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Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959) is an American singer and actress. Cara won an Academy Award in 1984 in the category of Best Original Song for co-writing "Flashdance... What a Feeling". She is best known for her recordings of the songs "Fame" and "Flashdance... What a Feeling". She also starred in the 1980 film version of Fame.
Cara's father, Gaspar Cara (died in 1994), was an Afro-Caribbean Puerto Rican
. Her mother, Louise, is an American of French and Cuban descent. She has two sisters and two brothers.
She married Hollywood stuntman Conrad Palmisano [1] in 1986. They divorced in 1991.
Early lifeCara captivated her first audience - her family - sometime after her fifth birthday when she began to play the piano by ear. Cara soon moved into serious studies of music, acting, and dance. At the age of three, she was one of five finalists for the Little Miss America pageant.
Cara's performing career started on Spanish-language television as a child, professionally singing and dancing. She made early TV appearances on the Original Amateur Hour (singing in Spanish) and Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. She was a regular on PBS’s educational program, The Electric Company,which starred Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno, and Morgan Freeman. As a child, Cara recorded a Latin-market Spanish-language record; an English Christmas album soon followed. She appeared in a major concert tribute to Duke Ellington with Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr. and Roberta Flack.
Professional careerPre-FameCara appeared in on-and off-Broadway theatrical shows including the musicals ''Ain't Misbehavin', The Me Nobody Knows (which won an Obie award), Maggie Flynn opposite Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, and Via Galactica with Raul Julia.
She was the original Daisy Allen on the 1970’s daytime serial Love of Life.” Next came her role as Angela in romance/thriller Aaron Loves Angela, followed by her portrayal of the title character in Sparkle. Television brought Irene international acclaim for serious dramatic roles in two outstanding mini series, Roots: The Next Generations, the critically acclaimed adaptation of Alex Haley’s moving novel, and Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones.
John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 28, named her one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1976"; that same year, a readers' poll in Right On! magazine named her Top Actress.
Cara graduated from the Professional Children's School in Manhattan, a rival of the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art. Ironically, LaGuardia High was the inspiration for the performing arts school in her third movie Fame, along with The Juilliard School.
When she attended high school, it was called the School of Performong Arts. In 1961 the High School of Music & Art was merged with the School of Performing Arts (founded in 1948 by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia) to become LaGuardia High.
Fame and Subsequent RolesThe 1980 box office smash movie Fame catapulted Irene to stardom. As Coco Hernandez, she sang both the title song "Fame" and the film’s second hit single "Out Here on My Own". These songs helped make the movie soundtrack a chart-topping, multi-platinum album. Further history was made when at the Academy Awards that year; for the first time two songs from one film were nominated in the same category: "Fame" and "Out Here on My Own". Cara had the opportunity to be one of the few singers to perform more than one song at the Oscar ceremony. (Note: Robert Goulet, who sang all the Oscar-nominated songs in 1963, is among several singers who had done so in the past.) "Fame," written by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford, won the award that year.
The motion picture Fame earned Irene Grammy nominations in 1980 for Best New Female Artist and Best New Pop Artist, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical. Billboard Magazine named Irene Top New Single Artist, while Cashbox Magazine awarded her both Most Promising Female Vocalist and Top Female Vocalist.
Asked by the FAME TV series' producers to reprise her role as Coco Hernandez, she declined to focus her attention on her recording career. As a result, newcomer Erica Gimpel, who looked similar to Cara, played the role instead. However, Cara did make a special guest appearance on the series in 1983 as a "successful alumna" of the performing-arts school portrayed in the series, singing her then-current single, "Why Me?".
In 1982, Irene earned the Image Award for Best Actress when she co-starred with Diahann Carroll and Rosalind Cash in the NBC Movie of the Week, Maya Angelou's Sister, Sister. Irene portrayed Myrlie Evers-Williams in the PBS TV movie about civil rights leader Medgar Evers, For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story; and earned an NAACP Image Award Best Actress nomination. She also appeared in 1982's ''Killing 'em Softly.
Cara was also pegged to star in her very own sitcom, entitled Irene, on NBC in 1981. Even though the pilot aired and received favorable reviews, the network did not pick it up for its fall season of new shows. It also starred veteran performers Kaye Ballard and Teddy Wilson, as well as newcomers Julia Duffy and Keenan Ivory Wayans.
In 1983, Cara appeared as herself in the film D.C. Cab, about a group of cabbies, starring Mr. T. As an in-joke, one of the characters, an obsessed Cara fan, decorated his Checker Cab as a shrine to her.
In addition to her music and film work, Cara also continued to perform in live theatre during this period. In the summer of 1980, she briefly played the role of Dorothy in The Wiz on tour. Of course, this was the role that Stephanie Mills created in the original Broadway production. Coincidentally Cara and Mills had shared the stage together as children in the original 1968 Broadway musical Maggie Flynn, starring Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, in which both young girls played Civil War orphans.
