Irene Cara Owned ‘Fame’ Ballad ‘Out Here On My Own’ – ‘I Sound Like Me,’ Not Donna Summer

Irene Cara who starred in Fame and co-wrote and sang the iconic Flashdance theme song “Flashdance … What a Feeling” recalled how singing the Fame ballad “Our Here On My Own” was her breakaway moment from being compared to singer Donna Summer.

Cara died at age 63, her publicist announced on November 26. Cara acted for nearly a decade before her breakout role as Coco in the 1980 film Fame about a performing arts high school in New York City. Her role as a singer/dancer earned her a Golden Globe nomination and she eventually won an Academy Award for “What a Feeling” in Flashdance.

In a 2018 interview, Cara said her voice was constantly compared to Summer, but that the emotional ballad in Fame was an authentic moment for her.

Irene Cara recalled how ‘Out Here On My Own’ was for her and Coco in ‘Fame’

Cara sang a few iconic songs from Fame, including “Fame.” But she told Songwriter Universe that “Out Here On My Own” allowed her to break free from feeling like she sounded like Summer.

“Well, I remember when (composer/songwriter) Michael Gore first played it to me. He wrote it with his sister, the late great Lesley Gore, who was a great vocalist from the ‘60s. And I thought it related to the character of Coco, but it really had a lot to do with Irene Cara as well,” she recalled.

Irene made ‘Out Here on my Own’ her own

Cara recalled how she was constantly compared to Summer as a young singer.

“You know, I got a lot of flack at the time for sounding like Donna Summer on Fame. And I reminded people that, Yeah, but I don’t sound anything like her on ‘Out Here On My Own.’ Honestly, I made a decision as a young actress to emulate Donna,” she said.

“First of all, we shot some of the Fame scenes to her song, ‘Hot Stuff.’ So not only was I emulating Donna, but Michael Gore was emulating Giorgio Moroder, too,” Cara recalled.

“That was an actor’s choice on singing Fame, and a marketing choice that we all kind of made,” she said. “But for ‘Out Here On My Own’ and all my other music, I don’t sound anything like her…I sound like me.”

She was used to being compared to Donna Summer

“People like to compare me and Donna, and I think it’s because of the look,” she told The Washington Post in 1984. “I think a lot of the male artists on the radio today sound a lot more alike than Donna and I could ever sound. Nobody says doodly squat about the men–it’s always the women they like to rile. You have to look pretty and sing, you can’t have an opinion, you certainly can’t write and be in a position to do anything creative other than be controlled.”

Beyond their voice, Cara and Summer were both songwriters. “You have to go through major labor pains with the record companies,” she said. “‘Do you want to write your own songs or do you want to have a hit song?’ That’s their favorite argument. Thank God most of the songs I’ve written so far have been hits. Not all of them will be, but hey, not all the men out there who write come up with all winners.”