Early life

Cara was born in New York City. Her father, Gaspar Cara, was Afro-Puerto Rican, and her mother, Louise, was an American of Cuban descent. Cara has two sisters and two brothers.

At the age of three, Irene Cara was one of five finalists for the "Little Miss America" pageant. She began to play the piano "by ear," then studied music, acting, and dance seriously. Her performing career started on Spanish-language television, professionally singing and dancing. She made early TV appearances on the Original Amateur Hour (singing in Spanish) and Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. In 1971-72, she was a regular on PBS's educational program The Electric Company. As a child, Cara recorded a Latin-market Spanish-language record and an English Christmas album. She also appeared in a major concert tribute to Duke Ellington that also featured Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Roberta Flack.

Career

Boggs describes Cara as a "perfectionist" who works on a song until absolutely satisfied with it.

“ ” Ebony

Cara 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 Raúl Juliá.

Cara was the original Daisy Allen on the 1970s 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 Cara international acclaim for serious dramatic roles in two outstanding mini-series, Roots: The Next Generations 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. Coincidentally, 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 Performing Arts. In 1984 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 international acclaim

The 1980 hit movie Fame, directed by Alan Parker, catapulted Irene Cara to stardom. Cara was originally cast as a dancer, but when producers David Da Silva and Alan Marshall and screenwriter Christopher Gore heard her voice, they re-wrote the role of Coco Hernandez. As Coco Hernandez, she sang both the title song "Fame" and the film's other single, "Out Here on My Own." These songs helped make the film's soundtrack a chart-topping, multi-platinum album. Further history was made at the Academy Awards that year: it was the first time two songs from the same film were nominated in the same category and both sung by the same artist. Thus, Cara had the opportunity to be one of the few singers to perform more than one song at the Oscar ceremony; "Fame," written by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford, won the award that year.

Cara earned Grammy nominations in 1980 for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical. Billboard named her Top New Single Artist, while Cashbox Magazine awarded her both Most Promising Female Vocalist and Top Female Vocalist.

Asked by Fame TV series' producers to reprise her role as Coco Hernandez, she declined so as to focus her attention on her recording career. As a result, Erica Gimpel assumed the role.

Post-Fame career

Cara was slated to star in her own sitcom, 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. It also starred veteran performers Kaye Ballard and Teddy Wilson, as well as newcomers Julia Duffy and Keenen Ivory Wayans.

In 1983, Cara appeared as herself in the film D.C. Cab, which is a film about a group of cabbies. The movie stars Mr. T. One of the characters, Tyrone played by Charlie Barnett, is an obsessed Cara fan who decorated his Checker Cab as a shrine to her. Her contribution to the film's soundtrack, "The Dream (Hold on To Your Dream)" played over the closing credits of the film, and proved to be a minor hit, peaking at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1984.

In 1982, Cara 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. Cara 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.

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, in a role that Stephanie Mills had first portrayed 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.

In 1983, Cara reached the peak 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 penned the lyrics to the song with Keith Forsey while riding in a car in New York heading to the studio to record it; Moroder composed the music.

Cara admitted later that she was initially reluctant to work with Giorgio Moroder because she had no wish to invite further comparisons with another artist who worked with Moroder, Donna Summer. But the collaboration paid off and became a hit in several countries, garnering 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, and American Music Awards for Best R&B Female Artist and Best Pop Single of the Year.

"Flashdance..." was re-recorded by Cara twice. The first time was in 1995 as a track in the original soundtrack for the movie "The Full Monty"; the second time was in 2002, as a duet she recorded with successful Swiss artist DJ BoBo.

In 1984, she was in the comedic thriller City Heat, in which she co-starred opposite Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds and sang the standards "Embraceable You" and "Get Happy." She also co-wrote the theme song "City Heat", which was sung by the jazz vocalist Joe Williams. In May of that year she scored her final Top 40 hit with "Breakdance" going to #8. The follow up, "You Were Made for Me" reached #78 that summer but then she never charted on the Hot 100 again. In 1985, Cara co-starred with Tatum O'Neal in Certain Fury, an exploitation underachiever about two troubled young women who flee a court hearing and are mistaken for killers. In 1986, Cara appeared in the film Busted Up. She also 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.

Along with her career in acting and hit singles, Cara released several albums: Anyone Can See in 1982, What A Feelin' in 1983, and Carasmatic in 1987, the most successful of these being What A Feelin. In 1985 she collaborated with the Hispanic group Hermanos in the song "Cantaré, cantarás," in which she sings a solo segment with the Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo. She also released a compilation of Eurodance singles in the mid to late 1990s entitled Precarious 90's. Cara recently contributed a dance single, titled "Forever My Love", to the compilation album titled Gay Happening Vol. 12, in 2006.

Cara has also worked as a backup vocalist for Vicki Sue Robinson, Lou Reed, George Duke, Oleta Adams, and Evelyn "Champagne" King. Cara toured Europe and Asia throughout the 1990s, scoring several modest dance hits on European charts, but no US chart hits. 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.

