Cher

This article is about the entertainer. For other uses, see Cher (disambiguation).

Cher
Cher at the London premiere of Burlesque in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Cherilyn Sarkisian
Also known as	Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere Cheryl Sarkisian Bonnie Jo Mason Cleo Cher Bono
Born	(1946-05-20) May 20, 1946 El Centro, California, U.S.
Origin	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Pop, rock, folk, disco, dance
Occupation(s)	Singer, actress, songwriter, record producer, author, film director, film producer, comedian, television host, model, fashion designer, dancer, entrepreneur, philanthropist
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1963–present
Labels	Warner Bros., WEA, Geffen, Columbia, Casablanca, MCA, Kapp, Atco, Imperial
Website	www.cher.com Cher's signature

Template:Infobox comedian awards Cher (/ˈʃɛər/; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer and actress. A major figure for over five decades in popular culture, she is often referred to as the Goddess of Pop for having first brought the sense of female autonomy and self-actualization into the entertainment industry. She is known for her distinctive contralto and for having worked in various areas of entertainment, as well as for continuously reinventing both her music and image, the latter of which has caused controversy.

Cher came to proeminence in 1965 as one-half of the folk rock duo Sonny & Cher, which popularized a peculiar "smooth, warm" sound that competed successfully with the predominant British Invasion and Motown Sound of the era. After the duo's success declined due to the rise of the drug culture, she re-emerged in the 1970s as a television personality with her shows The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and Cher, which attained immense popularity. At the same time, she established herself as a solo artist with million-selling singles such as "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady", which dealt with unusual subjects in mainstream popular music. Throughout, she became a fashion trendsetter with her daring outfits. Cher's impact at that time, as described by Phill Marder from Goldmine magazine, "led the way to advance feminine rebellion in the rock world," as she was "the prototype of the female rock star, setting the standard for appearance and ... attitude". After the duo separated in 1975, she experimented with various musical styles, including disco and New Wave, before becoming a top-earning live act in Las Vegas.

In the early 1980s, Cher made her Broadway debut and starred in the film Silkwood, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1983. In the following years, she became one of the most acclaimed film actresses of that decade by starring in hit films such as Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1988. At the same time, she established herself as a "serious rock and roller" by releasing platinum-winning rock albums and hit singles such as "I Found Someone", "If I Could Turn Back Time", and "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)". In the 1990s, she made her directing debut in the film If These Walls Could Talk and released the biggest-selling single of her career, "Believe", which revolutionized the recording industry because of its pioneer use of Auto-Tune (also known as the "Cher effect"). Throughout the 2000s, she embarked on highly successful concert tours.

Biographer Mark Bego says: "No one in the history of show business has had a career of the magnitude and scope of Cher's". She has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her work in film, music and television. She is the only person to receive all of these awards. Her other ventures have included: fashion design, endorsing products, writing books, starring in fitness videos, and managing film production company Isis. Recognized as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, she has sold more than 100 million solo albums and over 40 million records as Sonny & Cher worldwide. She is the only artist to have notched a number-one single on a Billboard chart in each of the past six decades.

Early life

Cher in high school years

Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946. Her father, John Sarkisian, was an Armenian American truck driver riddled with drug and gambling problems, and her mother, Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch), was an aspiring actress and model with Irish, English, German and Cherokee descent. Cher's parents had a stormy relationship, eventually divorcing in Reno when Cher was ten months old. Holt and John married and divorced two more times. The third of Holt's eight marriages was to actor John Southall, the father of Cher's half-sister, actress Georganne LaPiere. Although their marriage ended when Cher was nine years old, she considers Southall her real father and remembers him as a "good-natured man who turned belligerent when he drank too much". As Holt married and divorced, the family moved from place to place (including New York, Texas and California) and often had little money. At one point, Holt had to put Cher in an orphanage. Although they met every day, Holt and Cher found the experience traumatic.

Cher's family noticed her creativity when she produced the musical Oklahoma! in school for her teacher and class. According to biographer Connie Berman, "Cher got a group of girls together and directed and created the dance routines. Since she couldn't get the boys to take part, Cher acted the men's roles and sang their songs. Even at that age, she had an unusually low voice." Cher was fascinated by movie stars, with her role model being Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's. She began to pattern her outfits and behavior after the "eccentric, fast-living young woman" character portrayed by Hepburn. She remembers being disappointed that there were no dark-haired actresses she "could copy or even aspire to be like". She has said, "All I saw was Doris Day and Sandra Dee ... In the Walt Disney cartoons, all the witches and evil queens were really dark. There was nobody I could look at and think, 'That’s who I'm like.'" Despite the difficult times and the instability of her mother's marriages, Cher wanted to be famous since childhood, but felt that she was "unattractive" and "not very talented". She later commented in an interview, "I couldn't think of anything that I could do ... I didn't think I'd be a singer or dancer. I just thought, well, I'll be famous. That was my goal."

In 1961, Holt married bank manager Gilbert LaPiere, who adopted both Cher and her half-sister and enrolled them in a private school, Montclair Prep, in the prosperous community of Encino, Los Angeles. Like Cher's stepfather, the fathers of Montclair Prep students were financially successful. Such "posh" surroundings presented a challenge for Cher, as Berman wrote she "stood out from the others in both her striking appearance and outgoing personality." A former classmate recalled, "I'll never forget seeing Cher for the first time. She was so special ... She was like a movie star, right then and there ... She said she was going to be a movie star and we knew she would." Despite not being a top student, Cher was considered intelligent and creative. She usually got good grades and did well in French and English. Later, as an adult, she would discover that she suffered from dyslexia. She also achieved notoriety for her unconventional behavior: she would entertain other students during lunch hour performing songs and shock a few when she'd wear a midriff-baring top, being the first young woman in her crowd to do so. She recalled later, "I was never really in school. I was always thinking about when I was grown up and famous."

Career and public life

1960s: Sonny and the rise and fall from pop stardom

Cher with Sonny Bono in 1966

At age 16, Cher dropped out of school, left her mother's house, and moved into Los Angeles with a friend, where she took acting classes and had jobs to support herself. She danced in small clubs along Hollywood's Sunset Strip, introducing herself to performers, managers, and agents. According to biographer Connie Berman, "The teen did not hesitate to approach anyone she thought could help her get a break, make a new contact, or get an audition." During this period, she had a brief relationship with actor Warren Beatty. Cher met Sonny Bono, 11 years her senior, in November 1962 when he was working for record producer Phil Spector. Shortly after, Cher's friend moved out of their apartment, and Cher accepted Sonny's offer to move in with him as his housekeeper. Sonny brought Cher to Spector, who used her as a backup singer on many of his classic recordings, including The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". Spector also produced her first single, the unsuccessful "Ringo, I Love You", issued under the name Bonnie Jo Mason. Sonny recalled, "I didn't notice her till I heard her sing. She was so good and I just had to know her better ... When I learned she was also an actress I thought ... 'Now, there's another one of those cool, dedicated career types who is so bent on becoming a star. She wouldn't give the time of day to a guy like me.' I couldn't have been more wrong!" Sonny and Cher became close friends, eventual lovers, and were unofficially married in October 1964. Although Sonny wanted to launch Cher as a solo artist, she pulled him out with her because she suffered from stage fright. When Sonny finally gave up ("a little too easily", as Cher recalled later), he began going out to the stage with her to sing the harmonies. Cher disguised her nervousness by looking at Sonny; she later commented that she sang to the people through him. In 1964, they emerged as a duo, initially called Caesar & Cleo, and released the singles "The Letter", "Do You Wanna Dance" and "Love Is Strange", which went by unnoticed.

