With a strong voice with amazing range, Sara Bareilles made a name for herself in 2007. While her talent is undeniable she had to struggle to push ahead. All of her hard work and dedication paid off as she has continued to make a name for herself and show that she has staying power.

Sara Bareilles

"I know where I want to go. I guess I'm just becoming more aware of the millions of different ways to get there."

With a strong voice with amazing range, Sara Bareilles made a name for herself in 2007. While her talent is undeniable she had to struggle to push ahead. All of her hard work and dedication paid off as she has continued to make a name for herself and show that she has staying power.

Grew Up Singing

Ever since Sara Beth Bareilles was born in December of 1979, in Eureka California, she was singing. In high school, she participated in the school's choir. She also took part in local community theatre musical productions as well as her high school's musicals.

Once she graduated, she went to the University of California to attend their Communication Studies program. She participated in a co-ed a cappella group where she performed her song Gravity that she wrote. This song as well as I Want You Back was performed by Sara Bareilles on the group's album.

Starting Off

In 2002 Sara graduated college. Around this time, she slowly began to make a name for herself. She played at local clubs and bars, slowly moving on to larger venues. In 2003, she released two demos of mostly live performances. In April, she released The First One and in October she released The Summer Sessions. The following year, she briefly appeared in an indie movie entitled Girl Play. In the movie she is a singer singing her song Undertow.

In January of 2004, she released her first studio album. Careful Confessions helped her to get signed with Epic Records the following year. The rest of 2005 and all of 2006 were spent writing songs for her upcoming album. In 2006, a Sara Bareilles song found its way onto another indie movie. Although she was not in the movie with it, Gravity briefly appears during the movie Loving Annabelle. In 2006 she was also on tour, opening for Marc Broussard.

Hitting it Big

Finally, in 2007, Sara Bareilles got her big break. Although she had become a west coast darling, it was time for her talent to be shared with the world. Her debut album with Epic Records, Little Voice featured her award winning single Love Song. The album became the number one most free mp3 downloaded song shortly after its release. The album debuted at #45 on the Billboard 200 chart. With a little help from a Rhapsody commercial, the song began to quickly and steadily climb the charts. Jumping from #73 to #16 in just one week, it looked like people were finally catching on.

At the end of 2007, Love Song had made it to the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100. The beginning of 2008, Sara performed her hit single on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as well as the Today Show.

On Valentine's Day of 2008, Little Voice was certified gold. Her hit single Love Song was certified 2x platinum as of spring of 2008. In December of 2008, she and fellow singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson performed a song together entitled Winter Song. An animated video for the song was released and the two performed it together on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Touring

Sara Bareilles has been known to tour with quite a few bands both before and after she became a household name. In 2004, she opened for the band Rocco DeLuca and the Burden while they were in their inaugural headline tour. She also co-headlined a tour with Jon McLaughlin. In 2007, she also opened for the band Aqualung as well as another singer/songwriter Mika. Once she had finished she went on to open for Maroon 5 as well as Paolo Nutini and James Blunt.

In October of 2008, she released a CD and DVD package entitled Live at the Fillmore. It includes her performing during her very first headlining tour in San Francisco at the famous Fillmore. In April and May of 2009 she played several college shows. Some exclusively for college students and others opened to the public.

In the fall of 2009, she was chosen by the First Lady, Michelle Obama to play for them at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. While there, she performed songs for the first ladies of twenty nations and had the opportunity to dine with Michelle Obama after her performance.

As a special holiday message for her fans, Sara sent out a free live acoustic EP of a recording of her Gravity tour to fans on her mailing list. On the EP, there are seven acoustic songs along with two speaking segments.

Currently, Sara is working in a Brooklyn studio for her follow up album. There is no exact time as to when this long awaited album will be released.

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