The Canadian singer and songwriter Alessia Cara was born in Ontario. Alessia grew up in the Brampton area, where she began writing lyrics and playing guitar when she was still in elementary school. By the time she was a young teenager, she had started performing covers of popular songs and posting videos of her performances to YouTube.
In 2015, Cara signed a recording deal with EP Entertainment and released her debut single. The song, “Here,” was an international hit, rising into the top twenty in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, and reaching into the top ten in the United States. A live performance of the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the summer followed, further boosting Alessia’s popularity in the United States and leading to a successful full-length album debut.
Alessia Cara’s major label album debut, Know It All, arrived in late 2015, and was just as successful as Alessia’s debut single. The album earned Cara a Breakthrough Artist of the Year Juno Award and significant worldwide commercial success. Additional singles include the song “Wild Things,” “Stay,” and the smash hit “Scars to Your Beautiful,” which to date is her most successful single. In addition to her Juno win, Cara also earned award nominations from the Kids’ Choice Award, MTV Music Awards, American Music Awards, and People’s Choice Awards.
In 2016, Alessia went on the road as the opening act for Coldplay’s European and North American tours, and later that year Cara’s single “How Far I’ll Go” was featured in the Disney film Moana. Alessia Cara is definitely a star on the rise and one to watch in the coming years.