The four-time Grammy winner performed for Queen Elizabeth and five U.S. presidents.
National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Vikki Carr performs in the East Room of the White House in 1974 during the entertainment portion of a state dinner honoring Chancellor Bruno Kreisky of Austria.
Florencia Bicenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona, or Vikki Carr, was born in El Paso in 1940 and grew up in the Los Angeles area.
After she graduated high school, she sang with a Mexican-Irish band, singing in English and Spanish. The band leader suggested she change to something shorter, so she became Carlita.
In 1961, she signed with Liberty records and changed her stage name to Vikki Carr. Under Liberty records, Carr released her first two hit songs “He’s a Rebel” and “It Must Be Him.”
Vikki Carr in 1968.
Wikimedia Commons
The songs weren’t chart makers in the U.S., but they were international hits. “He’s a Rebel” charted in Australia, and “It Must Be Him” was a Top 3 hit in England.
Carr became known internationally. Her country song “With Pen in Hand,” released in 1969, established her as a powerful interpreter.
She toured across the world with sold-out shows in Europe, Japan and Australia. By the start of the 1970s, Carr returned to the states and signed with Columbia Records.
With her new contract, Carr released her first Spanish album, “Vikki Carr, En Español.” It was a commercial success, and her fans asked her to release more Spanish music.
“And I would ask them, ‘It’s not gonna to bother you, you’re not gonna know what the heck I’m singing about?'” she told the “America’s Oldies, but Goodies” podcast in 2022. “And they said, ‘No, because when Vikki Carr sings, you can understand.'”
Carr later released several more Spanish albums, often paying tribute to iconic Mexican singers and more broadly to Latino songwriters.
Carr has slowed down in recent years, after her husband was diagnosed with dementia. But she told a British podcast, “In the Spotlight,” that she will never truly retire:
“When you have a gift that I know is from God, there’s some things that I am supposed to keep doing.”
If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.
©2024 Texas Standard. A service of the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin | Contact us
