December 7: "The Sing-Off" singer-songwriter and pianist Sara Bareilles is 32-years-old today.

Sara Beth Bareilles was born and raised in Eureka, California, the youngest of three daughters.  She has sold over 1 million records worldwide and has been Grammy-nominated three times.

Bareilles' vocal range registers from contralto to mezzo-soprano, and is often compared to artists such as Fiona Apple, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell and Norah Jones. Her sound is described as "slightly edgy, stompy piano-based pop rock" that incorporates jazz and soul.

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Sara was a member of her 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, where she was a member of the co-ed a cappella group Awaken A Cappella, 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 go back far to 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.

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After graduating from college in 2002, Bareilles performed at local bars and clubs, 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 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 the Billboard 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. It entered the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 27, 2007, and peaked at #4. On other charts, such as the Pop 100 and Hot AC, "Love Song" hit #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 #4.

Bareilles began work on the follow-up to her major label debut in the summer of 2009, collaborating with the likes of Amir "Questlove" Thompson, members of Weezer, and Pharrel Williams. The first single from her second album, "King of Anything," has since been 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." 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. Bareilles toured Europe and parts of Asia and Australia with Maroon 5 throughout spring 2011. She also opened select shows for country music duo Sugarland on their Summer 2011 Incredible Machine Tour.

On May 13, 2011 her song "Breathe Again" was used in the Smallville series finale for the wedding of comic book couple Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

It was announced in July 2011 that Bareilles will star in the third season of the NBC television series The Sing Off as a celebrity judge, alongside Ben Folds and Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men. The third single off of Kaleidoscope Heart is "Gonna Get Over You," with a music video directed by Jonah Hill. Bareilles also guest-starred on Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures.

For more about Sarab Bareilles, visit her Website at: http://www.sarabmusic.com

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READ MORE » December 7: "The Sing-Off" singer-songwriter and pianist Sara Bareilles is 32-years-old today.

December 3: Amanda Seyfried- "Mama Mia," "Mean Girls" and "Big Love" - is 26-years-old today.

Amanda Michelle Seyfried began modeling at 11 and acting at 15. There was another talent that most didn't know she had; she could sing.

Singing was Seyfried's first passion and received formal voice and dance training from age 11 to 17 in her hometown of Allentown, Pa. She trained with a Broadway voice coach for nearly five years and studied opera for two years which led to her appearance in the local productions, the revival of Grease and A Christmas Carol.

Amanda stopped singing since she was acting regularly on  TV soaps, including As the World Turns and All My Children, and "... didn't have time for it."

When the role of Sophie in the film version of Mama Mia! came up, she jumped at the chance to audition and won the part.

The movie features the music of '70s Swedish band ABBA. "Sophie," is  the daughter of single mom Donna, played by Meryl Streep, who operates a small hotel on a beautiful Greek island. "I knew how to sing and dance and I was basically playing myself in these certain circumstances," Amanda said in an interview appearing in the LA Times.

Recently, Amanda recorded a song for the soundtrack to the film Dear John, and a video surfaced  last year showing her singing a song she wrote while accompanying herself on an acoustic guitar (see video below.)

While now appearing on two movie soundtracks, and with singing and songwriting in her bones, Amanda says has no plans to record he own album. She does say  she would consider doing another musical.

"The singing thing's definitely a part of my life that I never thought would be public when I started acting. But if a role comes up and it seems exciting, then yeah. Because you know what? Acting and singing at the same time brings it up a level."

For now, though, it's all about acting.

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In 2004, Seyfried made her film debut in Mean Girls as one of the four "Plastics" alongside Lindsay Lohan. She then appeared in the films, Nine Lives and Alpha Dog.

In 2006, she landed a role on HBO's television series Big Love. After that, Seyfried appeared in Mamma Mia! Other recent movie parts in addition to Dear John, include lead roles in Jennifer's Body, Chloe,  Veronica Mars and Letters to Juliet.

In 2008, Seyfried was ranked #65 on the list of "The Annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces From Around the World", placed #5 in Moviefone's "25 Under 25: Hollywood's Hottest Young Stars," and ranked #3 on the Saturday Night Magazine's Top 20 Rising Stars Under 30.

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The next year, the British Glamour magazine ranked Seyfried at the #14 spot as one of the "30 Hottest and Sexiest Stars Under 30"; People Magazine ranked Seyfried #4 in the "Most Beautiful 2009 – Beautiful at Every Age."

