and what we always say to artists in this situation is it's not a race."

"There is something. A much, much bigger announcement coming soon, which is separate from this," he added. "But that will be for, I'm guessing, 18 months time. But for the moment it is the short term residency for those three acts. That's the only commitment so far."