Irene Cara, “Fame” and “Flashdance” singer, dies at the age of 63

Irene Cara, the Academy Award-winning singer who performed the electric title tracks in two up-and-coming self-expression films, Flashdance and Fame in the 1980s, has died. She was 63.

Her death at her Florida home was confirmed by her publicist, Judith A. Moose. on twitter on Saturday. Ms Moose, who did not say when Ms Cara died, said her cause of death is “currently unknown and will be released as information becomes available”.

Ms. Cara, a child actress, dancer and singer, was the voice behind two of the biggest movie theme songs of the 1980s. She led the Title track from the movie “Fame” (1980), who followed a group of artistically gifted high school students from their first auditions to graduation.

In 1984, she won the Academy Award for Best Original Song as one of the writers of “Flashdance… What a Feeling.” the title track of “Flashdance”, which she also sang. The lively song also earned Ms. Cara a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 1984. The film, like Fame, chronicled the aspirations of a young person who wanted to express themselves through art, in this case dance.

Ms. Cara was born Irene Escalera on March 18, 1959 in the Bronx. she repeated controversial reports about her year of birth, sometimes she describes it as 1964. Her official twitter account says she was born in 1962. Her mother told the New York Times in 1970 that a young woman, Cara, who was already a busy artist, was 11 years old.

Her mother, Louise Escalera, was a cashier and her father, Gaspar Escalera, was a musician and worked in a steel factory. Details of Ms Cara’s survivors were not immediately available.

Ms. Cara grew up in New York City and attended music, acting and dance classes as a child and is said to be able to play the piano by ear at the age of five. She attended the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan, a school for child performers and children studying art.

As a child, she sang and danced on Spanish-language television. At 13, she was a regular on The Electric Company, a 1970s children’s show. She was also a member of the band Short Circus.

She stayed busy, taking on roles in theatre, television and film, including the title role in Sparkle, a 1976 film about a family of singers in the 1960s that was remade in 2012.

Her breakthrough came in the film musical Fame, in which she played Coco Hernandez, a student at a high school modeled on what is now known as the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. On the film’s soundtrack, Ms. Cara sang the title track “Fame” and another single, The Ballad “Here alone.”

Both songs were nominated for an Oscar in 1981. The film was nominated for several awards and “Fame” won for both Best Original Song and Score.

She continued to play and make music into the 1990s, when she was embroiled in a lawsuit with her record company over her earnings. She was awarded $1.5 million by a California jury in 1993, but Ms Cara said she was “virtually blacklisted” by the music industry over the dispute. People magazine reported in 2001.

In recent years, she has shared songs from her catalog, including some that were unreleased. in her podcast“The Backstory”.

In a July 2019 episode, she opened up about her ballad “As Long as it Lasts,” saying it has similar qualities to “Out Here on My Own,” and explaining why she connected to both songs.

“Very nude, just vocals and piano and great lyrics and a great story within the lyrics, those are the types of songs that I relate to as a songwriter,” Ms. Cara said.