Mara Conchita Alonso

Vocation

Cuban-born, Venezuelan-raised singer/songwriter and actress. She had her first experience in show business when she was crowned World Teen Princess in 1971, and was Miss World/Venezuela in 1975 where she became sixth runner-up in the Miss World pageant won by Puerto Rico's Wilnelia Merced; she quickly became a top model and a popular singer/actress in Venezuela. Alonso's first gold album and number one song in the charts was "Love Maniac" in 1979, her name as a singer back then was A'mbar, after that followed her second number 1 with "The Witch" and soon after "Dangerous Rhythm". In what is generally considered to be her best known song, she was asked by Giorgio Moroder to write the lyrics in Spanish and sing "Vamos a Bailar" which he had written to be part of the soundtrack for the film Scarface. She made her Hollywood film debut in 1984 in Moscow on the Hudson with Robin Williams, and also starred in movies like Extreme Prejudice, The Running Man, Predator 2, Touch and Go, The House of the Spirits, Vampire's Kiss and Colors. She was one of the few Latin-born actresses to star in a Broadway show in 1995, playing Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman. She later acted in romantic comedies like Chasing Papi (2003) and The Last Guy on Earth (2006). Link to Wikipedia biography