Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), known professionally as Alessia Cara (/əˈlɛsiəˈkɑːrə/),[5] is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13. After uploading acoustic covers of songs such as "
Love Yourself" and "
Sweater Weather" online, she signed with
EP Entertainment and
Def Jam Recordings in 2014 and released her debut single, "
Here", the following year. It peaked at number 19 on the
Canadian Hot 100 chart and was a
sleeper hit in the US, peaking at number 5 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart.[6][7][8]
Alessia Cara was born on July 11, 1996, in
Mississauga, Ontario,[14] and grew up in
Brampton, where she attended
Cardinal Ambrozic Catholic Secondary School.[15] Her family is from
Calabria,
Italy; her father was born in Canada to Italian parents, and her mother is an Italian immigrant.[16][17] Cara is the second of four children.[18] She can speak Italian fluently.[19] As a child, she wrote poetry and performed in theatre.[20] She began playing guitar at the age of 10 and taught herself how to play various songs.[20] At the age of 13, she began her own YouTube channel where she posted covers of songs that she performed.[20] She saw
Justin Bieber as a career model at the time.[21]
In July 2014, Cara, accompanied by her father, went to New York,[22] where she signed a management deal with
EP Entertainment,[23][24][25][26][27][28] and began work on her debut studio album later that same year.[29][28] She briefly took the
professional name simply of Alessia before adding a clipping of her surname to become known as Alessia Cara.[30] In April 2015, Cara released her official debut single through
Def Jam.[31] Titled "
Here", it was described by
MTV as "a song for everyone who secretly hates parties."[26] Produced by
Pop & Oak and
Sebastian Kole, the song is about her personal experience with going to a party and being uncomfortable at it.[6] On May 5, 2015, the song was chosen as the "can't-miss" track by Spin,[32] as well as being listed as a "must hear song" by Cosmopolitan.[33] The song was also named one of the best Canadian songs of April by Complex[34] and included on Billboard's "20 Pop Songs You Need For Your Summer Playlist" in June 2015.[35]Rolling Stone later ranked "Here" at number 21 on its year-end list of the 50 best songs of 2015.[36] On July 29, 2015, Cara made her television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[37] "Here" then received a nomination for "Original Song" at the
Streamy Awards.[38] She released the EP Four Pink Walls, containing five songs, including her debut single. Her debut album, Know-It-All, was released on November 13, 2015.[39]
From January to April 2016, Cara embarked on her first headlining tour, the "Know-It-All Tour", performing in various US and Canadian cities.[40] She was short-listed for the BBC Music
Sound of... award for 2016 and finished as the runner-up.[41] Cara was awarded as Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the 2016
Juno Awards.[42] On March 7, 2016, Cara released a music video for "
Wild Things".[43] In April 2016, Cara was announced to be one of the supporting acts of British
alternative rock band
Coldplay in the European and North American legs of their
A Head Full of Dreams Tour, alongside British singer songwriter and
Grammy winner
Foxes.[44] On June 23, 2016, Cara was featured in a re-released version of the song "
Wild" by
Troye Sivan. The music video was released on July 22, 2016.[45] She played
Glastonbury Festival on June 24, 2016, in the John Peel tent. The music video for Cara's version of the single "
How Far I'll Go", from the
Disney film Moana, was released on November 3, 2016, and since then has received over 270 million views on YouTube.[46] The song was written by
Lin-Manuel Miranda, produced by
Oak Felder, and the video was directed by
Aya Tanimura.[47] On December 15, 2016, Cara released a music video for "Seventeen".[48]
Cara performed as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on February 4, 2017.[49] On April 18, 2017, the music video of the song "
Stay" by
Zedd featuring Cara was released. Cara was also featured on the song "
1-800-273-8255" from
Logic's Everybody album. The song was released as a single on April 28, 2017, and also features American singer-songwriter
Khalid. Cara also made an appearance in the video, which was released on August 17, 2017.[50]
On January 28, 2018, Cara was named the Best New Artist at the
2018 Grammy Awards, making her the first Canadian artist to win this award.[51] The decision to award her the Grammy was fervently condemned in some quarters, with Cara receiving hateful messages and
death threats from angry fans of rapper
SZA.[52] As a result, Cara briefly deactivated her social media accounts.[52]
On June 1, 2018, Cara released a teaser video following a week of cryptic Twitter posts.[53] On June 9, she posted lyrics to a new song on her social media accounts for fans to piece together. Once completed, she announced the single's cover and name on June 11.[54] The single, entitled "
Growing Pains", was released on June 15, 2018.[55] Its music video was released on June 20, 2018,[56] and was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 2018
MTV VMAS.
