Sara Beth Bareilles ( ; born December 7, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actress. She has sold over three million albums and over 15 million singles in the United States. Bareilles has earned various accolades, including two Grammy Awards, as well as nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards. In 2012, VH1 named her one of the Top 100 Greatest Women in Music.
After signing with Epic Records, Bareilles rose to prominence with the release of her second studio album, Little Voice (2007). Its lead single, "Love Song", peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned nominations for Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. Her third studio album, Kaleidoscope Heart (2010), debuted atop the Billboard 200 while her fourth, The Blessed Unrest (2013), received a Grammy Award nomination for Album of the Year.
Bareilles made her Broadway debut when she composed music and wrote lyrics for the 2015 musical Waitress, for which she earned nominations for the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. She subsequently received Laurence Olivier Awards nominations for its 2019 West End transfer production. Her fifth studio album, What's Inside: Songs from Waitress (2015), includes several of the musical's songs, as well as some that were not included in the show. She has since worked on other Broadway productions, including the 2016 musical SpongeBob SquarePants and a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, both of which earned her Tony nominations.
Bareilles is also known for her work in television. In 2018, she received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Mary Magdalene in the NBC musical television special Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, for which she was nominated for an Emmy. She played the lead role of Dawn Solano in Peacock and Netflix's musical comedy Girls5eva (2021–2024).
Early life Sara Beth Bareilles was born on December 7, 1979, in Eureka, California. Her father, Paul Bareilles, is an insurance adjuster, and her mother, Bonnie Jean (), is a funeral home worker. Bareilles is the youngest of three daughters; she also has a younger half-sister.Zooey Magazine: Sara Bareilles Cover ZooeyMagazine.com Bonnie has Portuguese ancestry through her father and maternal grandmother. Her maternal grandfather had German ancestry through his maternal grandfather. Paul has Swiss-Italian ancestry through his mother, Italian ancestry through his paternal grandmother, and French ancestry through his paternal grandfather. Bareilles speaks some Italian and lived in Bologna for a year during college. Bareilles's parents divorced when she was 12 years old, and Bonnie later married Ron Halvorsen.
Bareilles was raised Catholic and attended parochial school until junior high, when she transferred to public school. Although she does not identify as a Catholic anymore, she still attends Mass with her family when she visits Eureka. Bareilles 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, in which she appeared as Audrey.
After graduating from Eureka High School in 1998, Bareilles studied communication studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she was a member of the co-ed a cappella group Awaken a Cappella; she can be heard on their album Dysfunktional Family, singing her original selection "Gravity" and "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5. The group's rendition of "Gravity" was featured on the Best of College a Cappella 2004 compilation CD. Bareilles and the pop rock band Maroon 5 have been acquainted since their college days at UCLA, when the latter was known as Kara's Flowers. Bareilles performed in the annual student concert UCLA Spring Sing, winning twice. She taught herself to play multiple instruments, including the piano.
Career
2002–2006: Career beginnings and Careful Confessions After graduating from UCLA in 2002, Bareilles immediately wanted to pursue a career in the music industry, and started to perform at local bars and venues. She released two demos in 2003: The First One in April, and The Summer Sessions in October.
In January 2004, Bareilles self-published her first studio album, Careful Confessions. she supported Guster on their first UK tour, and co-headlined a tour with Jon McLaughlin. Also in 2004, she appeared as a singer in a bar in the award-winning indie film Girl Play, performing the song "Undertow"; her songs "Gravity" and "Fairy Tale" also appeared in the film.
She signed a contract with Epic Records on April 15, 2005, and spent the rest of the year and the early months of 2006 writing, composing and reworking songs for her upcoming album.
She was the opening act in 2006 for Marc Broussard's "Carencro" tour. Her song "Gravity" appeared briefly in the 2006 independent film Loving Annabelle.
In 2007, Bareilles toured with Rocco DeLuca and the Burden, Aqualung, and Mika, and later that year opened for several shows on both Maroon 5 and Paolo Nutini's U.S. tours. She opened for James Blunt on his U.S. tour in association with VH1 You Oughta Know.
2007–2008: Breakthrough with Little Voice
In June 2007, iTunes featured Bareilles's single "Love Song" as the free single of the week. The song documents her frustration with the pressures of meeting the demands of Epic Records in creating her first album. On July 7, her label debut album, "Little Voice," was released. Six out of the twelve songs on the album were improved versions of songs from Careful Confessions.
In July 2007 Little Voice shot to No. 1 on the list of most downloaded albums of the music store in its first week of release, and debuted at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 chart. After being featured on a Rhapsody commercial in 2007, "Love Song" began climbing the pop charts, jumping from No. 73 to No. 16 in one week. It entered the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 27, 2007, and peaked at No. 4. On other charts, such as the Pop 100 and Hot AC, "Love Song" hit No. 1. Bareilles performed the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Thursday, January 17, 2008, and on the Today show on Thursday, February 21, 2008. Soon after that, the song entered the UK singles chart, peaking at No. 4. The music video was directed by Josh Forbes, and it starred the British actor Adam Campbell.
