Sara Bareilles Gets Real About Combatting Body Image Struggles While Choosing Her Tony Awards Outfit

Almost time! Sara Bareilles is gearing up for the 76th annual Tony Awards by working to ignore her past body image struggles before hitting the red carpet.

“I am thinking a lot about how I’m preparing for these events, now these two events mean a lot to me, obviously,” the “Love Song” songstress, 43, said in a Saturday, June 10, video via her Instagram Story, referring to the awards ceremony and the movie premiere of her Waitress musical one day later. “And traditionally, when I’m getting ready for a big event, I go on a real bender of body-shaming and hating and trying to lose weight and get small and hit the gym super hard because there’s some kind of sense in myself that if I don’t present a certain way that I’m not allowed to participate.”

Bareilles — who is up for an acting Tony during Sunday’s show — noted that she is “really trying to rewire” her brain to fix that perspective.

“This is old stories and I don’t ascribe to them anymore. I mean, I have to fight really hard not to ascribe,” she added on Saturday. “Like, I can just have the body that I have and go have a f—king blast.”

Bareilles, who got engaged to longtime partner Joe Tippett in January, earned a Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical nomination for her role of Baker’s Wife in the Into the Woods revival. The Girls5eva star is competing against Annaleigh Ashford, Victoria Clark, Lorna Courtney and Micaela Diamond.

“I can’t tell you how shocking and delightful it is to be amongst all of [my fellow honorees], and to be a Tony nominee for performance means the world,” she gushed to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. “It’s just beyond.”

Bareilles’ Broadway career began in 2015 when she penned the music and lyrics for Waitress, earning her first Tony nomination for Best Original Score. While she ultimately lost the trophy to Fun Home, she later hosted the 2018 broadcast with Josh Groban fresh off his own Tony-nominated stint in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. The “You Raise Me Up” crooner, 42, is also up for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical during Sunday’s ceremony for his role as the titular character in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

The 76th Tonys will be broadcast live from New York’s United Palace beginning at 8:00 p.m. and hosted by Ariana DeBose. Mere hours before showtime, Bareilles, for her part, had yet to pick out her dress.

“OK, I just got back from my fitting for the Tonys and for the Waitress premiere, so the next two days of my life are two of the things that I care the most about and still don’t know what I’m going to wear,” the “Brave” musician confessed via her Instagram Stories on Saturday. “I got awesome options and we’re down to the wire. Let’s see people, let’s f—king see. Let’s go. I’m just feeling really excited and grateful.”