Biographie

Wrote the lyrics to "Flashdance..What a Feeling" with co-writer Keith Forsey while riding in a car in New York heading to the studio to record it. The music for Flashdance was written by Giorgio Moroder and the after result was not only a #1 record, it also won them an Oscar and a Grammy.

On June 22, 2004, two of her movie theme songs, "Flashdance...What a Feeling" (#55) from Flashdance (1983) and "Fame" (#51) from Fame (1980), were selected by the board of the American Film Institute in its list of 100 Years of the Greatest Songs.

Her father Gaspar is of Afro-Latino of Puerto Rican descent, while her mother Louise is of French and Cuban ancestry.

She was the first artist to perform two nominated songs at the Academy Awards, when in 1981, for the first time, two songs from one film (Fame (1980)) were nominated for Best Original Song: "Fame" and 'Out here on My Own." The former won.

Won a bitter lawsuit with her managers over money and career issues in the 1990s.

I don't mean to sound immodest, but I'd never had any doubt that I'd be successful, nor any fear of success. I was raised as a little goddess who was told she would be a star. - Cosmo Magazine 1985

I love taxis. Cabbies are the best therapists, good listeners, good talkers, working-class people i hope never to lose contact with.

"I didn't get where I am because of looks. "I've done it on talent! I've never had to depend on my looks for anything. I haven't sat around and tried to look pretty. - I've worked my butt off!" - (Ebony Magazine July 1981)

"I knew people would be saying mean things about me copying Donna Summer and trying to follow in her footsteps by using her producer. But by the time Flashdance had come out I had established my own identity. I wasn't worried about people saying I was just a Donna copy." - (TV Week Magazine May 12, 1984)

"I refuse to let anybody try to typecast me. "It's against my nature. I like to continually do different things." - (Video Rock Stars 1985)