Irene Cara Escalera

Irene Cara Escalera was born in the Bronx, New York, to a Puerto Rican father and Cuban-American mother, beginning her performing career as a child on Spanish-language television and Broadway. In 1980, director Alan Parker cast her as ambitious performing arts student Coco Hernandez in Fame. Cara sang the film's title track and "Out Here on My Own", making Academy Award history when two songs sung by the same artist from the same movie were nominated for Best Original Song in the same year.

In 1983, Cara reached the pinnacle of global pop music by co-writing the lyrics with Keith Forsey to Giorgio Moroder's music for "Flashdance... What a Feeling" for the dance drama Flashdance. The song spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, earned her the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and won two Grammy Awards. Her powerful vocal delivery inspired countless dancers and artists worldwide.