Also, Glamour magazine's April 2010 issue dubbed Seyfried as "The Most Down-To-Earth" and ranked #3 in the "50 Most Glamorous Women of 2010."

Seyfried once again made the list of People Magazine's "Most Beautiful 2010" with no make-up on, and also appeared twice in the cover and article of Vanity Fair; first was the VF's Young Hollywood's New Wave in the year 2008" and the recent Vanity Fair cover and article "VF's A New Decade, A New Hollywood." LoveFilm ranked Seyfried at #5 spot on their 2010 edition of "Top Ten Actresses Under 30."

She also appeared in a provocative spread in Esquire.

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READ MORE » December 3: Amanda Seyfried- "Mama Mia," "Mean Girls" and "Big Love" - is 26-years-old today.

December 5: Jim Messina, Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Loggins and Messina is 64-years-old today.

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Born in Maywood, California, James Melvin Messina was a member of Buffalo Springfield, then the country rock band Poco, before he joined with Kenny Loggins to form the soft rock duo, Loggins and Messina.

While with Buffalo Springfield, he served as a recording engineer, producer, and eventually as a bass player - replacing Bruce Palmer - on their last album.

Messina and Richie Furay, another Buffalo Springfield member, formed Poco after Buffalo Springfield broke up. Messina played lead guitar and supplied vocals and some songwriting to the band. After recording two studio albums and one live album, he left Poco.

Early Poco

After Poco, Messina signed a contract with Columbia Records, as an independent producer. Messina was first introduced to the idea of producing Kenny Loggins in the summer of 1970 while still performing on the road with Poco.

Loggins first met with Messina in December 1970 at Messina's home, where the two recorded a number of Loggins' compositions in Messina's living room. Loggins, at the time, was a songwriter for ABC Dunhill and not a performing artist. The songs he presented for his album leaned more toward folk music, a style Messina felt might hinder his appeal.

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In the course of deciding how to produce Loggins' first solo album, Messina met with Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records. Messina felt Loggins needed some kind of an edge. Messina suggested Davis consider letting Messina sit in on Loggins' first solo album in the same way that jazz artists had done in the past. Loggins also needed more upbeat and diverse material to help him gain appeal as a pop music artist. Clive reluctantly agreed, and supported Messina's "Sitting In" concept, to the end.

Messina presented a number of songs to Loggins that spilled over from his days with Poco and Buffalo Springfield that leaned towards country rock and R&B. Messina felt Loggins could do both styles extremely well, especially after hearing Kenny perform "Danny's Song." Given Messina's songs' appeal to audiences, Messina felt they were a natural for the Loggins project.

Messina contributed compositions to the album such as "Listen to a Country Song" "Nobody But You" "Same Old Wine" and "The Trilogy" which included "Peace of Mind." Messina worked long hours with Loggins and encouraged him to purchase an electric guitar and play it on his solo debut album.

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Messina assembled the "The Kenny Loggins Band" by summoning old friends like drummer Merel Bregante and bassist/singer Larry Sims, both formally of the Sunshine Company, horn and viola player Al Garth.

Kenny Loggins' first solo Album entitled, Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin' In was completed and made its debut in November 1971. Together with the band Messina had assembled they toured and sold over 20 million albums by the end of 1976.

After the album's release Messina wrote, performed and produced seven more albums with Loggins.

In 1976, the duo split: Loggins wanted to strike out on his own. Both went on to do solo careers. While Messina made a number of albums that did not make much of a splash, Loggins' solo career took off.

In 1989 Messina joined with the Poco's original lineup, consisting of Jim Messina, Richie Furay, Rusty Young, George Grantham and Randy Meisner for a successful reunion tour.

In 2005, Messina joined Loggins and together they hit the road as a duo again. The result was a successful nationwide tour that produced a CD and DVD entitled Loggins and Messina" Live - Sittin' in Again at Santa Barbara Bowl. The duo reformed again in 2009 for an extensive tour.

Jim Messina released a CD entitled Under a Mojito Moon, containing works recorded on his Flamenco guitar with sounds reminiscent of Spain and Cuba.

Messina still performs and continues to make records as a solo artist.

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READ MORE » December 5: Jim Messina, Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Loggins and Messina is 64-years-old today.