As of 2010, Little Voice had been certified platinum by the RIAA. The album peaked in the Billboard 200 at No. 7, and the UK Top 40 at No. 9. Its breakthrough single, "Love Song", was later certified triple platinum.
On October 28, 2008, Bareilles released Between the Lines: Sara Bareilles Live at the Fillmore on DVD and CD. The package is a recording of her first headlining tour at The Fillmore in San Francisco. This package also included live recordings of her unreleased song "August Moon", as well as a cover of Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay". She concluded the tour in her home town of Eureka, California, on December 19, 2008, at the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts.
She toured with Counting Crows and Maroon 5 between July 25 and August 26, 2008. The first stop was Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the last stop Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio."Maroon 5 Tour Dates". Maroon5SIN.com. Bareilles was selected as MTV artist of the week for July 7–11 and appeared again on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Wednesday, July 9, 2008; and on December 9, 2008 (with Ingrid Michaelson).
During the spring of 2009, Bareilles was on her second headlining tour, the Gravity Tour, to promote "Gravity", the third and final single from her album Little Voice. She made her third appearance in Charlottesville, Virginia, during the University of Virginia's annual Springfest on March 28, her first as the opener for Marc Broussard in 2005 and the second being an opening act for Maroon 5. Bareilles also played multiple college shows in April and May. Some were for college students only and others were open to the public.
She sent out a special holiday message to fans on her mailing list and gave out a free live acoustic EP recorded during her Gravity Tour. The EP contained seven acoustic songs, including a new song "Free Ride", "I'm on Fire" (a Bruce Springsteen cover duet with Tony Lucca), and two speaking segments.
In early 2010, Bareilles recorded video of what she called "An Ode to Jersey Shore" and posted it to her official website as a gag for fans.
2009–2012: Kaleidoscope Heart and The Sing-Off
Exhausted by her rise to stardom and daunted at the prospect of writing another major hit—as documented in her song "Uncharted"—Bareilles experienced a period of writer's block, where she came to fear she would never write another song. She began work on the follow-up to her major label debut in the summer of 2009, collaborating with the likes of Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, members of Weezer, and Pharrell Williams. As new songs began to take shape, Neal Avron was assigned to produce, record, and mix the entire album. Titled Kaleidoscope Heart, the album was recorded at The Village Recorder and Sunset Sound in Los Angeles.
The first single from Kaleidoscope Heart, "King of Anything", began receiving radio airplay in the United States in May 2010, and was released for sale in June. "King of Anything" had its first play on British radio airwaves on Paul Kay's Album Download show on Mid-Wales commercial radio station Radio Maldwyn – The Magic 756 in August 2010. "King of Anything" was later certified platinum by the RIAA.
In anticipation of the new album, Bareilles released a series of webisodes, featuring the making of select songs from Kaleidoscope Heart, including "King of Anything", "Uncharted", "Gonna Get Over You", "Bluebird", and a strings-only version of "King of Anything". The first webisode also contains Bareilles writing the chorus/refrain lyrics for "Hold My Heart". She was selected as VH1's Posted Artist of the Month for July 2010, chronicling her life leading up to the album's release.
Kaleidoscope Heart was released on September 7, 2010, and debuted at number 1 in the United States, selling 90,000 copies. Her previous album, Little Voice, re-entered the charts at number 200 in the same week, bookending the charts.Trust, Gary. "Ask Billboard: Sara Bareilles Bookends Billboard 200", Billboard, September 17, 2010.
Bareilles toured in support of Kaleidoscope Heart from September to December 2010, with most of the shows being sold out. Bareilles toured Europe and parts of Asia and Australia with Maroon 5 throughout spring 2011. She embarked on a small headline tour in April 2011 with openers Elizabeth & the Catapult and Ximena Sariñana in support of the second single from Kaleidoscope Heart, "Uncharted", which concluded April 23, 2011, in Memphis, Tennessee. She also opened select shows for the country music duo Sugarland on their Summer 2011 Incredible Machine Tour. The third and final single released from Kaleidoscope Heart is "Gonna Get Over You", with a music video directed by Jonah Hill.
In May 2011, the song "Hold My Heart" from Kaleidoscope Heart was featured as the closing music in the seventh episode of the first season of Body of Proof, a made-for-TV medical crime drama starring Dana Delany.
Bareilles was added in the third season of the NBC television series The Sing-Off as a celebrity judge following the departure of Nicole Scherzinger, alongside Ben Folds and Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men. Bareilles also guest-starred on Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures.
On August 13, 2011, the Hoosier Lottery Grandstand stage at the Indiana State Fair collapsed right after Bareilles finished performing as the opening act for Sugarland. She was uninjured, tweeting, "I'm speechless and feel so helpless; my heart aches for the lives lost." Seven people were killed, and more than 45 injured, in the collapse.