Scialfa was born in Deal, New Jersey. She was the middle child of Joseph Scialfa and Patricia (née Morris) Scialfa.She also has half-siblings from her father's second marriage. Her father was a successful local entrepreneur,who started with a single television store and became a real estate developer.Scialfa was writing songs from an early age and first worked professionally as a back-up singer for New Jersey bar bands after she completed high school. In 1994, she stated in a Lear's Magazineinterview that she had little talent for anything but music and that she attended college as a way to further her ambitions as a performer while also satisfying parental expectations. She has a music degree from New York University,
earned after she transferred from the University of Miami's highly-respected jazz conservatory.
