Sara Bareilles

Background

Sara Beth Bareilles was born on December 7, 1979, in Eureka, Humboldt County, California, as the third of three daughters to Bonnie Halvorsen (née Capellas), a funeral home worker, and Paul Bareilles, an insurance adjuster. She has two sisters, Stacey and Jennifer, and a half-sister, Melody.
She is of Italian, English, German, Portuguese, and French ancestry, with the surname Bareilles being French. She speaks Italian and spent a year in Bologna, Italy, during college.

Bareilles grew up Catholic and went to parochial school until junior high when she transferred to public school. She was a member of the high school choir, Limited Edition, and local community theater musical productions, including her high school’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” where she played Audrey.

After finishing high school in 1998, Bareilles went on to study communication studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
She was a member of the co-ed a cappella group Awaken a Cappella, singing her original selection ‘Gravity’ and ‘I Want You Back’ by The Jackson 5.

The group’s rendition of Bareilles’ ‘Gravity’ was included on the “Best of College A Cappella 2004” compilation C.D. Bareilles and Maroon 5 had known each other since their college days at U.C.L.A., when the band was known as Kara’s Flowers.
She won twice in the annual student concert, U.C.L.A. Spring Sing. Bareilles taught herself to play the piano and, later, all other instruments she has been seen playing.

After graduating from U.C.L.A. in 2002, Bareilles began performing at local bars and clubs (such as the Hotel Café and Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles), gaining a following before moving on to larger venues. In 2003, she released two demos, which mainly featured live tracks: ‘The First One in April’ and ‘The Summer Sessions in October.’ On April 15, 2005, she signed a deal with Epic Records and spent the rest of the year and the first few months of 2006 writing, composing, and reworking songs for her upcoming album.

Her third studio album, “Kaleidoscope Heart,” was released in 2010, and its lead single, ‘King of Anything,’ received a Grammy Award nomination. Her fourth studio album, “The Blessed Unrest,” was released in 2013, and it received two Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year.

Bareilles wrote and composed music for the 2015 Broadway musical “Waitress,” for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score and a Grammy Award nomination for ‘Best Musical Theater Album.’

She later released the 2015 studio album “What’s Inside: Songs from Waitress,” which is a recording of her singing many of the songs from the musical. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Original Score for her work in the Broadway musical “SpongeBob SquarePants” in 2016.

For her performance as Mary Magdalene in the N.B.C. musical television special “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert,” Bareilles was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2018.

She co-hosted the 72nd Tony Awards in 2018, for which she received two Primetime Emmy nominations. Her sixth studio album, Amidst the Chaos, was released in 2019, and the single ‘Saint Honesty’ earned her the Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance. She is currently seen in Peacock’s musical comedy “Girls5eva” as Dawn Solano.

In the U.S., Bareilles has sold over one million albums and over nine million singles. She has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards, winning one, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Tony Awards. VH1 ranked Bareilles as the 80th greatest woman in music in February 2012. “Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song,” her “New York Times” bestselling memoir, was published in 2015.