Alessia Cara

Alessia Caracciolo was born on 11 July 1996 in Brampton, Toronto, Canada. At the beginning of her career, she shortened her last name to “Cara” so as to make it easy to pronounce. Her father is of Italian descent but born in Canada. Her mother is an Italian immigrant. She has three siblings and was raised in a strict conservative manner. She finished her schooling from Cardinal Ambrozic Catholic Secondary School. Artistically inclined from a young age, she wrote poetry and acted on stage when she was a child. She loved singing and also self-taught herself to play the guitar. At the age of 13 she opened her personal YouTube channel and uploaded her cover songs. Her channel quickly gained popularity and drew attention from lots of music lovers which eventually led to her signing a contract with EP entertainment.

Being an introvert, she hates parties and social media sites. Nothing is known about her love life. She adores her parents and follows their advice on important matters as this helps her remain grounded and humble despite becoming a musical star at such a young age. Besides singing, she has a skill in mimicking. She strongly vouched for the anti-make up movement for women in Hollywood while chatting with ‘Best Health Magazine’ during Duracell’s 10th Annual program in Toronto for young patients.

Years ago, Alessia Cara was just another normal little girl who liked teddy bears and had fights with her siblings. But unlike most other normal girls, she also had an undying passion for music. In her early teens she used to post her acoustic songs to her YouTube channel. She then started performing on various Radio Stations including on ‘15 seconds of Fame’ in 104.1 FM of WBMX Boston. EP Entertainment noticed her in the fall of 2014 through her YouTube music posts. They signed her with distribution rights to Def Jam Recordings.

In April 2015, she released her first official solo ‘Here’ through Def Jam. The theme of the song was regarding her personal experience of feeling lonely and unwanted in a party. It was instantly recognized by top music professionals. It hit the Top Five in America and Top Twenty in Canada. It also became one of the most viral video songs in US. Alessia Cara’s singing style was getting compared to Amy Winehouse’s and soon the young singer became a sensation. MTV labeled ‘Here’ as a song for everyone who hates parties. Her cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘Bad Blood,’ released in July 2015, also proved to be a huge hit.

In November 2015, Cara released her first official Album ‘Know-It-All.’ The album was a big commercial hit and the Recording Industry Association of America awarded the album Gold accreditation in May 2016. Her 2016 music video release ‘Wild Things’ was nominated for the best Pop video by MTV Video Music Awards. Some of her other noteworthy songs are ‘Seventeen,’ ‘Outlaws,’ ‘I’m Yours,’ ‘Four Pink Walls,’ ‘River of Tears,’ ‘Scars to Your Beautiful,’ ‘Stone,’ ‘Overdose,’ and ‘Stars.’

Alessia Cara has won several awards in her career so far. These include Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2015, Much Music Video Award for Best New Canadian Artist and Canadian Radio Music Award for Best New Group or Solo Artist: CHR in 2016.