A Los Angeles-based singer and songwriter of sleek, acoustic-leaning pop, Sarah Barrios tested her skills in songwriting contests and regional performance competitions before landing her first publishing deal in 2017. Her major-label debut EP, Letters I Never Sent, followed in 2020. Raised in Torrington, Connecticut, Barrios started playing the guitar and writing songs at age 13. After finishing high school, she pursued the competition route, auditioning for The X Factor and trying her hand in multiple national songwriting competitions. In 2014, she won Best New Artist at the New England Music Awards. Barrios placed in the Top Five of a singing/songwriting competition run by a major music retailer in 2016, the same year she appeared before the celebrity judges during the early rounds of American Idol and self-released an eponymous debut album. Around this time, support slots for acts including Charlie Puth and Melanie Martinez materialized, and in 2017, Barrios officially relocated to Los Angeles with the intent to take her career to the next step. The move was a successful one; within six months, she signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell. Collaborations with numerous artists followed, among them Bonnie McKee, Gryffin, and Becky G, and she co-penned a song that made it onto dance-pop artist Steve James' EP + one in February 2020. Just two months later, Visionary Records and Arista co-released Barrios' debut single, "I Didn't Mean To," which appeared on her first EP, the lovelorn Letters I Never Sent, in July of 2020. ~ Marcy Donelson