IRENE CARA: A Blast from the Past

By Karu F. Daniels, AOL Black Voices

(l-r) Irene Cara then and now. Wonder what's going on with Irene Cara?

The Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy winning singer/actress is back in the music/movie business.

For the new film 'Downtown,' the 48-year-old 'Sparkle' star did a remake of Petula Clark's 1960s classic of the same name.

"I thought it was a great idea so I decided to do it and revamp the whole song," she recently told 'MTV Radio Networks' about the hip-hop centric rendition, which closes the film. "I produced it and updated it and kept the vibe of the music for the rest of the movie in the production of our version of the song."

Officially titled 'Downtown - A Street Tale,' the movie revolves around a diverse group of street kids living in a New York City ghetto Forgotten by society, they live far from the dreams and aspirations of the rest of the world They survive by eating out of dumpsters and turning tricks to make it through a bleak winter with little hope of ever making it out of the abandoned building they call "home."

Directed by Rafal Zielinski, the film will premiere in NYC on April 17 at the Apollo and then in theaters April 20. According to a spokesperson, the Los Angeles premiere is slated for April 23, preceding a nationwide roll-out throughout late April and early May.

Cara, a New York City native, was the cream of the crop in the early 1980s, with a sting of music driven movie projects such as 'Sparkle,' 'Fame' and 'Flashdance' under her belt.

Today, the two-time Grammy Award winner is focusing her time and energy on hernew girl group, Hot Caramel.

"My focus right now is this record that I've been working on," she shared. "This CD project with my band, I've been developing this myself. We're a group of women who are musicians as well as singers and songwriters and producers. Very substantive women in music. This is not what a lot of people like to call a band these days."

She hopes to have a debut music effort from the group out sometime this year.