Born in Toronto to Colombian parents, Reyez says her house was full of Latin music. Her mom caught her glued to the television attempting to imitate Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti at age three, but Reyez doesn’t remember that. Her first memory of music involves another injury. “I remember fucking up my finger in the elevator in our apartment one day,” she laughs. “I had to go to a [piano] recital and I did the recital anyway.” The recital took place at a music school in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighborhood that Reyez’s mother "begged" to accept her daughter even though it was against their policy to work with students so young. From there, songwriting became a refuge for Reyez. She’d “run to poetry” during the requisite woes of teenagerhood, she says, like getting her heart broken for the first time at age 16.