American singer-songwriter, dancer and actress Irene Cara Escalera was born on 18th March 1959 in the Bronx, New York and passed away on 25th November 2022. She was divorced and had no children.
At the age of 5, she started taking dancing, acting and music lessons. This led her to commence her career by appearing in various TV and theatrical shows singing and dancing as well as regularly participating in an educational programme way back in the 70s.
The movie ‘Fame’, released in 1980, was a huge success for Irene. She had originally been chosen to perform as a dancer, however, when the producers heard her voice, they decided otherwise and as a matter of fact, she ended up singing both songs found in the movie i.e: ‘Fame’ and ‘Out here on my Own’. ‘Fame’ peaked to No 1 in several hit parades worldwide.
Irene did appear in a few more movies in the following years, however, it was in 1983 that she reached the top in her career with the song ‘Flashdance…what a Feeling’, which was written for the movie ‘Flashdance’. This was also a number one hit in several countries. Additionally, Irene was honoured with various awards for this song.
Over the years until her demise, Cara continued her career as singer and actress. In 1999, she formed a band ‘Hot Caramel’ with whom an album was released in 2011. As a solo artist, she had 4 albums, 13 singles, 17 soundtrack appearances, collaborated with 5 other artists as vocalist on their albums and performed in 9 musicals. Also, Irene acted in 11 TV programmes, starred in 13 movies and voiced 5 animated film characters. During her career, Cara won 8 awards, including 2 Grammy, a Golden Globe and an Academy.
Irene passed away on 25th November 2022 due to arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease at the age of 63.
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