 Cravalho was born in Kohala, Hawaii, to Cathleen Puanani Cravalho, of Native Hawaiian descent, and Dwayne Cravalho, of mixed Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Chinese, and Irish descent.At the time she made her breakthrough, she was living in Mililani, Hawaii with her mother and was in her freshman year of high school, singing soprano in the glee club at Kamehameha Schools' Kapālama campus.Cravalho has stated that she was initially not going to audition for "Moana" because "there were already so many great submissions over YouTube".