Flashdance... What A FeelingIn 1983, Irene reached the apex of her music career with the title song for the movie Flashdance, "Flashdance...What A Feeling", which she co-wrote with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey. Cara wrote the lyrics to the song with Keith Forsey while riding in a car in New York heading to the studio to record it; Moroder wrote the music.
Cara admitted later that she was initially reluctant to work with Giorgio Moroder because she didn't want to invite further comparisons with Moroder's most famous client, Donna Summer, [2], but it paid off, as the result was a record which topped the charts around the world and won numerous accolades for Cara. She won the 1983 Academy Award for Best Song (Oscar); 1984 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, 1984 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, Top Female Vocalist-Pop Singles, Black Contemporary Female Vocalist-Pop Singles, Top Pop Crossover Artist-Black Contemporary Singles, Pop Single of the Year, American Music Awards for Best R&B Female Artist and Best Pop Single of the Year.
In 2002, she recorded "What A Feeling" with successful Swiss artist DJ BoBo. The duet was once again a global phenomenon.
In March 2007, the United World Chart ranked "Flashdance... What a Feeling" as the twenty-second most successful song in music history. The song was also rated on the list as the fourth most successful song by a solo female artist, behind Cher's "Believe" in third, Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" in second, and Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" in first.
Post-FlashdanceIn 1984, she was in the Clint Eastwood - Burt Reynolds comedic thriller City Heat, in which she sang the standards "Embraceable You" and "Get Happy". She also co-write the theme song “City Heat,” which was sung by the legendary jazz vocalist, Joe Henderson. In 1985, Cara co-starred with Tatum O'Neal in Certain Fury, a notorious box office and critical flop about women escaping prison. In 1986 appeared in the film Busted Up. Cara provided the voice of Snow White in the unofficial sequel to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Filmation's Happily Ever After, in 1993. That same year, she appeared as Mary Magdalene in the record-breaking anniversary tour of Jesus Christ Superstar opposite Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, and Dennis DeYoung.
Also in the 1990s, Cara won a bitter lawsuit against her old record company over unpaid royalties and other career issues.
Additional RecordingsAlong with her successful career in acting and several hit singles, Cara has released three albums thus far. Those albums are Anyone Can See in 1982, ''What A Feelin' in 1983, and Carasmatic in 1987. She also released a compilation of Eurodance]] singles in the mid to late 1990s entitled Precarious 90's. Cara recently contributed a new dance single, titled "Forever My Love", to the compilation album titled Gay Happening Vol. 12, in 2006.
In addition to her solo recordings, Cara has worked as a backup vocalist for Vicki Sue Robinson, Lou Reed, George Duke, Oleta Adams, and Evelyn "Champagne" King.
CurrentlyCara has never stopped performing, touring in Europe and Asia throughout the 1990s, scoring several top ten dance hits on non-US charts.
Cara received two prestigious honors for her career in March 2004, with her induction into the Ciboney Cafe's Hall of Fame and a Lifetime Achievement Award presented at the sixth annual Prestige Awards.
In June 2005, Cara won the third round of the NBC television series Hit Me Baby One More Time, performing "Flashdance (What a Feeling)" and covered Anastacia's song "I'm Outta Love" with her current all-female band, Hot Caramel. At the 2006 AFL Grand Final in Melbourne, Cara performed "Flashdance (What a Feeling)" as an opener to the pre-match entertainment.
She lives in Florida and continues work in preparation for her band Hot Caramel's album. She also has her own production studio. She appeared in season 2 of CMT's reality show Gone Country, but left the show realizing she “was not cut out for reality television.”
Awards and nominations- Latino Playwrights Award: Award of Recognition. [3]
- Golden Eagle Awards: Nosotros - Latin America Performer of the Year [4]
- Grammy Awards: Best Pop Vocal Performance - Female [4]
- NAACP Image Award-Best Actress in a TV Movie- Sister, Sister [5]
- NAACP Image Award-Best Actress in a TV Movie- For Us the Living [6]
- Alpha Music Program in Japan: #1 Female Vocalist from Sendai TV's "Saturday Magazine" [6]
- Academy Award: Best Original Song: Flashdance...What a Feeling [6]
- American Music Awards Nomination: Best R&B Female Artist [6]
- American Music Awards: Best Pop Single of the Year [6]
- Bravo Magazine: Otto Award, Most Popular Female Singer [6]
- Cashbox Magazine: Top Female Vocalist - Pop Singles [6]
- Cashbox Magazine: Black Contemporary - Pop Singles [6]
- Cashbox Magazine: Adult Contemporary Vocalist - Pop Singles [6]
- Cashbox Magazine: Top Pop Crossover Artist - Black Contemporary Singles [6]
- Cashbox Magazine: Pop Single of the Year [6]
- Golden Globe: Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy (Fame) [7]
- Golden Globe: Best Song in a Motion Picture (Flashdance) [6]
- People's Choice Awards: Favorite Young Artist [7]
- People's Choice Awards: Favorite Movie Theme Song (Flashdance) [6]
- Academy Awards: Best Song in a Motion Picture, "Fame" [8]
- Academy Awards Nomination : Best Song in a Motion Picture, "Out Here On My Own" [8]
- Grammy Awards: Nomination - Best Pop Vocal Performance - Female [8]
- Grammy Awards: Nomination - Best New Artist [8]
- Billboard Magazine: Top New Single Artist [7]
- Cashbox Magazine: Most Promising Female Vocalist [7]
- Cashbox Magazine: Top Female Vocalist [7]
- Japan Radio Hit Research Committee: Most Popular Disc Award [7]
DiscographyAlbums- 1980: Fame Soundtrack - PolyGram
- 1982: Anyone Can See - Elektra Records
- 1983: Flashdance Soundtrack - Casablanca Records
- 1983: ''What a Feelin' - Network Records
- 1984: D.C. Cab Soundtrack - Geffen Records
- 1985: City Heat Soundtrack - Warner Bros.