By the end of 1964, Cher was signed to Liberty Records' Imperial imprint, and Sonny came along as producer. Her second solo single, "Dream Baby", managed to get airplay in Los Angeles, becoming a local hit. Suspecting they were onto something, Cher and Sonny worked together on her debut solo album, All I Really Want to Do (1965), which was later described by Tim Sendra of Allmusic as "one of the stronger folk-pop records of the era". The album reached the Billboard 200 top 20 and was on the albums charts for six months. Its title track, a cover version of the Bob Dylan's song, peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Meanwhile, Sonny & Cher, as they became known collectively, signed to Reprise Records and released their first single under the new name, "Baby Don't Go". The song became a major local hit in Los Angeles (later peaking at number eight on the Hot 100 as a re-release), after which the duo moved from Reprise to the Atco label, a division of Atlantic Records. Their first album, Look at Us (1965), spent five weeks at number two on the Billboard 200. Its first single, "I Got You Babe", topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became "one of the biggest-selling and most beloved pop/rock hits of the mid-'60s". Several mid-level hits followed, notably "Just You", "But You're Mine", "What Now My Love" and "Little Man", before "The Beat Goes On" returned the duo to the U.S. top ten. Sonny and Cher charted 11 Billboard top 40 singles between 1965 and 1972, including six top-ten singles. By the end of 1967, they had sold 40 million records worldwide and become rock's "it" couple. At one point, they had five songs in the top 20, a feat equaled only by Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

Cher on the set of the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1967)

Sonny and Cher's smooth sound and warm harmony became popular, and the duo competed successfully with the British Invasion of The Beatles and the Motown Sound of The Supremes. Regarded as "the first hippies", they became a phenomenon that resembled Beatlemania (eventually dubbed "Sonny-and-Cher-mania") following their first trip to London. According to writer Cintra Wilson, "English newspaper photographers showed up when S&C were thrown out of the London Hilton [because of their outfits] the night they arrived—literally overnight, they were stars. London went gaga for the heretofore-unseen S&C look, which was neither mod nor rocker. By the time Sonny and Cher got back to America ... they had to disembark from the plane onto the tarmac or be ripped to shreds by scrap-seeking fans." As "I Got You Babe" knocked The Beatles off the top of British charts, English teenagers began wearing versions of Sonny and Cher's clothes, such as bell-bottoms, striped pants, ruffled shirts, industrial zippers, and fur vests, on the streets. Back to America, the duo made several appearances on the teen-pop showcases Hullabaloo and Shindig! and went on tour at the biggest U.S. arenas. Their shows were notably attended by "Cher lookalikes"—"girls who were ironing their hair straight and dying it black, to go with their vests and bell-bottoms." Cher expanded her range by designing a line of marketed wardrobe. Her successful album releases The Sonny Side of Chér (1966), Chér (1966), and With Love, Chér (1967) kept her solo career fully competitive with her work as a duo. They produced various hits, most notably "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", which reached number two on the Hot 100 and became her first solo million-seller; "Alfie", which was nominated for Best Original Song at the 39th Academy Awards as the Lewis Gilbert film's theme; and the U.S. top-ten single "You Better Sit Down Kids".

Cher in Good Times (1967)

As the 1960s came to a close, Sonny and Cher's openly monogamous, drug-free lifestyle had become obsolete due to the rise of hard rock and the drug culture. According to Berman, "The heavy, loud sound of groups like Jefferson Airplane and Cream made the folk-rock music of Sonny and Cher seem too bland." Cher later commented, "I loved the new sound of Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, the electric-guitar oriented bands. Left to myself, I would have changed with the times because the music really turned me on. But Son[ny] didn't like it—and that was that." To recapture their young audience, the duo produced and starred in the film Good Times, in which they were featured in "silly" skits. The movie was a flop. Cher continued her solo career by releasing the unsuccessful albums Backstage (1968) and 3614 Jackson Highway (1969). The latter, incorporating experiments in blue-eyed soul, was recorded for Atco Records without the guidance of Sonny; it was later proclaimed "the finest album of her career". Cher's relationship with Sonny also began to unravel, as he cheated on her repeatedly. According to People magazine, "Bono tried desperately to win her back, telling her he wanted to marry and start a family." They were married after she gave birth to Chaz Bono, who was born Chastity Bono on March 4, 1969. The duo made another foray into film with Chastity (1969). Written and directed by Sonny, who did not appear in the film, it told the story of a young woman, Cher, searching for the meaning of life. The "arty" movie stiffed, costing the duo a good portion of their savings. However, some critics noted that Cher demonstrated traces of good instinctive acting. At a low professional ebb, the duo put together a nightclub routine in Las Vegas in which they opted for a more mainstream approach in sound and style. According to Wilson, "Their lounge act was so depressing, people started heckling them. Then Cher started heckling back. Sonny ... reprimanded her; then she'd heckle Sonny". The heckling became a highlight of the act and turned it into a success. Wooded by television executives, the couple began landing guest appearances on prime-time shows, in which they presented a "new, sophisticated, and mature" image. Cher adopted "glamorous", lowcut gowns that would become her signature outfits.

1970s: Television stardom, musical resurgence and experiments

Cher performing live in 1971

Cher (right) with Farrah Fawcett on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour

In 1971, Sonny and Cher caught the eye of CBS head of programming Fred Silverman while guest-hosting The Merv Griffin Show, and Silverman offered the duo their own variety show. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour debuted in 1971 as a summer replacement series and was an immediate hit, returning to prime time later that year and becoming an "enormous" success, which was seen weekly by more than 30 million viewers. The show was praised for its comedic timing, as "deadpan" Cher ribbed Sonny about his looks and short stature. According to biographer Connie Berman, they "exuded an aura of warmth, playfulness, and caring that only enhanced their appeal. Viewers were further enchanted when little Chastity also appeared on the show. They seemed like a perfect family." Cher established herself as a successful comedian and sharpened her acting skills in sketch roles such as brash housewife Laverne, sardonic waitress Rosa, and a slew of historical vamps. The show received 12 Emmy Award nominations during its three-year run, winning one for direction. The duo revived its recording career by releasing four albums for Kapp Records and MCA Records between 1971 and 1974, including the top-ten singles "All I Ever Need Is You" and "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done".

Cher continued to establish herself as a solo recording artist, enlisting the help of record producer Snuff Garrett. Her first solo number one was "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves". It became the biggest-selling single in the history of MCA Records at the time and earned her a nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 1972 Grammy Awards. Released in September 1971, the album of the same name was recognized for marking Cher's maturation as an artist, with "highly intense performances" such as the U.S. top-ten hit "The Way of Love". The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 1972, Cher released the all-ballad set Foxy Lady, in which the evolution of her vocal performance was noted by critics. The next year, she released Bittersweet White Light, an all-standard album produced at Sonny's insistence, which was a flop. Cher scored her second number-one single with "Half-Breed", in 1973, from the RIAA-certified gold album of the same name. Her third number-one single was "Dark Lady", in 1974, also from the album of the same name. That same year, she released a Greatest Hits album that, according to Billboard magazine, proved her to be "one of the most consistent hitmakers of the past five years", as well as a "proven superstar who always sell records."

By late 1972, Cher's marriage with Sonny was over, but appearances were maintained until 1974. "The public still thinks we are married," Sonny wrote in his diary at the time, "[and] that's the way it has to be." Around this time, Cher had well-known flirts with Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley. Regarding Brando, she said, "I regret not meeting him more ... It was great, we had the best time, but I was trying to make my marriage [with Sonny] work." About Elvis, she said, "He called me and wanted me to come up for the weekend, but I was just too nervous ... I was about to do it, but thought 'No, I don't want to' and then I regretted it." In February 1974, Cher countered with a divorce suit and charged Sonny with "involuntary servitude", claiming that he withheld money from her and deprived her of her rightful share of their earnings. The couple's court battles revolved around finances and the custody over Chastity, who lived with Cher in the end. The divorce was finalized on June 26, 1975. During the divorce proceedings, Cher lived a two-year relationship with record executive David Geffen, who freed her from her business arrangement with Sonny Bono, under which she was required to work exclusively for Cher Enterprises, the company he controlled. In 1974, Cher won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance By an Actress in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical for The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. Sonny went on without Cher and renamed the show The Sonny Comedy Revue. It was canceled after six weeks.

Her solo show, entitled simply Cher, debuted as a highly rated television special on February 16, 1975, featuring guests Flip Wilson, Bette Midler and Elton John. Cloris Leachman and Jack Albertson both won Emmy Awards for their appearances as guest stars on the show, and it received nine additional Emmy nominations that year. The press on the first episodes were favorable, with Los Angeles Times exclaiming that "Sonny without Cher was a disaster. Cher without Sonny, on the other hand, could be the best thing that's happened to weekly television this season." A good deal of press was generated throughout 1975 regarding Cher's exposed navel and the daring ensembles created by famed designer Bob Mackie. According to Mackie at the time, her wardrobe was the "biggest ever for a weekly TV show." Cher lasted for less than a year, to be replaced by a reunion of Sonny and Cher; she said, "Doing a show alone was more than I could handle." Three days after finalizing her divorce from Sonny, Cher married rock musician Gregg Allman, co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band, on June 30, 1975. She filled for divorce nine days after their wedding, citing his heroin and liquor problems, but the pair later reconciled and remained married until 1979. They had one son, Elijah Blue, on July 10, 1976. Under the rubric "Allman and Woman", they released in 1977 a duet album called Two the Hard Way, which was later regarded as "the worst of either artist's respective career".

