Irene Cara: Fame singer and actress dies aged 63



The American singer and actress was best known for her title track in the 1980 film Fame, as well as co-writing and singing the smash hit Flashdance... What a Feeling, for which she won an Oscar and a Grammy.

She later starred in films opposite Clint Eastwood and Tatum O'Neal.

Cara's publicist, who announced her death, said she died at home in Florida but the cause is "currently unknown".

Born in 1959 in the Bronx, New York City, Cara was the youngest of five children and started her career on Spanish-language TV. Her father was Puerto Rican and her mother, Cuban-American.

Having recorded music as a child, both in Spanish and English, she went on to appear in a number of on-and-off Broadway musicals.

But it was in 1980 that Cara shot to fame when she bagged the role of Coco Hernandez - and sung Fame's title track.

Her performance earned her a Best Actress nomination at the 1981 Golden Globe Awards.

Cara later co-wrote and sang the vocals for Flashdance… What A Feeling, from the 1983 blockbuster Flashdance, and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance as well as an Academy Award for Best Original Song.


Cara with her Oscar for Best Original Song in 1984

Flashdance went on to become the third-highest-grossing film of 1983.

Judith A Moose, Cara's publicist, praised her as a "beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live forever through her music and films".

She also said Cara had been working on forthcoming projects when she died, which she and the singer's manager now plan to finish.

"She'd want that," Ms Moose said of her client via her official Twitter page.

naptu2:
Right, now for an epic song and a very significant cultural event.

naptu2:
How and when did Project Fame begin?

In my eyes, Project Fame began with. . . Irene Cara in 1980.

I'm gonna live forever!
I'm gonna learn how to fly (High)!
I feel it coming together.
People will see me and cry (Fame)!
I'm gonna make it to heaven!
Light up the sky like a flame(Fame)!
I'm gonna live forever!
Baby, remember my name!
(Remember, remember, remember,
remember)

Every Saturday morning on LTV (later moved to 7:30pm on weekdays).

Do you also remember

What a feeling!

?

And that's how Project Fame started.

naptu2:
I haven't been able to stop humming this song since I posted it here yesterday. Maybe this will help. From.

Fame (The movie) - 1980
Fame (The song) - 1980
Fame (The tv series) - 1982-1987 (1983-1990 on Lagos Television).

Let's join Leroy, Coco (Irene Cara), Cleo (Janet Jackson) all the students and their teachers, Lydia the dance teacher (Debbie Allen [Good Times, Roots, Cosby Show, Different World, etc), Mr Shorofsky the music teacher, etc at the New York High School For The Performing Arts.

Opening theme of Fame (the tv series).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2COKt6DqSaQ


Irene Cara - Fame (the song).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2jh7N7Fldk

naptu2:
From the movie Flashdance

Irene Cara - What A Feeling! (1983)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILWSp0m9G2U

naptu2:

eddyosagie:
Is it my eyes or she looks like tboss

seanwilliam:
Rip.. I don’t know her

naptu2:
...

naptu2:
Janet Jackson told CNN's Anderson Cooper that she didn't enjoy acting in Fame. She said that she was going through a lot of problems in her life when she acted in the show. She had gotten married to James DeBarge (El DeBarge's brother) at the age of 18 and nobody knew about it. Her husband was also using drugs at the time. She said that her co-stars on the show were nice, but that they were always teasing her. Sometimes she would come down for breakfast and her breakfast would be gone and sometimes they would smoke Indian Hemp outside her window and it would give her headaches.


The first video is of one of her performances on the show. It was a duet.


Did you watch Cadbury's Breakfast Television in the 1990s and 2000s? Do you remember a sitcom in which LL Cool J rented out part of his house to a woman who had two kids? Well, the person that played the part of the woman was Debbie Allen. Debbie Allen started out as a famous dancer, choreographer, singer and actress. She later became a very successful TV producer and she produced most of the episodes of A Different World. She has also acted in Grey's Anatomy and an uncountable number of other TV Shows.

Debbie Allen was the dance teacher at the school (she also choreographed most of the dance routines on the show) and the second video is of a dance lesson. One of the students got injured and Leroy suggested that Janet Jackson should take her place.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDUs5l6CIXY


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgWHe9DrlCA