Vikki Carr

After 59 best-selling recordings, three Grammy awards, and nearly half a century of entertaining fans across the world in both Spanish and English, Vikki Carr needed to take a break. 

"After 47 years of being on the road," says Carr, "I wanted to take a sabbatical. I wanted time for me."

First Carr took dancing lessons and even entered a dance competition. People encouraged her to continue dancing, but by that time she had already moved on to swimming lessons - partly for her and partly for her grandchildren, who want Grandma to join them in the pool. And she's taking acting classes too. Of course, she is no stranger to acting - she's guest-starred on television shows ranging from "The Bing Crosby Show" to "Baywatch" - but Vikki Carr has never been one to quit while she's ahead. "You've got to keep going," Carr says wisely. "That's what hurts us as we get older. If you don't use it, you lose it - in every aspect of your life."

Carr's sabbatical has wound down. In July she performed at the National Council for La Raza's Annual Conference in Phoenix, and she'll make a September appearance at the Las Vegas International Mariachi Festival. 

But her break served her well. After singing for several U.S. presidents and the Queen of England, she'd worn herself out. Now, Carr says, "The joy is back. It is the most incredible experience to go out there and be smiling, and your audience is up on their feet shouting, 'Where have you been?' I said, 'Dancing and swimming!'"

Carr's career began when she was four years old, when she first stepped onto a stage to perform "Adeste Fidelis" in Latin at a Christmas program. Her father was a huge influence early on. "He saw that I took a shine to music," Carr says. He had always wanted to sing himself, and he was pleased to see his daughter shared his love of music. "Go try it," he told her. "Just make a record."

After countless rejections from record companies, Carr's career officially began in 1961 with a contract with Liberty Records. The encouragement she'd received from her father was not reflected in the attitudes of the men offering her the chance to sing professionally. "Women, as far as recording, were not important at that time," says Carr. "They had to all have their token female, but the president of Liberty Records told me, 'Vikki, you're probably not going to be selling records. Where you're going to make the money is in your personal appearances.'

"What Liberty discovered," Carr adds. "Is that women can sell music."
Within a year Carr was a hit - an international hit. "He's a Rebel," her first album, climbed the Australian charts in 1962, followed soon after by the now classic "It Must Be Him," which hit the number one spot in England. When it was released in the United States in 1967, "It Must Be Him" earned Carr three Grammy nominations. Carr knew she had chosen the right path. "It was my gift from God," she says. "We all have a gift, and it's up to each one of us to discover what it is."