"I loved making the Stars album. I loved 'Geronimo's Cadillac'. I wish I'd been a better singer then because I would have done a better job on it. I had the emotion, but I didn't quite have the control that I needed. Also, I just got so tired of people making fun of my vibrato that I worked really hard with my teacher to control it, you know? To be able to get rid of it at will."

—Cher talking about the making of the album Stars

Cher performing with Sonny in a promo picture for The Sonny and Cher Show

In the mid-1970s, Cher signed a US $2.5 million deal with Warner Bros. Records and released a series of unsuccessful albums that went on to become cult classics: Stars (1975), her first attempt to realize her dream of becoming a hard-rock singer; the fully orchestrated I'd Rather Believe in You (1976); and Cherished (1977), a return to her pop style at Warner's producers insistence. Sonny and Cher's reunion, The Sonny and Cher Show, debuted in February 1976 and lasted until mid-1977. The adverse publicity of Cher's troubled relationship with Gregg Allman and her much-reported high lifestyle added to the pair's put-down humor in the context of a "painful" divorce had created a public backlash that contributed to the failure of the show. She made a brief return to prime time starring in the television specials Cher... Special (1978), which received three Emmy nominations, and Cher and Other Fantasies (1979). In 1978, she legally changed her name from Cherilyn Sarkisian La Piere Bono Allman to just Cher, with no surname or middle name, in order to avoid "being saddled with surnames of her father, stepfather and ex-husbands".

A single mother with two children, Cher decided to change the direction of her singing career by temporarily abandoning her desire to be a rock singer and signing with Casablanca Records to capitalize on the disco craze. She made a major comeback with the single "Take Me Home" and the album of the same name. They became instant hits, remained bestsellers for more than half of 1979 and were both certified gold by RIAA. Sales of the album may have been boosted by the image of a scantily clad Cher in a Viking outfit on its cover. Despite her initial lack of enthusiasm with disco music, she changed her mind after the success, declaring, "I never thought I would want to do disco ... [but] it's terrific! It's great music to dance to. I think that danceable music is what everybody wants." Cher appeared on the "memorable" cover of her next album, Prisoner (1979), draped in chains as a "'prisoner' of the press", spurring controversy among feminist groups for her perceived "naked sex slave" image. Prisoner produced the minor hit single "Hell on Wheels", which was also featured on the soundtrack to the film Roller Boogie. The song captured the "late 70s roller-skating craze, which Cher herself had a hand in popularizing." During this time, Cher dated Gene Simmons of the rock group KISS.

1980s: Musical missteps, Broadway, film stardom and rock comeback

Cher performing in Las Vegas (1981)

In 1980, Cher co-wrote with Giorgio Moroder her last Casablanca disco recording, "Bad Love", for the film Foxes. That same year, she formed the rock band Black Rose with her then-partner, guitarist Les Dudek. Although Cher was the lead singer, she did not receive top billing because "she wanted to create the impression that all band members were equal." Since she was easily recognized when she performed with the band, she developed a new "punk" look by cutting her hair and dyeing it bright yellow, green, and pink. Despite appearances on television, the band failed to land concert dates. The group's album, Black Rose, got "pointedly negative" reviews, as Cher told Rolling Stone magazine: "The critics panned us, and they didn't attack the record. They attacked me. It was like, 'How dare Cher sing rock & roll?'" Before long, Black Rose broke up; during this period, Cher was at the "pinnacle of her career" as a nightclub personality in Las Vegas, earning US $300,000 a week. In 1981, Cher released the UK top-five hit "Dead Ringer for Love", a duet with musician Meat Loaf which was later described as "one of the more inspired rock duets of the 1980's". The following year, she released for Columbia Records the album I Paralyze, which was deemed as her "strongest and most consistent solo album in years" but faced low sales.

With album sales and hit singles again at a standstill, Cher decided to expand her career into serious film acting. Her earliest entertainment ambitions had always lain in film, as opposed to music; however, she had no films to her credit except the poorly received Good Times and Chastity, and producers and directors in Hollywood did not take her seriously as an actor. In 1982, Cher moved to New York to take acting lessons with Lee Strasberg, founder of the Actors Studio, but she never got to do it. She auditioned for and was signed by director Robert Altman (whose wife was a friend of Cher's mother) for the Broadway stage production Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. She played a member of a James Dean fan club that is holding a 20-year reunion. That same year, she was cast by Altman in the film version of the show, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She was next cast alongside Meryl Streep and Kurt Russell in the Mike Nichols' drama Silkwood, in which she played Streep's lesbian girlfriend and plant coworker. When the film opened in 1983, audiences were skeptical about Cher's ability as an actress. According to biographer Connie Berman, "She has often repeated the story about the audience's reception at a preview that Cher attended. At the beginning of the film, when her name flashed across the screen in the credits, the audience laughed. Cher was devastated. Her sister, who was with her, began to cry. Cher didn't cry, but she was deeply hurt. The preview audience changed its attitude by the end of the film. Hollywood also took notice at last, and so did the critics." For her "intense, unvarnished performance", Cher received her first Academy Award nomination, as Best Supporting Actress, and won a Golden Globe Award.

Cher at the White House with former first lady Nancy Reagan in October 1985

Cher's next film, Mask (1985), co-starring Eric Stoltz and Sam Elliott, reached number two at the box office and was her first critical and commercial success as a leading actress. For her role as a pill-popping biker who has a lover (Sam Elliott) and is coping with her teenaged son (Eric Stoltz), who is suffering from a severe head deformity, she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. According to the book Hollywood Songsters: Allyson to Funicello, "There were ... many conflicts between between Cher and director Peter Bogdanovich ... Many felt (including Cher) that because she was so anti-Establishment, the industry bypassed her in the Oscars nominations. To show her scorn for the 'system' she showed up at the Academy Awards that year [1986] in one of her most outlandish (tarantulalike) costumes." In 1985, Cher formed film production company Isis.

In May 1986, Cher made her first guest appearance on the Late Night with David Letterman show. When asked by Letterman why she had been so reluctant to be a guest on his program, Cher replied that she thought he was an "asshole". The audience "roared", and he later told People, "It did hurt my feelings ... Cher was one of the few people I've really wanted to have on the show, and then she calls me an asshole. I felt like a total fool, especially since I say all kinds of things to people. I was sitting there thinking, 'Okay, Mr. Big Shot, can you take it as well as you can dish it out?'" In 1987, Cher returned to the show in an appearance with ex-husband Sonny Bono, reuniting to sing "I Got You Babe" for the first time in ten years.

Cher returned to the screen three times in 1987. She played a public defender who is both helped and romanced by one of the jurors (Dennis Quaid) in the homicide case she is handling in Suspect; was, along with Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer, one of the three divorcees involved with Jack Nicholson's rich visitor from hell who comes to a small New England town in the comedy horror The Witches of Eastwick, which grossed US $31.8 million in domestic film rentals; and starred in the Norman Jewison's romantic comedy Moonstruck, which grossed US $34,393 million in domestic film rentals. For her "captivating" performance as a Italian widow who falls in love with her fiancée's young brother (Nicolas Cage) in Moonstruck, Cher won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Actress. During her Oscar acceptance speech (notably, the audience rose to their feet when her name was announced), she said, "I don't think that this award means that I'm somebody, but maybe I'm on my way." Now one of the most acclaimed film actresses of the decade, she also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy and the People's Choice Award for Favorite All Around Female Star. That same year, Cher signed with Geffen Records and revived her musical career with "her most impressive string of hits to date." Michael Bolton, Jon Bon Jovi, Desmond Child, and Richie Sambora produced her first Geffen album, the RIAA-certified platinum Cher, which established her a new identity as a "serious rock and roller ... a crown that she'd worked long and hard to capture". It featured the "scorching" rock ballad "I Found Someone", her first top-ten pop hit in over eight years, as well as the Bon Jovi-penned "smash" "We All Sleep Alone". In 1988, Cher released her own fragrance, Uninhibited, which earned about US $15 million in its first year sales. She also released an exercise book called Forever Fit, which sold about 100,000 copies in 1988.

