Irene Cara

A performer since she was 8 years old, Irene Cara (1959-2022) started out on the kids' TV show Electric Company and then performed in several Broadway and off-Broadway musicals. Her career peaked in the early 1980s, when she co-starred in Fame and sang the theme song. Later she would co-write and sing “Flashdance… What a Feeling,” for which she won the Oscar for Best Original Song and the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.