File:Irene_Cara_(1987_Elektra_publicity_photo)_(cropped).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Irene Cara
Sign in to saveAmerican singer and actress (1959–2022)
OverviewAI-generated
Irene Cara Escalera (1959–2022) was an American singer, pianist, and stage and television actor. Born in The Bronx, New York City, she began her professional work in 1968 and was educated at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. Her musical career spanned genres including pop, contemporary R&B, disco, and folk, with releases on labels such as Casablanca Records, Epic Records, RSO Records, and Elektra. She is noted for her role in the 1980 film *Fame*.
Cara received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album. She was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. She was married to Conrad Palmisano and spoke English and Spanish.
Synthesized by Vinony from 39 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Crossref, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 1
Top works
- Fame (1980)
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Acting · The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959 - November 25, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and actress. Cara sang and co-wrote the song Flashdance... What a Feeling from the film Flashdance. She won an Oscar for Best Original Song as a co writer. Cara rose to fame as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 film Fame, and the hit song "Fame" spawned from the movie.
Known for
- Bring Back... Fame — Self2008
- Gone Country — Self2008
- Disco Explosion - Flash Back — Self2007
- Get Down Tonight: The Disco Explosion - Vol. 1 — Self2006
- Hit Me, Baby, One More Time — Self2005
- Die ultimative Chartshow — Self2003
- Where Are They Now? — Self1999
- Happily Ever After — Snow White (voice)1989
- Caged in Paradiso — Eva1989
- Busted Up — Simone1986
via TMDB
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Female
- Origin
- United States
- Active from
- 1959
- Active to
- 2022
Discography
- Esta es Irene1968
- Fame1980
- Anyone Can See1982
- Breakdance1983
- Flashdance… What a Feeling1983
- Flashdance...What A Feeling1983
- What a Feelin’1983
- What a Feeling1983
- Why Me?1983
- The Dream1984
Member of
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 886,424
- Total plays
- 5,806,649
Tags
Irene Cara (born on March 18, 1959 in New York City, NY, died November 26, 2022 in Largo, FL) was an American singer, Academy Award-winning songwriter and actress of African, Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. 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. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/I
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Superior Thermal Conductivity of Single-Layer Graphene
· 2008 · cited 12,867x
- NCBI GEO: archive for functional genomics data sets—update
· 2012 · cited 8,424x
- The Astropy Project: Building an Open-science Project and Status of the v2.0 Core Package<sup>*</sup>
· 2018 · cited 7,196x
- MDS clinical diagnostic criteria for Parkinson's disease
· 2015 · cited 7,018x
- 2021 ESC Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice
· 2021 · cited 5,868x
via Crossref · CC0
Key facts
- Born
- Irene Cara Escalera , ( 1959-03-18 ) March 18, 1959, New York City, U.S.
- Died
- November 25, 2022 (2022-11-25) (aged 63), Largo, Florida , U.S.
- Occupations
- Singer actress
- Years active
- 1967–2011
- Known for
- Sparkle Williams – Sparkle Coco Hernandez – Fame
- Spouse
- Conrad Palmisano ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1986 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1991 )
- Genres
- R&B pop disco
- Instruments
- Vocals
- Labels
- RSO Network Epic Geffen Elektra
- Website
- irenecara .com
via Wikipedia infobox
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959 – November 25, 2022) was an American singer and actress who rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film Fame, and for recording the film's title song "Fame", which reached No. 1 in several countries. In 1983, Cara co-wrote and sang the song "Flashdance... What a Feeling" (from the film Flashdance), for which she shared an Academy Award for Best Original Song and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1984.
Before her success with Fame, Cara portrayed the title character Sparkle Williams in the original 1976 musical drama film Sparkle. Cara died as a result of hypertensive heart disease after hypercholesterolemia at age 63.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Irene Cara” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.