Cher performing at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in 1989

Cher's twentieth studio album Heart of Stone (1989) was certified triple platinum by RIAA and sold 11 million copies worldwide. The music video for the album's first single, "If I Could Turn Back Time", stirred up controversy due to a scantily clad Cher performing on a Navy warship, straddling a canon, and wearing a "shocking" see-through bodystocking which revealed her tattoed rear end. Many networks on television initially refused to air the video because of its "partial nudity". Responding to pressure from older viewers, MTV agreed to show the video from 9 pm to 6 am. The corresponding song was an international number-one hit and quickly became one of Cher's biggest hits ever. Further hits from Heart of Stone were "Just Like Jesse James", "Heart of Stone", and a duet with Peter Cetera, "After All", which was used as the love theme from the movie Chances Are and received a nomination for Best Original Song at the 62nd Academy Awards. In 1989, Cher launched the Heart of Stone Tour (also known as The Cher Extravaganza) which continued until 1990. Its parent television special, Cher at the Mirage, was filmed during a concert in Las Vegas.

During the 1980s, Cher was involved in successive, well-publicized relationships with younger men, including actors Val Kilmer, Eric Stoltz, and Tom Cruise, hockey player Ron Duguay, film producer Josh Donen, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, and Rob Camilletti, a 18 years younger bagel baker whom she met in 1986. Dubbed "Bagel Boy" by the press, Camilletti made headlines after he was charged with assault in 1988 for ramming Cher's Ferrari into a paparazzo's car. The couple broke up the following year.

1990s: Rock stardom, infomercial struggles, high-profile projects and dance music comeback

Cher's first film in three years, Mermaids (1990), co-starring Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci, was not a comercial success and received mixed reviews. She reportedly fought with the film's first two directors, Lasse Hallstrom and Frank Oz, until they were replaced by Richard Benjamin. As the producers believed that Cher would be the "star attraction" for the film, they let her have control behind the scenes. Despite the film's subdued reception, today it is considered a cult classic. Cher contributed two songs to the Mermaids' soundtrack: "Baby I'm Yours" and "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)". The latter topped the UK charts for five weeks and reached top five worldwide. Cher's final studio album for Geffen Records, Love Hurts (1991), stayed at number one in the UK for six weeks and spawned four hit singles, most notably the UK top-ten hit "Love and Understanding". In later years, Cher commented that her Geffen label "hit years" had always been especially significant to her, "because I was getting to do songs that I really loved ... songs that really represented me, and they were popular!" In Germany, Cher received the Echo Award for international female artist. In 1992, she embarked on the Love Hurts Tour and released two fitness videos, CherFitness: A New Attitude and CherFitness: Body Confidence, which became big sellers in the genre. That same year, the European compilation album Cher's Greatest Hits: 1965-1992 peaked at number one in the UK for seven weeks. It featured three new songs: "Oh No Not My Baby", "Many Rivers to Cross", and "Whenever You're Near".

Cher performing in New York (1996)

Partly because of her bad experience on Mermaids, Cher turned down two leading roles in the films The War of the Roses and Thelma & Louise. According to biographer Connie Berman, "After the success of Moonstruck, she was so worried about her next career move that she was overly cautious." In the early 1990s, Cher fell victim of Epstein-Barr virus and developed chronic fatigue syndrome, leaving her too exhausted to sustain her music and film careers. However, she starred in infomercials launching health, beauty, and diet products (which earned her US $10 million in fees), since she "needed the money" and was "still too sick to work on other projects". The skits were spoofed on David Letterman's show and Saturday Night Live and attacked as a sellout by critics, with many of them questioning her movie career as dead. She told Ladies Home Journal later, "Suddenly I became the Infomercial Queen and it didn't occur to me that people would focus on that and strip me of all my other things." Cher made cameo appearances in the Robert Altman films The Player (1992) and Prêt-à-Porter (1994). In 1994, she collaborated with MTV's animated series Beavis and Butt-head for a rock version of "I Got You Babe". In 1995, Cher went to number one on the UK Singles Chart with the charity single "Love Can Build a Bridge", which also featured Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry, and Eric Clapton. That same year, she signed with Warner Music UK's label WEA Records and recorded an album titled It's a Man's World, which came out of her conceit of covering men's songs from a woman's point of view. The album received generally positive reviews, with some critics commenting that Cher's voice sounded better than ever. It's a Man's World was released in Europe at the end of 1995 and in North America, under Reprise Records, in the summer of 1996, and sparked the UK top-ten singles "Walking in Memphis" and "One by One". In 1996, Cher played the wife of a businessman who hires a hit man to murder her in the Chazz Palminteri-scripted dark comedy Faithful, which was poorly received by critics. Despite being praised for her "appeal" in the film, she refused to promote it, claiming it was "horrible".

Sonny & Cher's star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Cher scored a comeback when she starred in and made her directing debut with a segment of the abortion-themed anthology If These Walls Could Talk (1996), with Demi Moore, Sissy Spacek and Anne Heche, which drew the highest ratings ever for an original TV movie on HBO. For her role as a doctor who is murdered by an anti-abortion fanatic, she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film. Cher's next film was Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini (1998), with Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright, and Lily Tomlin. Although the movie got mixed reviews, Cher received critical accolades for her performance as "the flamboyant, rich American in Italy", with one reviewer from Film Comment writing, "It is only after she appears that you realize how sorely she's been missed from movie screens! For Cher is a star. That is, she manages the movie star trick of being at once a character and at the same time never allowing you to forget: that's Cher." Following the death of now U.S. Congressman and former husband Sonny Bono in a skiing accident in 1998, Cher delivered a "deeply moving" eulogy at his funeral. She tearfully praised Bono, calling him "the most unforgettable character" she ever met. On May 20, 1999, Cher paid tribute to Bono by hosting the "affectionate" CBS special Sonny and Me: Cher Remembers. In May 1998, Sonny and Cher received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television. That same year, Cher published the book The First Time, a collection of autobiographical essays of "first-time" events in her life, which was praised by critics for revealing the singer to be "down to earth" and "genuine". Although she had almost finished the manuscript when Sonny died, she was undecided about whether to include his death in the book; she feared being criticized for capitalizing on the event. Cher told Rolling Stone later, "I couldn't ignore it, could I? I might have if I cared more about what people think than what I know is right for me ... I don't have to explain myself. I'd like for people to understand, but if they don't, well, that's the way things go."

Cher performing in New York (1998)

Cher's twenty-third studio album Believe (1998) marked an extreme musical departure for her, as it was a collection of dance-pop songs. Several tracks on the album captured the "disco-era essence", with Cher commenting, "It's not that I think this is a '70s album ... but there's a thread, a consistency running through it that I love." Believe was certified quadruple platinum by RIAA and went on to be certified gold or platinum in 39 countries. The album's title track reached number one in more than 25 countries and sold over 11 million copies worldwide. It became the best-selling recording of 1998 and 1999, as well as Cher's biggest hit to date. On the British charts, "Believe" claimed the number one slot for seven weeks and became the biggest-selling single of all time by a female artist in the UK. The song was also awarded a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. With "Believe", Cher became the oldest female artist (at the age of 52) to top the Billboard Hot 100. It also gave her the distinction of having the longest span of number-one singles (33 years) and the longest gap between number-one singles (ten days short of 25 years) in the rock era of the Hot 100. Cher is also the only woman to have a U.S. top-ten single in every decade from the 1960s to the 1990s. The album Believe also produced a worldwide top-ten single, "Strong Enough". In January 1999, Cher performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl XXXIII. In March 1999, she performed on the television special VH1 Divas Live 2 alongside Tina Turner and Elton John. According to VH1, it was the most popular, and most watched, program in the television networks history, with Cher's presence being "a huge part of making it exactly that." The Do You Believe? Tour ran from 1999 to 2000 and was sold-out in every American city it was booked in, with a global audience of over 1.5 million. Its parent television special, Cher: Live at the MGM Grand In Las Vegas, received seven Emmy nominations. Also in 1999, Cher released in Europe the compilation album The Greatest Hits, which reached number one on German and Australian charts. That same year, Geffen Records in America compiled its own If I Could Turn Back Time: Cher's Greatest Hits, which was certified gold by RIAA. In Germany, Cher received her second Echo Award as most successful international female artist.

2000s: Dance music stardom, touring success and Vegas residency

Cher performing during Living Proof: The Farewell Tour, one of the highest-grossing tours of all time

In 2000, Cher released an independent album titled Not.com.mercial, which was written mostly by her after attending a songwriters' conference in 1994. Because the album was quickly rejected by her record label for being "not commercial", she chose to sell it only on her website. Full of personal revelations, "blunt" language and "bleak" content, Not.com.mercial marked Cher's first attempt at full-fledged songwriting. One song from the album, "Sisters of Mercy", in which she called the Catholic nuns who cared for her when she was a child "cruel, heartless and wicked" for keeping her in their orphanage long after her mother attempted to retrieve her, caused controversy among church leaders, who quickly issued denouncements. That same year, Cher recorded a duet with Italian singer Eros Ramazzotti called "Più che puoi". In November 2000, Cher's cameo appearance on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace in the episode "Gypsies, Tramps and Weed" gave the show its second-highest rating ever.

