Sara Bareilles biography
Sara Beth Bareilles ( ; born December 7, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She achieved mainstream success in 2007 with the hit single "Love Song", which brought her into the number one spot on the Billboard Pop 100 chart. She has sold over 1 million records in the United States alone and has been nominated for a Grammy Award three times. In the current third season of NBC's The Sing-Off, Bareilles is a celebrity judge alongside Ben Folds and Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men. In February of 2012, VH1 placed Bareilles in the #80 spot of the Top 100 Greatest Women in Music.
Early life
Bareilles was born and raised in Eureka, California, the youngest of three daughters of Bonnie Halvorsen (née Capellas), a funeral home worker, and Paul Bareilles, an insurance adjuster. She is of Italian, German, Portuguese, and French descent (she speaks Italian and lived in Italy for a year). Bareilles was raised Catholic and participated in the high school choir, Limited Edition, and local community theater musical productions, including her high school's production of
Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey.
Bareilles attended the Communication Studies program at the University of California, Los Angeles, and can be heard on their Dysfunktional Family album singing "Gravity" and "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5. The group's rendition of Bareilles' "Gravity" was featured on the Best of College a Cappella 2004 compilation CD. Sara also stated on MTV's TRL that she and the band Maroon 5 have been acquainted since their younger days in California when the band was known as Kara's Flowers. She performed in the annual student concert UCLA Spring Sing, winning twice.
Career
2002-2006: Career beginnings and Careful Confessions
After graduating from college in 2002, Bareilles performed at local bars and clubs (such as the Hotel Café and Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles), building a following before performing in larger venues. She issued two demos of mostly live tracks in 2003:
The First One in April and
The Summer Sessions in October. In 2004, she appeared as a singer in a bar in the indie film
Girl Play, performing the song "Undertow".
In January 2004, Bareilles released her first studio album, Careful Confessions. She signed a contract with Epic Records on April 15, 2005. The remainder of the year and early 2006 were spent writing and reworking songs for her upcoming album.
In mid-2004 she opened for Rocco DeLuca and the Burden during their inaugural headline tour, supported Guster on their first UK tour and co-headlined a tour with Jon McLaughlin. She toured as the opening act in 2006 for Marc Broussard's "Carencro" tour. Bareilles' song "Gravity" appeared briefly in the 2006 independent film Loving Annabelle. In 2007, Bareilles toured as the opening act for Aqualung and Mika, and later that year opened for several shows on both Maroon 5 and Paolo Nutini's U.S. tours. She also opened for James Blunt on his U.S. Tour in association with VH1 You Oughta Know.
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