On July 10, 2018, Cara announced that she would be releasing a song she made in her basement, written and produced by her, the next day, as a small gift for her birthday. The single, titled "A Little More", was released on July 11, 2018, with the music video also released the same day.[57][58][59][60] On September 29, 2018, the
Canadian Football League announced that Cara would be the halftime performer at the
106th Grey Cup.[61] In October 2018, she collaborated with Italian singer
Eros Ramazzotti for the song "Vale per sempre", from the album Vita ce n'è.[62] On October 5, 2018, Cara released another song, entitled "
Trust My Lonely". A music video for the song was released the same day.[63][64] On November 8, 2018, a music video for the song "Babies" by
Kyle featuring Cara was released.[65] On November 13, 2018, Cara released another song, entitled "Not Today".[66] The release date coincides with the three-year anniversary of the release of her debut album. Cara's second studio album, The Pains of Growing, was released on November 30, 2018.[67] It debuted at number 1 on the US iTunes Pop Charts, in less than two hours after its release. Despite the successful position on iTunes, the album debuted at number 71 on the
Billboard 200; 62 positions lower than her debut album in 2015.[68] "
Out of Love" was eventually serviced to
contemporary hit radio as the album's third single in January 2019.[69] Cara also collaborated with
Alec Benjamin on "
Let Me Down Slowly", which was released on January 7, 2019. On February 21, Cara announced she would join
Shawn Mendes as the opening act on his
self-titled world tour for the European, United Kingdom, and United States legs.[70][71] In May, she headlined "
The Pains of Growing Tour", visiting Canadian cities in the month of May.[72]
In July 2019, Cara announced the release of an EP, This Summer, with tracks to be issued "every couple of weeks" leading up to its release on September 6, 2019.[73] She also announced that she would be adding a new leg of "
The Pains of Growing Tour", visiting various US cities in October and November.[74][75] The first single of the EP, "
Ready", was released on July 22.[76][77] The second single, "
Rooting for You", was released on August 9.[78] The third single, "OKAY OKAY", was released on August 23.[79] The fourth single, "October", was released on September 3.[80][81] The music video for "October" was released on October 1, 2019.[82]
On March 6, 2020, Cara collaborated with American singer and songwriter
Lauv for the song "Canada" on Lauv's debut album, How I'm Feeling. On April 3, 2020, Cara released "I Choose", for the 2020
Netflix animated movie The Willoughbys, where she made her debut voice-role on a film for the character "Jane Willoughby".[84]
On July 17, 2020, Cara released her first live EP, This Summer: Live Off The Floor, which features live, reimagined performances of the songs off of This Summer, as well as three bonus tracks and an intro that interpolates
Summertime by George Gershwin. All of Cara's proceeds from the EP for the next 21 years are going to
Save The Children.[85]
2021–present: In the Meantime
On July 2, 2021, Cara announced that the lead singles "Sweet Dream" and "Shapeshifter" from her third studio album would be released on July 15, 2021.[86] The announcement of this release came after five days of cryptic posts on Instagram and Twitter, each with pictures that would turn out to be related to the music videos for the singles. The music video for "
Sweet Dream" was released that same day,[87] while the music video for "
Shapeshifter" was released on July 23, 2021.[88] A riddle to help fans decode the title of the album was sent to Cara's emailing list the day before.
On August 2, 2021, it was announced that Cara would be releasing "The Use In Trying", an original song for the 2021 animated movie PAW Patrol: The Movie, on August 10, 2021.[89] On August 5, 2021, it was announced that Cara wrote and sang "Feel You Now", the theme song for Blade Runner: Black Lotus.[90]
On August 31, 2021, another clue about the album was sent to Cara's emailing list, this time an image of five clocks all pointing towards 9:24. On September 2, 2021, Cara revealed the album's cover and announced that it is titled In the Meantime and would be released on September 24, 2021.[91] On September 10, 2021, Cara collaborated with the Mexican rock band
The Warning, on a cover of "
Enter Sandman", which was released on the charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist.[92] This particular cover was famously used for the
teaser trailer of the 2022 strategy
role-playing video game Marvel's Midnight Suns.[93]: 0:10
On September 24, 2021, Cara's album In the Meantime was released alongside the music video for the song "Best Days".[94] The album was met with critical acclaim from music critics, praising Cara's introspective and vulnerable lyricism.
In 2023, she participated in an all-star recording of
Serena Ryder's single "
What I Wouldn't Do", which was released as a charity single to benefit
Kids Help Phone's Feel Out Loud campaign for youth mental health.[96]
In August 2023, Cara confirmed on an
X posting that she is working on her
fourth studio album.[13]
^Lewis, Brittany (April 28, 2015).
"Alessia "Here" (New Music)". Global Grind.
Archived from the original on September 12, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
^Nostro, Lauren (July 10, 2015).
"Alessia Cara Interview". Ca.complex.com.
Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
^Alessia Cara – Sweet Dream. AlessiaCaraVEVO. July 15, 2021.
Archived from the original on August 22, 2021. Retrieved September 4, 2021 – via YouTube.
^Alessia Cara – Shapeshifter. AlessiaCaraVEVO. July 23, 2021.
Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved September 4, 2021 – via YouTube.