Rosie Vela

Roseanne Vela (born December 18, 1952) is an American model, singer and songwriter. Early life, education and modeling career Roseanne Vela was born on December 18, 1952 in Galveston, Texas. Her family later moved to Arkansas, where she attended the University of Arkansas. While studying art and music, Vela also began modeling. She married the Arkansas born musician, Jimmy Roberts, but he died of cancer shortly after. Following this, Vela moved to New York where her modeling career took off and she graced the covers of magazines including Vogue and Newsweek from 1975 onwards, and appeared in numerous television commercials. Vela has also appeared in several films including Heaven's Gate (as the "beautiful girl" with whom Kris Kristofferson's character falls in love during Harvard's graduation ceremony scene), The Two Jakes with Jack Nicholson and Inside Edge opposite Michael Madsen. Music Turning her attention to music, Vela built a home recording studio for herself and signed a recording contract with A&M Records. She released her debut album Zazu in 1986. The entire album was written or co-written by Vela and was produced by Gary Katz. It is also notable for the fact that it included contributions from both Donald Fagen and Walter Becker (two of Vela's musical heroes) six years after they had disbanded their group Steely Dan. Though the album was critically acclaimed, it went largely unnoticed in the U.S. It fared better in Europe and a single from the album (Magic Smile) was a Top 30 hit in the UK Singles Chart. The album itself peaked at #20 in the UK Albums Chart and was certified silver by the BPI in March 1987. Further singles "Interlude" and "Fool's Paradise" met with less success.