Alessia Cara

Cara has dual Canadian and Italian citizenship. Her family is from Calabria, Italy; her father was born in Canada to Italian parents, while her mother is an Italian immigrant. Cara speaks Italian fluently.

Cara has said that she experiences synesthesia, keratosis pilaris and alopecia areata. She has also spoken about mental health and insomnia. She dated singer-songwriter Kevin Garrett from 2016 to 2018.

Cara wrote poetry and performed in theatre as a child. She began teaching herself guitar at age 10 and started posting acoustic song covers on YouTube at age 13. In 2014, she signed with EP Entertainment and Def Jam Recordings and began work on her debut album.

Her debut single, "Here," was released in 2015 and drew on her experience of feeling uncomfortable at a party. The song reached number five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and number 19 on the Canadian Hot 100. It appeared on the five-song EP Four Pink Walls and her debut studio album, Know-It-All, which reached number eight on the Canadian Albums Chart and number nine on the U.S. Billboard 200.

Cara followed the success of "Here" with singles including "Wild Things," "Scars to Your Beautiful" and her recording of "How Far I'll Go" from Disney's Moana. She supported Coldplay on the A Head Full of Dreams Tour, performed at Glastonbury Festival and appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 2017. She also collaborated with Zedd on "Stay" and appeared with Logic and Khalid on "1-800-273-8255."

Cara won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2018 and received the Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2016. Her second studio album, The Pains of Growing, was released in 2018 and included "Growing Pains," "Trust My Lonely" and "Out of Love." The album won Juno Awards for Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year, while Cara also won the Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year.

She released the EP This Summer in 2019 and the live album This Summer: Live Off The Floor in 2020. She wrote and performed "I Choose" for the Netflix animated film The Willoughbys, in which she voiced Jane Willoughby. She later wrote and sang "Feel You Now," the theme song for Blade Runner: Black Lotus, and contributed to the charity recording of Serena Ryder's "What I Wouldn't Do" for Kids Help Phone's youth mental health campaign.

Cara's third studio album, In the Meantime, was released in 2021 and received generally positive reviews. Her fourth studio album, Love & Hyperbole, followed on February 14, 2025. The album explores heartbreak, uncertainty and clarity through songs including "Dead Man," "(Isn't It) Obvious" and "Slow Motion."