"We just chose songs that felt right on an individual basis. It wasn't until we started to assess the entire album and play with sequencing that we realized that this had subconsciously become an album filled with love and warmth. It was a pleasant surprise, and it's certainly an appropriate time to put some positive energy out into the world."

—Cher talking about the making of the album Living Proof

In 2001, still in a dance mode, Cher released the highly anticipated follow-up to Believe: Living Proof, which entered the Billboard 200 at number nine, making it her highest-charting album debut to date and extending her album chart span to 36 years and seven months. Slant Magazine proclaimed the album "the most life-affirming piece of pop art to emerge since 9/11". Living Proof's worldwide lead single, "The Music's No Good Without You", reached number eight in the UK and the top ten in a few countries. The album's first American single, "Song for the Lonely", was dedicated to "the corageous people of New York" following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Several songs from the album, including their remixed versions, established presence on the American club scene. Living Proof was certified gold by RIAA for sales exceeding 500,000 copies in the U.S. In May 2002, Cher performed on the VH1 benefit concert VH1 Divas Las Vegas. That same year, she won the Dance/Club Play Artist of the Year Award at the Billboard Music Awards. Also in 2002, her personal wealth was estimated at US $600 million (£315 million).

In June 2002, Cher embarked on the Living Proof: The Farewell Tour, which was announced as the final live concert tour of her career, though she vowed to continue making more records and movies. The show itself was a tribute to her 40 years in show business. It featured vintage performance and video clips from the 1960s onwards, highlighting her successes in music, television, and film, all set amongst an elaborate backdrop and stage set-up, complete with dancers, acrobats and backup singers. Initially scheduled for 49 shows, the tour was extended several times, covering virtually all of the U.S., as well as cities in Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Cher found success on television once again with Cher: The Farewell Tour, a NBC special taped in Miami on November 2002 and aired in April 2003, which attracted 17 million viewers. It was the highest-rated network-TV concert special of 2003 and earned Cher a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special. Later in 2003, she released the album Live: The Farewell Tour, a collection of live tracks taken from the tour.

The Very Best of Cher, a greatest-hits collection that surveyed Cher's entire career, was released in April 2003. The album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum by RIAA. In September 2003, she signed a worldwide deal with the U.S. division of Warner Bros. Records after she split with Warner UK last year. That same year, Cher played herself in the Farrelly Brothers' comedy Stuck on You, with Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear. She spoofed her own image in the film, appearing in bed with a "way younger" boyfriend (Frankie Muniz). Also in 2003, she recorded a duet of "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" for Rod Stewart's album As Time Goes By: The Great American Songbook, Volume II. In 2004, Cher received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording for her song "Love One Another". Her three-year, 325-date Farewell Tour ended in April 2005 as the highest grossing music tour by a female artist at that time, earning Cher a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. The tour earned upwards of US $192 million in the U.S. alone and over US $250 million worldwide, and had a global audience of over 3 million.

Advertisement for Cher's Las Vegas show

In 2008, Cher began a three-year, 200-performance residency at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, for which she earned a reported US $60 million per year. She said, "I started in Vegas at Caesars, so I've come full circle. I'm back and I plan to give my fans the best experience yet. I think everybody knows I only do things in a big way." The show featured 16 dancers and aerialists, "state-of-the-art" video and special effects, and "ambitious" set designs.

2010s: Film return and upcoming projects

In 2010, Cher returned to film in the musical Burlesque, which grossed over US $89 million worldwide. She played a nightclub impresario whom Christina Aguilera's young Hollywood hopeful is looking to impress. Cher contributed two songs for the film's soundtrack: "Welcome to Burlesque" and the Diane Warren-penned power ballad "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me". The latter won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and became a number-one hit on the U.S. dance charts. This made her the only act to have notched a number-one single on a Billboard chart in every decade from the 1960s to the 2010s. In November 2010, Cher placed her handprints and footprints in cement in the courtyard in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The same month, she was honored with Glamour magazine's Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award. In a 2010 interview with Architectural Digest magazine, she revealed that she became involved in Buddhism: "As corny as it sounds, the soul of the universe, everything that I need, I can find in its practice." In 2011, she lent her voice to the comedy Zookeeper.

As of 2012, Cher has been working on her first studio album since 2001's Living Proof. She also announced plans to embark on a concert tour, which she has dubbed the Never Can Say Goodbye Tour. In June 2012, Cher revealed that a Broadway musical based on her life and music was currently in development. She also said that she could play herself in the show. On November 22, 2012, Cher debuted "Woman's World", the lead track from her upcoming new studio album, due out in 2013.

Artistry

Music and voice

Cher performing at the Sanremo Music Festival in 1967. She has been praised for her ability to meld the "tremendous intensity and passion" of her vocal performance with her acting skills

Cher is known for her distinctive contralto, and her usual singing voice was described as "bold, deep, and with a spacious vibrato." Ann Powers of The New York Times stated that she has "a quintessential rock voice: impure, quirky, a fine vehicle for projecting personality." Phill Marder from Goldmine magazine credited Cher's "nearly flawless" song selection as what made her "[o]ne of Rock's biggest superstars"; while several of her early hits were penned by and sung with Sonny Bono, most of her solo hits, which far outnumbered the duo's successes, were Cher's outside choices. Cher has worked in numerous music genres, such as folk, pop, punk and arena rock, power ballads, disco, New Wave, and hip hop, in order to "remain relevant and do work that strikes a chord." Instead of sticking to a catalog that "includes some of the most indelible pop anthems of all time", she "has kept [her] musical inclinations sounding fresh and vital when many of her contemporaries falter" through "[a] unique blend of panache and tenacity". Peter Fawthrop of Allmusic stated that, despite its frequent changes, Cher's musical style always seems "just as sincere and just as much Cher as the previous change" and that "[h]er personality is set in stone and shines through." According to Marder, Cher's contributions to rock and roll have been overlooked because "[s]he has transcended Rock" by becoming a show business icon. Cher has been praised for her songwriting efforts. One of her self-penned songs, "My Song", co-written with musician Mark Hudson about her relationship with Gregg Allman, was described by Keith Tuber of Orange Coast Magazine as "revealing psychologically". He concluded, "While some of the lyrics are contrived and forced, their honesty and the feeling Cher puts into it more than compensates ... Poignant, tearful, tragic, true. And beautifully recorded."

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Cher worked in music genres ranging from girl group ballads to Jackie Deshannon folk-influenced pop, to adult contemporary pop. Her first album, All I Really Want to Do, was, like most of her solo work in the 1960s, based in the songbooks of writers like Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, DeShannon, and her musical partner Sonny Bono, who produced a large part of her 1960s material using his Phil Spector-derived production skills. The album With Love, Chér, according to Joe Viglione of Allmusic, "shows why the singer endeared herself to listeners and got to play in the same ballpark as Dusty [Springfield] and Petula [Clark]". A song from this album, "You Better Sit Down Kids", dealt with divorce, an unusual subject for a 1960s pop record, and was one of a series of releases on which Cher's music broached difficult areas such as prostitution, unplanned and underaged pregnancy and racism. While Cher's 1960s work was "expressive and radiant", her early-1970s material presented a more adult point of view and personality, as "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves". For Bruce Eder of Allmusic, "the song's subject matter, unusual tempo changes, and an incredibly memorable chorus-book became a vehicle for a transcendent performance by the singer, marking Cher's maturation as an artist". Despite having "a relatively narrow singing range" at the time, Cher was praised for her ability to meld the "tremendous intensity and passion" of her vocals with her acting skills, resulting in "dramatic, highly intense performances, almost as much 'acted' as sung". Another song from this period, "The Way of Love", is either about a woman expressing her love for another woman, or a woman breaking up with a gay male she loved ("What will you do/When he sets you free/Just the way that you/Said good-bye to me"). Viglione wrote that she "never minded androgynous or neutral gender identity in her songs" and that "her solo material could soar to heights not possible in a partnership" because of her ability to carry both male and female ranges.

