Irene Cara – Flashdance (What a Feeling)

“Flashdance…What a Feeling” – Single by Irene Cara from the album What a Feelin’ and Flashdance: Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture, released in March 1983.

Charted: No.2 in UK and No.1 in US

This was the title song to the movie Flashdance, one of the first films not fitting into the “musical” category that was centered around the songs. As more people started watching MTV, it became easier and more acceptable to integrate pop songs into films, which led to movies like Footloose and Dirty Dancing.
Irene Cara wrote the lyrics with the songwriter Keith Forsey; Giorgio Moroder composed the music and produced the track. Moroder and Forsey wrote many songs that became hits when they were used in ’80s movies: Moroder wrote “Danger Zone” and “Take My Breath Away” for Top Gun, while Forsey wrote “Shakedown” for Beverly Hills Cop II and “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” for The Breakfast Club.

The movie Flashdance was released on April 15, 1983. On May 28, this song hit #1 US, where it stayed for six weeks. On June 25, the soundtrack when to #1 and stayed for two weeks, interrupting the run of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which had been at the top spot for 17 weeks and would return for another 20 (eventually knocked off by the Footloose soundtrack).

On September 10, another song from Flashdance, Michael Sembello’s “Maniac,” also went to #1 US.

Irene Cara won the 1983 Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, for her work on this song. She and her co-writers also were awarded the Oscar for Best Original Song, beating out two songs from Yentl, one from Tender Mercies, and another Flashdance tune: “Maniac.”

The video featured the dance sequence to Flashdance, which was the primary driver of the leg warmers trend of the ’80s.

The dance scenes in the video (and the movie), were performed by body double Marine Jahan. It was a well kept secret that Jennifer Beals did not dance in the film.

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