Cara lives in Florida and works with her band Hot Caramel. Their album called Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel was released on April 4, 2011. Cara appeared in season 2 of CMT's reality show Gone Country,.

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Title	Chart position
		US	AUS	CAN	AUT	GER	SWI	UK	JP
1968	Esta Es Irene Released: 1968 Formats: LP Label: GEMA	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1982	Anyone Can See Released: 1982 Formats: CD, Cassette Label: Network	76	NA	NA	—	—	—	—	—
1983	What a Feelin' Released: 1983 Formats: LP, CD, Cassette Label: Network, Epic (LP)	77	49	NA	—	29	8	—	NA
1987	Carasmatic Released: 1987 Formats: CD, Cassette Label: Elektra Records	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2011	Irene Cara presents: Hot Caramel Released: 2011 Formats: CD, Digital Label: Caramel Productions Music Inc.	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Soundtrack appearances

Year	Album	Track(s)
1971	The Me Nobody Knows	"Black"
1980	Fame	"Fame", "Out Here on My Own", "Hot Lunch Jam", "I Sing the Body Electric"
1983	Flashdance	"Flashdance... What a Feeling"
1983	D.C. Cab	"The Dream (Hold On To Your Dream)"
1984	City Heat	"Embraceable You", "Get Happy"
1989	All Dogs Go to Heaven	"Love Survives" (with Freddie Jackson)
1991	China Cry	"No One But You"
2007	Downtown: A Street Tale	"Downtown"

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions										Album
		US	US Dance	US AC	US R&B	UK	AUT	GER	NED	NOR	SWI
1980	"Fame"	4	1	—	—	1	—	—	1	—	—	Fame
	"Out Here on My Own"	19	—	20	—	58	—	—	—	—	—
1982	"Anyone Can See"	42	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Anyone Can See
	"My Baby (He's Something Else)"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1983	"Flashdance... What a Feeling"	1	1	4	2	2	4	3	17	1	1	What a Feelin'
	"Why Me?"	13	7	—	41	86	—	17	—	5	4
	"The Dream (Hold on to Your Dream)"	37	26	—	65	—	—	—	—	—	—
1984	"Breakdance"	8	13	—	23	88	—	n/a	—	—	20
	"You Were Made for Me"	78	—	10	83	—	—	—	—	—	—
1987	"Girlfriends"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Carasmatic
2001	"What a Feeling"	—	—	—	—	—	11	3	—	—	2	Planet Colors
2004	"Downtown"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Downtown: A Street Tale
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Vocal appearances on other albums

• 1986: The Brecker Brothers - Détente (background)
• 1987: Jimmy Maelen - Beats Workin'
• 1992: Stanley Turrentine - Home Again
• 2001: DJ Bobo - Planet Colors
• 2002: DJ Bobo - Celebration

Stage acting

• 1968: Maggie Flynn
• 1970: The Me Nobody Knows
• 1972: Via Galactica
• 1978: Ain't Misbehavin' (replaced by Charlayne Woodard during previews)
• 1979: Got Tu Go Disco
• 1980: The Wiz
• 1993: Jesus Christ Superstar
• 1996: What a Feeling!: The Rock & Pop Musicals in Concert

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Note
1970	Love of Life	Daisy Allen	Daytime drama
1971-72	The Electric Company	Iris	Band member of the Short Circus
1975	Aaron Loves Angela	Angela
1976	Kojak	Amy	Episode: "A Hair-Trigger Away"
1976	Sparkle	Sparkle Williams
1976	Apple Pie	Dancer
1977	What's Happening!!	Maria	Episode: "Rerun Gets Married"
1979	Roots: The Next Generations	Bertha Palmer Haley	Miniseries; 3 episodes
1980	Fame	Coco Hernandez
1980	Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones	Alice Jefferson
1981	Irene	Irene Cannon
1982	Killing 'em Softly	Jane
1982	Sister, Sister	Sissy Lovejoy
1983	D.C. Cab	Herself
1983	For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story	Myrlie Evers
1984	City Heat	Ginny Lee
1985	Certain Fury	Tracy
1986	Busted Up	Simone Bird
1988	Bustin' Loose	Herself	Episode: "What's a Nice Girl Like You...?"
1990	Caged in Paradiso	Eva
1991	Gabriel's Fire	Celine Bird	Episode: "Birds Gotta Fly"
1992	The Magic Voyage	Marilyn	Voice role
1992	Hearts Are Wild	Dorah	Episode 1.8
1993	Happily Ever After	Snow White	Voice role
1994	Snow White and the Magic Mirror	Snow White	Voice role
1995	Beyond Awareness to Action: Ending Abuse of Women	Host	Documentary
2004	Downtown: A Street Tale	Neighbor	Cameo

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
1980	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Motion Picture Comedy or Musical	Fame	Nominated
1983		Best Original Song	"Flashdance... What a Feeling" (shared with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey)	Won
1983	Academy Awards	Best Original Song	"Flashdance... What a Feeling" (shared with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey)	Won
1984	Grammy Awards	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or A Television Special	Flashdance (Soundtrack) (shared with other songwriters)	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]