Cher incorporated the "loud, rhythmic, danceable" beats of disco music in her 1979 albums Take Me Home and Prisoner. The latter was a mix of autobiographical disco and rock songs. The songs "Take Me Home" and "Hell on Wheels" were later described as "timeless dance anthems". Black Rose (1980) contained all-male background singers, guitar work, multilayered keyboards, and an "ass-kicking attitude" in her vocals to cement her new "rock and roll" persona. It was followed by a series of rock albums that had revitalized her pop career in the late 1980s and early 1990s: Cher, Heart of Stone, and Love Hurts. Those albums shared a production style characterized by "stressing" power chords, numerous backup singers, resonant keyboard blasts, and a repertoire of pop/rock power ballad songs. Cher's "determined and chipper" vocals on this trilogy were noted for having highlighted her sexually autonomous persona. For the album It's a Man's World, Cher chose "steamy, torchy" ballads, Western-themed epics, and R&B influences to capitalize on the mid-1990s R&B/pop phenomenon. Her vocals were restrained, without vibrato, and she sang the songs in higher registers, revealing "vibrant and previously unheard colors of her voice", as well as a "surprisingly soulful falseto" in the song "One by One". Believe (1998) was directed to her European audience, presenting uptempo pop beats while incorporating the U.S. brand of downtempo funk. The title track had an electronic vocal effect suggested by Cher, called Auto-Tune. It became known as the "Cher effect" and later received credit for having "revolutionized record-making." Not.com.mercial (2000) was the first album of her career with most of the songs written by herself. Jose F. Promis of Allmusic wrote that the album presents a "1970s singer/songwriter feel" with "quite engaging lyrics" that proves "Cher adept in the role of storyteller." Living Proof (2001) included heavy, electronic beats and lyrics about heartbreak, loneliness, and survival. It was also marked by the use of Auto-Tune, which gave Cher's voice a "canned electronic robot" sound.

Movies, music videos and live performances

Cher performing live in 1973

Cher's star image, according to author Yvonne Tasker, "operates in terms of a refusal of dependence on a man and the determination not only to forge a career (as an actor) on her own terms but to refuse the conventional role assigned to women over forty years old in a industry that fetishises youth." This image is showcased in her film roles, in which she "served as a social intermediary to disenfranchised male characters." By interacting with Eric Stoltz's elephantiasis victim in Mask (1985), Liam Neeson's mute homeless veteran in Suspect (1987), and Nicolas Cage's socially isolated baker with a wooden hand in Moonstruck (1987), Cher staged "social incorporation or redemption implicitly based on her own experience." Mermaids (1990) made use of her "strong, sexually assertive" image ("A real woman is never too old", her character says).

Cher's "unruly star persona" also stems from her music videos and live performances, "spaces that allow the deployment of stylised, aggressive but non-narrative images of female sexuality", in which she "repeteadly comments on her own construction, on her search for perfection and on the performance of the female body." Cher's "Hell on Wheels" was one of the first music videos ever and involved "almost as many intricate techniques as a feature film". The video of "If I Could Turn Back Time" (a title that relates to her "ageless" body) was the first banned by MTV. Tasker noted that while other music video and stage acts like Janet Jackson, Madonna and Tina Turner feature usually female backers who mimic and frame the star's performance, the 1992 concert video Cher Live at the Mirage "features a male dancer dressed in one of Cher's glamorous, revealing ... costumes during a number in which Cher sings 'all my life I've been dreaming by perfection'. As the 'real' Cher comes on stage ... to confront her impersonator, 'she' stops singing: the two then 'perform' together as the 'fake' Cher poses, is photographed and pursued by dancers with an oversized contract." According to author Diane Negra, "In authorizing her own quotation, Cher acknowledges herself as a fictionalized production, and proffers to her audience a pleasurable plurality." Cher's performance of the song "After All" in the same concert video begins with a biographical montage of Cher, her ex-husbands and children, as well as posters from her films, "inviting a reading of the song as a reflection upon Cher's life, and thus putting into circulation a historical Cher and by extension cinematic, televisual, and popular music Chers as well."

Cher's live performances were described as "more of a revue than a concert." Her 1979 stage act featured "well-rehearsed choreography, many costume changes, a film biography of the singer's career and two female impersonators dressed up as Diana Ross and Bette Midler." This model was improved in her later concert tours. The New York Times called her 1999 concert show a "high-energy circus". In her 2002 concert show, Cher "outdid her own penchant for spectacle", according to Clea Simons of Boston Phoenix. The "grand show" featured "Cirque du Soleil–style aerialists, dancers whipping across the stage in backflips ... Mongol-chic dancers swathed in fur ... Maori 'tattoos' that decorated leotards ... fire (projected) and an animal act (a life-sized puppet elephant)". According to James Sullivan of San Francisco Chronicle, "Cher is well aware that her chameleonic glitz set the stage for the current era of stadium-size razzle-dazzle. She's comfortable enough to see such imitation as flattery, not theft."

Public image

Cher on a skit of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. She cemented her status as a fashion trendsetter with her daring outfits, and was noted as the first woman to expose her navel on television

External image
Cher's Time cover from March 17, 1975

Cher figured twice on "The 25 Most Intriguing People of the Year" list compiled by People, in 1975 and 1987. In 1992, Madame Tussauds wax museum immortalized her with a life-size statue as one of the five most beautiful women of history. Cher emerged as a fashion trendsetter in the 1960s, popularizing the jet black long hair, bell bottoms, bare midriff, bandanas, and Cherokee-inspired tunics. She began working as a model in 1967 for photographer Richard Avedon, after being discovered by the then-Vogue magazine director Diana Vreeland. Avedon took the famous photo of her in a beaded and feathered nude gown for the cover of Time magazine in 1975. Cher has appeared five times on the cover of Vogue, between 1972 and 1975. Through her 1970s television shows, she became a sex symbol with her inventive and revealing Bob Mackie-designed outfits, and fought the network censors to bare her belly button. She was noted as the first woman to expose her belly button on television. People magazine regarded her as the "pioneer of the belly beautiful". She is also known for wearing wigs ever since her 1970s TV shows.

Cher has attracted notable media attention for her physical appearance—particularly her youthful looks and her many tattoos. She has often been called the "poster girl" of plastic surgery. Grant McCracken, in his book Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture, drew a parallel between Cher's plastic surgeries and the transformations in her career: "There is no public record of when ... Cher chose to have her plastic surgery. But it does seem more or less consistent with the rest of her transformational career. Her plastic surgery is not merely cosmetic. It is hyperbolic, extreme, over the top ... Cher has engaged in a transformational technology that is dramatic and irreversible." Caroline Ramazanoglu, author of Up Against Foucault: Explorations of Some Tensions Between Foucault and Feminism, wrote that "Cher's operations have gradually replaced a strong, decidedly 'ethnic' look with a more symmetrical, delicate, 'conventional' (i.e. Anglo-Saxon) and ever-youthful version of female beauty ... Cher admits to having had her breasts 'done', her nose bobbed and her teeth straightened; reportedly she has also had a rib removed, her buttocks reshaped, and cheek implants ... Her normalised image ... now acts as a standard against which other women will measure, judge, discipline and 'correct' themselves." Cher denies most of the rumors about her plastic surgery, and has stated, "I've had the same cheeks my entire life. No butt lifts. No ribs removed ... If I want to put my tits on my back, it's nobody's business but my own."

Cher has six tattoos, including, as she revealed in an interview, "a garden on my butt." The Baltimore Sun called her the "Ms. Original Rose Tattoo". She got her first tattoo in 1972. According to Sonny Bono, "Calling her butterfly tattoos nothing was like ignoring a sandstorm in the Mojave. That was exactly the effect Cher wanted to create. She liked to do things for the shock they created. She still does. She'll create some controversy and then tell her critics to stick it." In the late 1990s, Cher began having laser treatments to remove her tattoos. The process went underway in the 2000s. She commented, "When I got tattooed, only bad girls did it: me and Janis Joplin and biker chicks. Now it doesn't mean anything. No one's surprised. I got a tattoo right after I left Sonny and I was feeling real independent. That was my badge."

