Electra missed out on the group, but the disappointment proved short-lived as she received a phone call that would change the course of her career.
“I received a call from Prince saying, ‘I think you should be your own artist and not back up anyone else. I’m going to write you a song, and if you like it, you can record it,'” she told OWN.
She added, “The name of the song was Carmen on Top. My name is Tara, so I was confused. I loved the song. I loved it, but he said, ‘You’re not a Tara. You’re not Tara. You’re Carmen.”
According to Electra, Prince played a pivotal role in shaping her early career, disclosing he “controlled everything,” including how she dressed as well as her music and hairstyles.
“He was genius at all that,” she gushed about Prince in a separate interview with E! News.
In January 2024, the Go Go Dancer singer filed legal paperwork to change her name from “Tara Leigh Patrick” to “Carmen Electra.” The request was granted by a Los Angeles Superior Court the following month.
“At first I thought it sounded kinda like a superhero type of name, which actually it is,” she said of the moniker in a 2014 interview with The Yo Show.
Although she was initially hesitant, it “just sorta grew on [her] and that’s it.”