INABA
Carrie

• 1. Career
• 1.1. Singing
• 1.2. Dancing

Carrie Ann Inaba is an American television personality, dancer, choreographer, actress, and singer. She is best known for her work on ABC TV's Dancing with the Stars for which she has served as a judge since 2005. She co-hosted and moderated the CBS Daytime talk show, The Talk from 2019 to 2021. She started her career as a singer in Japan, but became best known for her dancing, introducing herself to American audiences as one of the original Fly Girls on the Fox sketch comedy series In Living Color from 1990 to 1992.

Career

Singing

In 1986, an 18-year-old Inaba won a talent show in Hawaii. She was then groomed to be a pop star in Japan and given songs to read phonetically in Japanese from a lyric sheet. Even though her first single made the Top 50, she "realized it has nothing to do with how artistic you are. Your face becomes a logo they sell." Inaba lived in Tokyo from 1986 to 1988 and was a popular singer. She released three singles, "Party Girl" (backed with "China Blue"), "Be Your Girl" (backed with "6½ Capezio"), and "Yume no Senaka" (backed with "Searching") and hosted weekly radio and television series.

Dancing

After returning to America, Inaba appeared as one of the "Fly Girls"—a group of dancers on the television series In Living Color—from 1990 to 1992. She also performed with Canadian singer Norman Iceberg and dancers Viktor Manoel (David Bowie's "Glass Spider" tour) and Luca Tommassini at Prince's notorious Glam Slam. Inaba appeared as a featured solo dancer during Madonna's 1993 Girlie Show World Tour, on the condition she shave her hair] After hesitating, she decided it was worth it. Her favorite dance is rumba since, according to American Fitness, she feels it is "very strong and demanding."