Sara Bareilles

Sara Bareilles came into the music scene swinging after a critic wrote that she needed to "write a marketable love song." Driven by anger, she wrote the hit  "Love Song,"  the first single off her debut album with Epic Records called Little Voice. After  The chorus of the song responds to critics with: "I'm not gonna write you a love song/ Cause you ask for it/ Cause you need one, you see." Clearly, Sara Bareilles is unlike most singer/songwriters, but by refusing to do what was demanded of her, she produced a great song. She was nominated at the 2009 Grammy Awards for "Song of the Year" and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance."

Sara Bareilles is no one-hit wonder. Her single "Bottle It Up" was successful on the charts and was also featured on a commercial for Rhapsody. Her latest single "King of Anything" has risen to number 51 on the charts (so far) and is the first single off her sophomore album Kaleidoscope Heart, which was released on September 7. The new album wasn't an easy feat, according to Sara, "writing the new songs was like 'pulling teeth.' Kaleidoscope Heart took about six months to produce, and we think you'll be happy with the finished product!"

Bareilles grew up in Eureka, California, spending much of her childhood in the forest, which resulted in an impressive imagination. Sara sang in choirs during high school, but it wasn't until Bareilles went to college at UCLA and started singing at open mics that she started to realize that singing was the career she ultimately wanted to pursue. 

The quirky singer does what she wants and encourages her listeners to always be true to themselves instead of listening to anyone on the outside. 

Bareilles sums up her passion for songwriting by saying, "Songwriting is the most sacred thing in my life. It's how I process the world. For now, it's usually me and my piano (that I rent because I don't have one), my lousy grammar and some emotion that makes me feel like I'm bursting at the seams. And it's the best feeling in the world."

Want to see Bareilles perform live? Come out to Q102's Bosom Ball, where you can enjoy great performances from Bareilles and others while supporting breast cancer awareness.