The song is in the key of B♭ Major and has a tempo of 122 BPM. In addition to topping the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Cara's only #1 song, it earned a platinum record, the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 2004 it finished at #55 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. The song also kept Culture Club's song "Time " off the number one spot. It reached # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of May 28, 1983 and stayed there for 6 weeks. On July 9, it was succeeded by "Every Breath You Take" by The Police and spent the rest of the month in the top three. It spent 14 weeks in the top ten, thus making it the longest running top-ten single of 1983. The song was the #3 single of the year in 1983 on the Billboard year-end chart. In 2008, the song was ranked at #26 on Billboards All Time Top 100, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100. In the United Kingdom, the song spent one week at #2 on the UK Singles Chart for the week ending date July 9, 1983, behind "Baby Jane" by Rod Stewart.
Formats and track listing
These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Flashdance... What a Feeling".
Personnel
Irene Cara – vocals
Keith Forsey – drums
Joe Esposito – background vocals
Sylvester Levay – keyboards
Stephanie Spruill – background vocals
Maxine Willard Waters – background vocals
Richie Zito – guitar
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
All-time charts
Certifications
Marcia Hines version
recorded a version of the single titled "What a Feeling" in 1998. It was released as the lead single from her ninth studio album, Time of Our Lives.
Japanese singer :ja:麻倉未稀|Miki Asakura released a Japanese version of the song used as an opening song for the Japanese drama :ja:スチュワーデス物語|Stewardess Story.
Björn Again released a version of the song as a single in 1993 which reached #65 on the UK Singles Chart.
Swiss Dance act DJ BoBo released a version as a duet with Irene Cara in 2001, which reached #2 on the Swiss charts and #3 on the German charts.
French singer Priscilla Betti released a French version of the song named "Cette vie nouvelle" as the second single from her debut album Cette vie nouvelle. It peaked at number nine on the French singles chart.
Marie Picasso covered the song in 2007. Picasso's version peaked at 54 position on the Swedish singles chart.
Extensive samples of Cara's version are included in Jason Derulo's 2010 single "The Sky's the Limit".
Lea Michele and Jenna Ushkowitz covered the song for their hit series Glee in the season three episode "Props." The single was released May 25, 2012, and charted at number 145 in the UK.
