Vega's mother, Pat Vega, is a computer systems analyst of German-Swedish heritage. Her father, Richard Peck, is of Scottish-English-Irish extraction and works in graphics. Her stepfather, Ed Vega, is a writer and teacher from Puerto Rico..

When Vega was two and a half, the family moved to New York City. She grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side. At the age of nine she began to Read more...

Vega's song Tom's Diner was used as the reference track in an early trial of the MP3 compression system, earning her the distinction of being "The Mother of the MP3". It was chosen because her a capella vocal with relatively little reverberation was used as the model for Karlheinz Brandenburg's compression algorithm. Brandenburg heard Tom's Diner in a radio playing the song. He was excited and at Read more...

Luka was covered by The Lemonheads on their 1989 album Lick, shortly before the band was signed to Atlantic Records, and was a minor college-airplay hit. On a 1987 Swedish television special, Vega said this about the song Luka:

Also, in an ASCAP interview, she responded to a question about Luka: