Music / Alessia Cara

And I know you mean only the best
And your intentions aren't to bother me
But honestly I'd rather be
Somewhere with my people, we can kick it and just listen
To some music with a message, like we usually do
And we'll discuss our big dreams
How we plan to take over the planet
So pardon my manners, I hope you'll understand
That I'll be here

— "Here"

Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), better known as Alessia Cara, is a Canadian singer-songwriter.

At the age of 13, she started a YouTube channel where she posted covers of songs. The record label EP Entertainment reached out to her from her videos, and she signed a management deal with them in 2014. The following year, she released her debut single "Here". The song, from the perspective of someone at a party who secretly hates being there (based on a real-life experience where she attended a disastrous house party) became a Sleeper Hit in the US, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and has been dubbed a wallflower anthem.

Alessia released her debut EP, Four Pink Walls, in August 2015 several months after "Here", with her debut album, Know-It-All, releasing in November of that year. The album generated another hit single, "Scars to Your Beautiful", which peaked at #8 on the Hot 100. In 2016, she was tapped to sing the credits version of “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana.

Her second album, The Pains of Growing, was released in 2018; her third, In the Meantime, was released in 2021. In 2023, she confirmed via Twitter that she is working on her fourth album.

Alessia has been involved in notable collaborations, namely working with Zedd on the single "Stay" and featuring alongside Khalid on Logic's song "1-800-273-8255", both in 2017.

In 2020, she made her acting debut as Jane in the Netflix animated film The Willoughbys; she also sings the movie’s theme “I Choose”.

Alessia has been nominated for six Grammy Awards (including two Latin Grammys), winning for Best New Artist in 2018. This made her the first Canadian ever to win in that category.

Discography

• Four Pink Walls (EP) (2015)
• Know-It-All (2015)
• The Pains of Growing (2018)
• This Summer (EP) (2019)
• This Summer: Live Off The Floor (EP) (2020)
• In the Meantime (2021)

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I ask myself, what am I troping here?

• All Women Love Shoes: She loves wearing sneakers, even with outfits you'd not expect someone to wear sneakers with (such as dresses◊ and suits◊). She mentions the shoes in her song "Find My Boy":
  Always on the run in my same old sneakers; I'm talking to you so turn up your speakers.
• Alone in a Crowd: Inverted. In the "Here" music video, she's moving through a house party while everybody else is frozen in time.
• Be Yourself: The primary concept of "Scars to Your Beautiful".
  • And of "Wild Things" too.
• Bilingual Bonus: Can speak English and Italian and has even recorded some music in Italian; Italian was her first language, she learned and spoke that before she learned English.
• Bittersweet 17: "Seventeen":
  I wish I could freeze time at seventeen.
• Celebrity Resemblance: A kind of inverted version of this, many people mistakenly think she plays the role of Moana in the titular film, as she sings the theme song to the film and resembles the character thanks to her curly hair:
  Technically I was not. I did the end credits song. But a lot of people, especially kids, when I meet them, they think that I played Moana, which is a very rough conversation I have to have and be like, well, it wasn't me, but thank you. I think the hair makes people think that I played Moana, but I did not. It was played by Auli'l Cravalho who's amazing. I just sang the song.
• Daddy's Girl: The opening line from the first song on her debut album opens is an ode to her father. When she went to New York in July 2014 to sign with her record label, her dad accompanied her and was with her at interviews, and sometimes even at her concerts.
  • The first song off her second album also opens with a cameo'd line from her father: "You're on your own, kid."
  • In "Clockwork", she says: "I'm like my father, I am stubborn."
• Genre Shift: Her first album was very urban/R&B, whereas her second album and later releases have been trended towards a more general pop, folk, electronic, pop-rockish sound.
• Never Bareheaded: Likes to wear hats of all sorts. Notably, early in her career, she'd often be seen wearing a beanie; her band's logo is a drawing of her wearing her "beanie low" as referenced in her song "Here":
  So tell my people when they're ready that I'm ready and I'm standing by the TV with my beanie low.
• Outlaw Couple: "Outlaws", in which she dreams of finding a (life) partner-in-crime.
• Sampling: "Here" samples "Ike's Rap II" by Isaac Hayes.
  • "Bluebird" samples a Chinese cover of the song "I Wish You Love".
• Shrinking Violet: Her most successful single is about someone who hates parties.
• Sidekick: Her "bestie" Olivia "Liv" Aita, who has featured in countless video blogs, one of her music videos, a song, and even tours with her on stage.
• You Are Worth Hell: "Outlaws" has a variation: the narrator promises that her partner in crime will never face a judge alone. The whole song is more of a metaphor for a forbidden relationship though:
  You'll never face a judge without me
  You'll never battle the gavel alone
  And if they lock us away
  Then I'll be still here
  Proudly waiting to kill more time, with you

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