- 1987: Carasmatic - Elektra Records
- 1989: All Dogs Go to Heaven Soundtrack - MGM.
Singles
Vocal Appearances- The Me Nobody Knows- Original Cast Soundtrack (1970)
- The Electric Company-Television Cast Soundtrack (1971)
- John Blaire - We Belong Together (1977) Vocals
- The Brecker Brothers - Détente (1980) Vocals (bckgr)
- Bill Chinnock - Badlands (1978) Vocals
- Gordon Grody - Exclusively Yours Vocals (bckgr)
- Jimmy Maelen - Beats Workin' (1980) Vocals
- Millington - Ladies on the Stage (1978) Vocals, Vocals (bckgr)
- T. Life - That's Life (1978) Vocals (bckgr)
- Original Soundtrack - Fame Soundtrack (1980) Vocals, Vocals (bckgr)
- Various Artists - Billboard Top Hits: 1980 (1980)
- Various Artists - Billboard Top Dance Hits: 1980(1980) Vocals
- Stanley Turrentine-Home Again (1982)
- Luther Vandross- Superstar (1983)
- City Heat-Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1984)
- Certain Fury-Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1985)
- Original Soundtrack - All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
- China Cry- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1990)
- Various Artists - Disco Fox, Vol. 4 (1997)
- George Duke - Best of George Duke: The Elektra... (1997) Vocals
- Oleta Adams - Very Best of Oleta Adams (1998) Vocals (bckgr)
- Stormbringer- I Am Your Angel (2001)
- DJ Bobo - Planet Colors (2001) Vocal Arrangement, Vocal Recording
- DJ Bobo - Celebration (2002) Engineer, Vocal Arrangement
- DJ Bobo - Celebration Edition (2002) Engineer, Vocal Arrangement
- Disco Brothers Forever My Love (2002)
- Morning Musume Our Youth 1.2.3. (2002)
- Various Artists - Gay Happening Vol. 12 (2006) Vocals
- Downtown: A Street Tale- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Records (2007)
Cara's Songs Appear On- Richard Clayderman - Cinema Passion, Vol. 1 / Remembering the Movies
- DJ Bobo - Planet Colors
- Anna Fegi - Every Step of the Way
- Ilona Irvine - Sweet Memory
- Starsound Orchestra - Best TV, Movie & Broadway Themes
- Tokahits - Tokahits
- Original Soundtrack - Flashdance Soundtrack / Full Monty Soundtrack
- scarface: the world is yours
Filmography- Aaron Loves Angela (1975)
- Apple Pie (1976)
- Sparkle (1976)
- On Location with: FAME (1980) (short subject)
- Fame (1980)
- ''Killing 'em Softly (1982)
- Flashdance (1983) (Song only)
- D.C. Cab (1983)
- City Heat (1984)
- Certain Fury (1985)
- Busted Up (1986)
- Long Shot (1988) (Song only)
- All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) (Song only)
- Caged in Paradiso (1990)
- China Cry (1991) (Song only)
- The Magic Voyage (1992) (voice)
- Happily Ever After (1993) (voice)
- Snow White and the Magic Mirror (1994) (voice) (direct-to-video)
- Downtown: A Street Tale (2007) (Song only)
Television Work- Love of Life (cast member from 1970-1971)
- The Electric Company (cast member from 1971-1972)
- ''What's Happening sea.2, ep.1 "Rerun Gets Married" (1978)
- Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (miniseries)
- Guyanna Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980)
- Sister, Sister (1982)
- For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story (1983)
- ''Bustin' Loose (1987)
- ''Gabriel's Fire (1991)
- Gone Country Season 2 (2008)
Copyright Citations
This article is licensed under the GNU License
Click here for original article: Irene Cara
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