

Cara attended the Professional Children's School in Manhattan. She also appeared in a major concert tribute to Duke Ellington, which featured Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr., and Roberta Flack. As a child, Cara recorded a Spanish-language record for the Latin market and an English-language Christmas album. In 1971–1972, she was a regular on PBS's educational program The Electric Company as a member of the Short Circus, the show's band. She made early TV appearances on The Original Amateur Hour (singing in Spanish) and Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. Her performing career started with her singing and dancing professionally on Spanish-language television. She began to play the piano by ear, studied music, acting, and dance seriously, and began taking dance lessons when she was five. Her father, Gaspar Cara, a steel factory worker and retired saxophonist, was Puerto Rican, and her mother, Louise Escalera, a movie theater usher, was Cuban. Irene Cara Escalera was born on Maand raised in the Bronx, New York City, the youngest of five children. Before her success with Fame, Cara portrayed the title character Sparkle Williams in the original 1976 musical drama film Sparkle. 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. In 1983, Cara co-wrote and sang the song " Flashdance. Irene Cara Escalera (Ma – November 25, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, 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.
