This hit is 40 years old, but still not a day goes by without this voice on the radio: Whoever hears “What a Feeling” has 80s discos in mind – and a dancer on a chair who is on stage a bucket of water splashes on her and then throws her wet hair around in the bright backlight.
The scene is from the 1983 film Flashdance, a surprise hit about a welder played by Jennifer Beals who dreams of becoming a dancer. The exuberant singing of the title track comes from the American Irene Cara, who had to fight just as hard for her success in real life. She has now died at the age of 63 for reasons that have not yet been confirmed.
Cara was born in the Bronx in New York in 1959 and appeared on Spanish and US television as a girl, including with her father’s mambo band. Encouraged by her parents, she had her first minor successes as an actress at a young age with “Sparkle – Der Weg zum Star” and in the second season of the slavery mini-series “Roots”. In 1980, the leading role of Coco Hernandez in the theater drama “Fame” and its Oscar-winning title song finally helped her to her big breakthrough. A sitcom pilot followed in the USA in 1981, which was not developed into a series after bad reviews.
Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy Awards
Two years later, however, came the next world success. For the hit “What a Feeling”, which she co-wrote with Italo-Disco producer Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey, Cara won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocalist, as well as another Grammy for her contribution on the soundtrack. The song also became a big hit thanks to the famous clip with film excerpts on the then nascent music television and topped the US charts for six weeks. In Germany, too, the song was able to hold its own in the hit list for more than half a year. The Gesellschaft für Verbraucherforschung put it in seventh place in the German annual charts for 1983.
Apart from her two world hits, Cara did not have any major successes, also because she was considered difficult because of a legal dispute with the US record company about the income from the song. “I had two of the biggest hits of the decade and I didn’t see a dime of it,” Cara told Songwriter Universe in 2018. “So I sued and it took eight years and cost me a fortune as an artist because no other label would sign me.”
Nevertheless, she is grateful for her career. “I’m happy I was able to fulfill my parents’ dreams before they died,” Cara said. “I wasn’t a kid who decided I wanted to be in show business. It was something my parents decided for me. It was their dream for me and I made it come true. I’m happy about that.”
Cara died at her home in Florida, spokeswoman Judith Moose said in a statement released on the artist’s website on Friday evening (local time). Moose also confirmed the death to the German Press Agency. She wrote on Twitter that an autopsy should be used to find out the cause of death, and the family is currently asking for privacy. Moose called Cara a “wonderfully blessed soul whose legacy will forever live on in her music and films”.
