Bareilles was born and raised in in Eureka, California. She participated in high school choirs and local community theater musical productions, including her high school's production of Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey. She graduated from Eureka Senior High School in June 1998, having been voted "Most Talented" in the senior yearbook of that year.

Bareilles attended UCLA, where she was a member of their a cappella group Awaken. The group's rendition of Bareilles' "Gravity" was featured on the Best of College A Cappella 2004 compilation CD.

After graduating from college in 2002, Bareilles' performances at local bars and clubs began to earn her a growing following 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' A&R executive Pete Giberga on April 15, 2005. The remainder of the year and early 2006 was spent writing and reworking songs for her upcoming album.

In 2007, Bareilles toured as the opening act for Aqualung and Mika. In mid-2007 she opened for Rocco DeLuca and the Burden during their inaugural headline tour and co-headlined a tour with Jon McLaughlin. In autumn of that year, she opened for several shows on both Maroon 5 and Paolo Nutini's U.S. tours.

In June 2007, iTunes featured Bareilles' single "Love Song" as the free single of the week. The following month, her major-label debut Little Voice shot to #1 on the list of most downloaded albums of the music store in its first week of release, and debuted at #45 on Billboard's Top 200 chart.

After being featured on a Rhapsody commercial in 2007, "Love Song" began climbing the pop charts, jumping from #73 to #16 in one week. As of December 27, 2007, "Love Song" has entered the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100.

--Wikipedia