Vikki Carr

A giant of Latin music, singer Vikki Carr was born Florencia Bisenta de Casillas-Martinez Cardona in El Paso, Texas on July 19, 1941. She launched her recording career in 1962 scoring a top 5 hit in Australia with “He’s a Rebel”, a song Phil Spector would take to number 1 in America as a producer for the girl group The Crystals. The title track of her 1966 album It Must Be Him, earned her a top 5 hit in the U.S. Follow-up hits like “The Lesson” and “With Pen in Hand” made her one of her generation’s most admired singers in the business. She regularly appeared on, and even guest-hosted The Tonight Show repeatedly throughout the 1970s, although her music career began to fizzle during the decade. All that changed with 1980’s Vikki Carr el Amor, a Spanish language album that made her one of the biggest stars in Latin music. She continued to pursue this new direction and with 1985’s Simplemente Mujer she scored a top 20 Latin pop album. She had a run of hit U.S. Latin singles in the late 80s and early 90s including top 10 placements for 1987’s “Dos Corazones” and 1988’s “Mala Suerte”. She topped the U.S. Latin charts with the title track of her 1991 album Cosas del Amor. In 2002 she earned strong reviews for her work in a Los Angeles production of Follies, and hosted the TV program Fiesta Mexicana, a documentary that showcased various styles of Mexican dance and music. That same year she was bestowed a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Recording Academy. After a mass shooting at an El Paso store in 2019, Vikki Carr starred in a fundraising event for the victims and their families.