 She has stated she started singing around the same age she learned to talk, and at a young age her mother introduced her to singers such as Doris Day, Ella and Peggy Lee.Her older sister also introduced her to groups such as The Beatles, The Kinks, Paul Simon, and Motown.She soon started gaining stage experience as the lead in school musicals, and from her teens was successively the lead vocalist of a trio of Cleveland rock bands