Legacy

See also: List of awards and nominations received by Cher and Cher as a gay icon

Cher performing at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace (2009)

Cher's enduring success in various areas of entertainment earned her the nickname "Goddess of Pop". Phill Marder from Goldmine called her "[a] superstar of the highest order" who "has been and remains today one of the Rock Era's most dominant figures". He also stated that "no female has represented Rock & Roll with her music, appearance and attitude more than Cher." She was credited by Chicago Tribune as "the person who paved the way for Madonna, Lady Gaga and many more." Biographer Mark Bego wrote, "No one in the history of show business has had a career of the magnitude and scope of Cher's. She has been a teenage pop star, a television hostess, a fashion magazine model, a rock star, a pop singer, a Broadway actress, an Academy Award-winning movie star, a disco sensation, and the subject of a mountain of press coverage." Cher was crowned the "World's Number One Pop Icon" by AEG Live. In a 2001 poll, A&E's Biography magazine ranked her as the third favorite leading actress of all time behind Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn. In 2010, she ranked 44th on the "75 Greatest Women of All Time" list compiled by Esquire magazine. She was also featured on the "100 Greatest Movie Stars of our Time" list compiled by People. She was honored with special awards from World Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards for her "lifelong contribution to the music industry" and for having "helped redefine popular music through success on the Billboard charts", respectively. Although Cher's regular exposure on television in the 1970s allowed people to see and hear her without having to buy her records, she has sold over 100 million solo albums worldwide. She is the only person to receive an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Throughout her career Cher has repeatedly reinvented herself through a series of "whole new" personas, for which she was called "the ultimate pop chameleon" by professor Richard Aquila from Ball State University. According to author Lucy O'Brien, "Cher adheres to the American Dream of reinvention of self: 'Getting old does not have to mean getting obsolete.'" Marder wrote that "[f]rom top to bottom, Cher was the prototype of the female rock star, setting the standard for appearance, from her early hippie days to her later outlandish outfits, and her attitude—the perfect female punk long before punk even was a rock term." He agreed that, with her "schticky as near dominatrix" over partner Sonny Bono and her stage costumes, she led the way to advance feminine rebellion in the rock world, with contemporaries Marianne Faithfull and Nancy Sinatra being her followers. O'Brien, in her book She Bop II: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul, discussed Cher's late-1980s rock persona: "The Queen of 1980s Rock Chicks had to be Cher ... With her cascading hair, rear-end tattoo, fish-net stockings, black leather jackets and well-publicized romances with young heavy metal heroes ... it was as if she was playing the role of rock star." Author Craig Crawford called Cher "a model of flexible career management" and claimed that her "many and varied career victories" were based on constantly reshaping her image according to the evolving demands of cultural marketplace. According to him, she billed "each dramatic turnaround of style as another example of rebellion—an image that allowed her to make calculated changes while appearing to be consistent." Cher herself has stated, "This is my life—and I get to do everything I want to do. I don't really care what anybody thinks."

Wax figure of Cher wearing an outfit similar to the one she wore at the 60th Academy Awards in 1988

Cher's use of shocking imagery has extended her legacy to fashion. In May 1999, after she was honored by the Council of Fashion Designers of America with a special award for her influence in fashion, Robin Givhan of Los Angeles Times called her a "fashion visionary" for "striking just the right note of contemporary wretched excess". Givhan cited Tom Ford, Anna Sui and Dolce & Gabbana as "[i]nfluential designers [who] have evoked her name as a source of inspiration and guidance." She concluded that "Cher's Native American showgirl sexpot persona now seems to epitomize the fashion industry's rush to celebrate ethnicity, adornment and sex appeal." Los Angeles Times fashion critic Booth Moore wrote that "they don't make style icons like Cher anymore. From the beginning of her career ... she understood that cultivating a look was as important as cultivating a sound ... She was the world's Barbie doll, a living fashion fantasy week after week on TV, who landed simultaneously on best—and worst—dressed lists. Love her or hate her, she always keeps us guessing." Cher's 1988 Oscar win, according to biographer Connie Berman, signaled an important change in Hollywood. He wrote, "Not only did Cher appear in a negligeelike outfit, but she also danced onstage—and was applauded for her daring." As Douglas Brode wrote in his book The Films of the Eighties, "In the early eighties, her [Cher's] personal style and off-camera antics may have been too much to accept ... But by decade's end, the old guard had passed and the hip new Hollywood perceived in Cher—see-through, bare-nearly-all outfits, frizzed hair, frankly stated and unbleeped opinions—a person quite appropriate to them."

"[P]eople don't simply 'like' Cher. More than 40 years of show business success make crystal clear that she is, and has always been, much more than merely 'liked.' Cher is that rare entertainment industry icon that defies classification. Continually referenced, adored, and examined, she belongs in the exclusive pantheon of performers who have not only outdistanced all of their contemporaries, but have, decade in and decade out, stubbornly navigated the transient whims of public taste and carved a permanent place for themselves in the hearts and minds of cinema, television, music and pop culture enthusiasts everywhere."

—Author Josiah Howard about Cher's legacy

Cher's career longevity has been long the subject of analysis by critics. Record producer David Geffen declared Cher "the proverbial cat with nine lives" and stated that she remains "as relevant today as she was ... in the sixties." Bego called her "an acknowledged pillar of self-determination" who, despite being not the "most talented actress" nor "the most gifted vocalist", has builded a career of strength, longevity and "true 'superstar' status" based "as much on her unpredictability as upon her talents". According to author Nicholas E. Tawa, "Cher was determined to be a number-one singer and actress, and she achieved both ... Hers was a huge, if neon-lit personality that filled every stage she sang upon. Her followers were legion." Berman wrote that "Cher's life has been one of drama and inspiration as she rose from an often impoverished and disrupted childhood to stardom. No film Cher might ever star in could possibly be as fascinating as her own life story". Ms. magazine called her "an authentic feminist hero" and The New York Times proclaimed her the "Queen of the Comeback". Her "integrity" and "perseverance" were highlighted in the Reaching Your Goals book series of illustrated inspirational readers for children, in which her life was detailed emphasizing the importance of self-actualization: "For years, Cher worked hard to become a successful singer. Then she worked hard to become an actress. Even when she needed money, she turned down movie roles that weren't right for her. Her goal has always been to be a good actress, not just a rich and famous one." Stephanie Brush of The New York Times wrote that "she performs the function for women moviegoers that Jack Nicholson has always fulfilled for men. Free of the burden of ever having been America's sweetheart, she is the one who represents us [women] in our revenge fantasies, telling all the fatheads ... exactly where they can go. You need to be more than beautiful to get away with this. You need to have been Cher for 40 years." Cher's 1998 dance music comeback inspired veteran recording artists such as Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, and Tina Turner, who tried to emulate her new sound and replicate its success. For her part, Cher has stated, "I feel like a bumper car. If I hit a wall, I'm backing up and going in another direction. And I've hit plenty of fucking walls in my career. But I'm not stopping. I think maybe that's my best quality: I just don't stop."

Personal life

Humanitarian work

Cher meets with staff members during her July 12, 2006, visit at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany

Cher's primary philanthropic endeavors have included support of health research and patient quality of life, anti-poverty initiatives, veterans rights, and vulnerable children. Beginning in 1990, Cher served as a donor and the National Chairperson and Honorary Spokesperson of the Children's Craniofacial Association, whose mission is to "empower and give hope to facially disfigured children and their families". The annual Cher's Family Retreat is held each June to provide craniofacial patients, their siblings and parents an opportunity to interact with others who have endured similar experiences. Cher also supports and actively promotes Get A-Head Charitable Trust, which aims to improve the quality of life for people with head and neck diseases.

In 1993, Cher participated in a humanitarian effort in Armenia, taking food and medical supplies to the war-torn region. In 1996, she co-hosted the American Foundation for AIDS Research Benefit at the Cannes Film Festival. She is also the namesake of the Cher Charitable Foundation, which supports numerous causes.

Cher has been a vocal supporter of American soldiers and returning veterans. She has actively contributed resources to to Operation Helmet, an organization that provides free helmet upgrade kits to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cher has also contributed to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund which serves military personnel who have been disabled in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those severely injured in other operations. Cher has engaged in the construction of houses with Habitat for Humanity and served as the Honorary National Chair of a Habitat's elimination of poverty housing initiative "Raise the Roof", an effort to engage artists in the organization's work while on tour. Cher is also a donor, fundraiser and international spokesperson for Keep a Child Alive, an organization that seeks to accelerate action to combat the global AIDS pandemic, including the provision of Antiretroviral medicine to children and their families with HIV/AIDS.

In 2007, Cher became the primary supporter of the Peace Village School (PVS) in Ukunda, Kenya, which "provides nutritious food, medical care, education and extracurricular activities for more than 300 orphans and vulnerable children, ages 2 to 13 years." Cher's support enabled the school to acquire land and build permanent housing and school facilities, and in partnership with Malaria No More and other organizations, she piloted an effort to eliminate malaria mortality and morbidity for the children, their caregivers and the surrounding community.

Political interests

Although Cher says she's not a registered Democrat, she has attended many Democratic conventions and events. Over the years, Cher became known for her political views, having been an outspoken critic of the conservative movement. She has commented that she didn't understand why anyone would be a Republican because eight years under the administration of George W. Bush "almost killed me". During the 2000 United States presidential election, ABC News wrote that she was determined to do "whatever possible to keep him [Bush] out of office". She told the site, "If you're black in this country, if you're a woman in this country, if you are any minority in this country at all, what could possibly possess you to vote Republican? ... You won't have one f---ing right left." She also said of George W., "I don't like Bush. I don't trust him. I don't like his record. He's stupid. He's lazy."

