Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Irene Cara

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: 

Irene Cara

In my own personal big gay church there is a wing dedicated to those who belong to the Rhythm Nation. These divas got us to think, encouraged us to love and respect ourselves, made us feel sexy as hell and... most importantly, got us to dance! These divas has been bringing the magic to dance floors for decades and to this day manages to get our feet moving to the beat.

One such dancefloor diva?

Irene Cara.

She burst on the scene as Sparkle in the motion picture inspired by the story of the Supremes, and a big future influence on Broadway's Dreamgirls.

She next dazzled us with her singing, dancing and acting in the motion picture that started a hugely successful, influential franchise, Fame. I mean, where would High School Musical be without it? She is responsible, not only for singing the iconic theme song, but also the beautiful, heartfelt ballad Out Here On My Own.

Next up? How about singing and co-writing an Oscar-winning theme song which took the world by storm? Flashdance wasn't just merely a moment in pop history, it was a phenomenon, a movement; influencing fashion and our very lifestyles.

She'd go on to enjoy many other moments in the limelight. Then, enduring a protracted battle with her record company while trying to maintain her high profile took its toll and she retreated from the public. 

Her current passion is for her all-female band, Hot Carmel. 

The one light that has shone through these many years? Her magnificent voice; an instrument of power, energy and drive bringing joy to the world over. 

The gospel according to her?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips.

The topic? Living Your Parent's Dream

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"I come from a pretty musical background. My father was a musician—he was a saxophone player and he moved to the States in the ‘50s. His mambo band had a #1 hit on the Latin chart, and they had a lot to do with pioneering the great salsa/Latin music here and around the world. And my mom was from Florida, and she was living in New York at the time she met my father. Growing up in New York, I was the youngest of three kids. My older brother and sister both showed an interest in music. My brother was an opera singer, and my sister played piano. But they were 10 and 12 years older than me; they moved out of the house when I was so young. So I really was raised like an only child. When I was little, my mom thought that I had an interest in music—I could play music by ear when I was five or six years-old, and play it well."

"My parents wanted to inspire me to continue in the arts, so I began with lessons very early on. And I started working; singing and dancing with my father’s band in nightclubs by the time I was seven years old. I even did my first few albums as a child. By the time I was nine, I had an album out in Spanish and another one with the Harlem Children’s Choir where we sang Christmas carols."

"My studies got more elaborate, and I started taking up dance classes and acting classes. I broke into my first professional job with The Electric Company, with none other than Bill Cosby, Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno. You know, I was nine years-old, and that was my first professional American gig. I was in the original Electric Company back in the 70's - Morgan Freeman was very young and very skinny, and Bill Cosby used to walk around with a derby hat and a cute moustache."

"From there, I went on to do other music theatre…I did Broadway shows and off-Broadway shows. In fact, one of the Broadway shows I was in was Maggie Flynn with the late David Cassidy’s mother Shirley Jones and her husband, Jack Cassidy. And I got to meet David when he was seventeen.. A lot of kids from Maggie Flynn went on to become stars like Giancarlo Esposito and Stephanie Mills. It was quite an ensemble of children."

"I did some television movies as a child, and by the time Sparkle came around, I was still living in New York. Fortunately for me, they auditioned a lot of kids, a lot of young girls. They came to New York to look for the lead role, and I was still in school when I got the role. It was my first Hollywood movie…it was quite an event. I was a very frightened, insecure kind of adolescent (laughs), and I had to have four hours of school each day before they could film me. And my mother had to be on the set at all times."

"Well, I had several movies in-between…big television films. I starred in a very dramatic movie of the week with Diahann Carroll called Sister, Sister. Then I was in the miniseries Roots: The Next Generation which was part two of the Roots miniseries. I played Alex Haley’s mother as a teenager. So I was still very visible way before Fame came in the early 80's."

"Between Sparkle and Fame, besides acting, I was very active as a background singer. I was in the studio singing background for Vicki Sue Robinson, Lou Reed and Evelyn 'Champagne' King. I sang with the singers in Chic, and I met Luther Vandross and worked with him. All of my friends were mainly musicians, not actors. So I was getting quite an education as to what it takes to become a recording artist."

"By the time Fame came around, I was asked to play Coco as a singer and dancer. So they cast me to play Coco, and also to sing the main theme song for the film. The movie was shot about six blocks from my apartment. So working on the movie felt very much like home."

"I did a movie with Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, a period piece called City Heat. It’s about these two adversarial friends during Prohibition; they were at each other’s throats. That movie was a lot of fun, because I also got to write the theme song for the movie, and the legendary jazz singer Bill Henderson ended up singing it."

"The director (of Flashdance), Adrian Lyne, sent for me; I was living in Los Angeles at the time. I was engaged, and I had moved out of New York to Los Angeles. Adrian showed me the last sequence of the movie, the dance sequence, where there was nothing but music. And I said, 'Well you know, I’m not in this movie. I’ll agree to sing the theme song if I also write it.' And they agreed to that, and the rest is history. I went back to Giorgio’s studio and wrote it with him and Keith (Forsey) in like four hours, maybe less."

"You know, it was bittersweet. Unfortunately, I was going through a lot of hassles with my record company. They were suing me. So on the outside, I was putting on a face of being on top of the world and being a success, and on the inside I was trying to figure out how to sue my label. So it was hard…I put up that everything was fine when everything was falling apart."

"So now, this is the stage where I consider the beginning of my adult career. It really embodies who I truly am as an artist. I’ve been a working artist since childhood, and this is the first time where I’m now free to express myself as an adult artist the way I see myself … not fulfilling someone else’s vision of what that is.".

"I think this new phase is really the most important thing to me now. I mean, I don’t like to look backwards. I like to live in the present and look forward – to look toward the future."

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Fame - Irene Cara

Flashdance (What A Feeling) - Irene Cara

Breakdance - Irene Cara

And one last parting shot...

"I appreciate that it’s been a blessing to me. I’m very grateful for all the blessings that I’ve had. You know, both of my parents are gone now. My mom died five years ago when she was 86, and my father died when he was 77. And I lost both of my older brothers. My brother on my father’s side recently passed away…he was a wonderful jazz musician as well as a great professor of music in New York. And I lost my mother’s son, my opera singer brother, about a year after she died. So I’m just happy that I was able to fulfill their dreams for me before they passed away. Because like I said, when you’re five or six years old, you don’t choose a career. I wasn’t a child who decided, 'I want to be in showbiz.' This was something that was laid out for me by my parents. This was their dream for me, and I fulfilled it. So I’m happy about that."