This time Cara was one of the songwriters, along with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey, and shared in the triumph when it won the Oscar for best original song.
The film was the story of an ambitious dancer trying to win a place at an elite dance conservatory, and Cara wanted the lyric to show how the character is “in control of her body when she dances and how she can be in control of her life”.
Cara protested that the label had failed to promote the album.
In the 2000s, Cara, who had homes in Largo, Florida and Santa Fe, New Mexico, opted for semi-retirement, though she mentored the all-female group Hot Caramel and released the album Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel in 2011. Irene Cara Escalera, actor, singer and songwriter, born 18 March 1959; died 25 November 2022