On October 27, 2003, Cher anonymously called a C-SPAN phone-in program. She recounted a visit she had made to maimed soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and criticized the lack of media coverage and government attention given to injured servicemen. She also remarked that she watches C-SPAN every day. Though she simply identified herself as an unnamed entertainer, she was recognized by the C-SPAN host, who subsequently questioned her about her 1992 support for independent presidential candidate Ross Perot. She said, "When I heard him talk right in the beginning, I thought that he would bring some sort of common-sense business approach and also less partisianship, but then ... I was completely disappointed like everyone else when he just kind of cut and run and no one knew exactly why ... Maybe he couldn't have withstood all the investigation that goes on now". On Memorial Day weekend in 2006, Cher called into C-SPAN's Washington Journal endorsing Operation Helmet, a group that provides helmets to help soldiers avoid head injuries while in the war zone. On June 14, 2006, she made a guest appearance on C-SPAN with Dr. Bob Meaders, founder of Operation Helmet. That same year, in an interview with Stars and Stripes newspaper, Cher explained her "against the war in Iraq but for the troops" position: "I don't have to be for this war to support the troops because these men and women do what they think is right. They do what they're told to do. They do it with a really good heart. They do the best they can. They don't ask for anything."

Cher supported Hillary Clinton in her Presidential campaign: "I like Hillary. I think she'd make the best president. I think [Barack Obama]'s a good man. I think he's altruistic. I think he's smart. I think at some point he can be a great leader. I just don't think it's now." After Obama won the Democratic nomination, Cher supported his candidacy on radio and TV programs. However, in a 2010 interview with Vanity Fair magazine, she commented that she "still thinks Hillary would have done a better job", although she "accepts the fact that Barack Obama inherited insurmountable problems". During the interview, she also stood against American politicians Sarah Palin ("Palin came on, and I thought, Oh, fuck, this is the end. Because a dumb woman is a dumb woman") and the then-Arizona governor Jan Brewer: "She was worse than Sarah Palin, if that is possible. This woman was like a deer in headlights. She's got a handle on the services of the state, and I would not let her handle the remote control." During the 2012 United States presidential election, Cher and comedian Kathy Griffin released a public service announcement titled "Don’t Let Mitt [Romney] Turn Back Time on Women's Rights." In the PSA, the pair criticized Republican Party Presidential nominee Mitt Romney for his support of Richard Mourdock, the U.S. Senate candidate who suggested pregnancies resulting from rape were "part of God's plan". Cher also denounced Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan for distinguishing between "forcible" and "non-forcible" rape.

Discography

Main articles: Cher albums discography, Cher singles discography, and Cher videography

See also: Sonny & Cher discography

• All I Really Want to Do (1965)
• The Sonny Side of Chér (1966)
• Chér (1966)
• With Love, Chér (1967)
• Backstage (1968)
• 3614 Jackson Highway (1969)
• Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves (1971)
• Foxy Lady (1972)
• Bittersweet White Light (1973)
• Half-Breed (1973)
• Dark Lady (1974)
• Stars (1975)
• I'd Rather Believe in You (1976)

• Cherished (1977)
• Take Me Home (1979)
• Prisoner (1979)
• Black Rose (1980)
• I Paralyze (1982)
• Cher (1987)
• Heart of Stone (1989)
• Love Hurts (1991)
• It's a Man's World (1995)
• Believe (1998)
• Not.com.mercial (2000)
• Living Proof (2001)

Tours and concerts

Main article: List of Cher concert tours

• Take Me Home Tour (1979–1982)
• Heart of Stone Tour (1989–1990)
• Love Hurts Tour (1992)
• Do You Believe? Tour (1999–2000)
• Living Proof: The Farewell Tour (2002–2005)
• Cher at the Colosseum (2008–2011)

Filmography

Main article: Cher filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1965	Wild on the Beach	Herself	Cameo appearance
1967	Good Times	Herself
1969	Chastity	Chastity
1982	Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean	Sissy	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture 2nd place—Los Angeles Film Critics Association – Best Supporting Actress 2nd place—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
1983	Silkwood	Dolly Pelliker	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1985	Mask	Florence 'Rusty' Dennis	Cannes Film Festival – Best Actress Award Tied with Norma Aleandro in The Official Story Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1987	Moonstruck	Loretta Castorini	Academy Award for Best Actress David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists – Best Foreign Actress Tied with Stéphane Audran in Babette's Feast Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated—Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress
1987	Suspect	Kathleen Riley
1987	The Witches of Eastwick	Alexandra Medford
1990	Mermaids	Rachel Flax
1992	The Player	Herself	Cameo appearance
1994	Prêt-à-Porter	Herself	Cameo appearance
1996	Faithful	Margaret
1999	Tea with Mussolini	Elsa Morganthal Strauss-Armistan
2003	Stuck on You	Cher/Honey Garriet
2010	Burlesque	Tess	Satellite Award for Best Original Song Shared with Diane Warren (lyrics) for the song "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me") Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Song Shared with Diane Warren (lyrics) for the song "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" Nominated—Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress Nominated—World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film Shared with Diane Warren (lyrics) for the song "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me"
2011	Zookeeper	Janet the Lioness	Voice-over role

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	Ramona	Episode: "The Hot Number Affair"
1970	The Sonny & Cher Nitty Gritty Hour	Herself
1971	Love, American Style	Herself	Episode: "Love and the Sack"
1971– 1974	The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour	Herself (co-host)/various characters	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Tied with Jean Stapleton for All in the Family Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special For episode on January 31, 1972 Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series (1972, 1973, 1974)
1972	The New Scooby-Doo Movies	Herself	Episode: "The Secret of Shark Island" (voice)
1975– 1976	Cher	Herself (host)/various characters	Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
1976– 1977	The Sonny and Cher Show	Herself (co-host)/various characters
1978	Cher... Special	Herself/various characters
1979	Cher and Other Fantasies	Herself
1983	Cher: A Celebration at Caesars	Herself	CableACE Award – Actress in a Variety Program
1990	Cher Extravaganza: Live at the Mirage	Herself
1996	If These Walls Could Talk	Dr. Beth Thompson	Also director (segment "1996") Lucy Award for Innovation in Television Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
1999	VH1 Divas Live 2	Herself
1998	Sonny & Me: Cher Remembers	Herself
1999	Cher: Live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas	Herself	Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program
2000– 2002	Will & Grace	Herself	Episodes: "Gypsies, Tramps and Weed" and "A.I.: Artificial Insemination"
2002	VH1 Divas Las Vegas	Herself
2003	Cher: The Farewell Tour	Herself	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special

Theatre plays

• Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)

Bibliography

• Cher: Forever Fit – The Lifetime Plan for Health, Fitness and Beauty (1991) with Robert Haas
• Cooking for Cher by Andrew Ennis (1997) Cher is credited with writing the foreword
• The First Time (1999) with Jeff Coplon
• Mixed: Portraits of Multiracial Kids by Kip Fulbeck (2010) Cher is credited with writing the afterword

See also

• Honorific nicknames in popular music
• List of best-selling music artists
• List of best-selling music artists in the United States
• Mononymous person

References

• Bego, Mark (2004). Cher: If You Believe. Taylor Trade. ISBN 0815411537. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Berman, Connie (2001). Cher Women of Achievement. Facts on File. ISBN 1438124198. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bono, Sonny (1992). And the Beat Goes On. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671693670. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bronson, Fred (1997). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. Billboard. ISBN 0823076415. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Coplon, Jeff; Cher (1998). The First Time. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684809001. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Laufenberg, Norbert B. (2005). Entertainment Celebrities. Trafford. ISBN 1412053358. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lazell, Barry (1989). Rock Movers & Shakers. Billboard. ISBN 0823076083. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Negra, Diane (2001). Off-White Hollywood: American Culture and Ethnic Female Stardom. Routledge. ISBN 0415216788. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (2003). Hollywood Songsters: Allyson to Funicello. Routledge. ISBN 0415943329. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Quirk, Lawrence J. (1991). Totally Uninhibited: The Life and Wild Times of Cher. William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0688098223. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rees, Dafydd; Crampton, Luke (1999). Rock Stars Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 0789446138. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Official website
• Official Cher YouTube channel
• Cher at AllMusic
• Cher at IMDb
• Cher on X
• Children's Craniofacial Association (CCA). National Spokesperson: Cher