108 Facts About Cher

Cher is an American singer, actress and television personality.

Cher's adaptability has fueled multiple comebacks over a career spanning more than six decades.

Cher is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and the only solo artist with number-one singles on the US Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades.

Cher's accolades include an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes, the Billboard Icon Award and the Kennedy Center Honors.

Holt's marriage to Southall ended when Cher was nine; Cher later described him as her "real father" and a "good-natured man who turned belligerent when he drank too much".

Cher admired Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn, but felt discouraged by the lack of dark-haired actresses in Hollywood.

Cher said she was going to be a movie star and we knew she would.

At 16, Cher left school and moved out of her mother's house to live with a friend.

Cher took acting classes and supported herself by dancing in nightclubs along Hollywood's Sunset Strip, where she introduced herself to performers, managers and agents.

Cher met performer Sonny Bono, 11 years her senior, in November 1962 when he was working for record producer Phil Spector.

Cher's friend moved out and Cher accepted Sonny's offer to be his housekeeper.

Spector produced her first single, "Ringo, I Love You", which Cher recorded under the name Bonnie Jo Mason.

Many radio programmers rejected the song, mistaking Cher's deep contralto for a man's voice and assuming it was a male homosexual singing a love song to the Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.

Cher disguised her nervousness by looking at Sonny; she later commented that she sang to the people through him.

Cher signed with Liberty Records' Imperial imprint in the end of 1964 and Sonny became her producer.

Cher later said she "loved" the new electric-guitar-driven sound of Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton and wanted to adapt, but Sonny refused.

Cher adopted alluring, low-cut gowns that became her signature outfits.

In 1971, Sonny and Cher signed with the Kapp Records division of MCA Records and Cher released the single "Classified 1A", in which she sings from the point of view of a soldier who bleeds to death in Vietnam.

In 1972, Cher released the all-ballad album Foxy Lady, demonstrating the evolution of her vocal abilities, according to Bego.

At Sonny's insistence, Cher released the standards album Bittersweet White Light, which was commercially unsuccessful.

In 1974, Cher released "Dark Lady" as the lead single from the album of the same name.

Cher was required to work exclusively for Sonny's company, leaving her with no career or financial control.

Record executive David Geffen, with whom Cher had begun a relationship in 1973, helped her break free from the contract.

Cher won custody of Chaz after a highly publicized legal battle, and their divorce was finalized on June 26,1975.

Cher debuted her solo CBS show, Cher, on February 12,1975.

On June 30,1975, four days after finalizing her divorce from Sonny, Cher married rock musician Gregg Allman, co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band, whom she had been dating since January, shortly after ending her relationship with Geffen.

Cher filed for divorce nine days later due to his heroin and alcohol problems, but they reconciled within a month.

The Cher doll became the year's best-selling doll, surpassing Barbie.

In 1978, Cher began a two-year live-in relationship with Kiss member Gene Simmons.

Cher briefly returned to prime-time TV with the specials Cher.

Cher collaborated with Giorgio Moroder to write "Bad Love", her final Casablanca disco track, for the film Foxes.

In 1980, Cher formed the rock band Black Rose with guitarist and then-partner Les Dudek.

In 1981, Cher collaborated with Meat Loaf on the duet "Dead Ringer for Love", which peaked at number five on the UK singles chart and was praised by AllMusic's Donald A Guarisco as "one of the more inspired rock duets of the 1980s".

Audiences initially questioned Cher's acting ability; she later recalled attending a film screening where the crowd laughed upon seeing her name in the opening credits.

For Silkwood, Cher was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won a Golden Globe Award in the same category.

The New York Times Janet Maslin wrote Moonstruck "offers further proof that Cher has evolved into the kind of larger-than-life movie star who's worth watching whatever she does".

Cher won the Favorite All-Around Female Star Award at the 1989 People's Choice Awards.

Cher launched the Heart of Stone Tour in 1989, which continued through 1990.

Cher clashed with the film's first two directors, Lasse Hallstrom and Frank Oz, who were replaced by Richard Benjamin.

One of the two songs Cher recorded for the film's soundtrack, a cover of Betty Everett's "The Shoop Shoop Song ", topped the UK singles chart for five weeks.

In 1996, Cher starred alongside Demi Moore and Sissy Spacek in If These Walls Could Talk, a three-part anthology TV film about abortion.

Cher's first leading role in a theatrical release in six years came with Paul Mazursky's dark comedy Faithful, in which she played a suicidal woman whose husband hires a hitman to kill her.

That month, Sonny and Cher received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work on television.

Later that year, Cher published The First Time, a collection of autobiographical essays of "first-time" events in her life.

The manuscript was nearly complete when Sonny died, and Cher was initially reluctant to include his death, concerned it might appear exploitative.

In 1999, Cher starred in Franco Zeffirelli's critically acclaimed war film Tea with Mussolini, playing a flamboyant American socialite unwelcome among Englishwomen in Italy.

Meanwhile, Cher oversaw The Greatest Hits for international markets, reaching number one on the European Top 100 Albums chart.

In 2000, Cher released Not Commercial, an album she wrote after attending a songwriting conference in 1994.

Cher chose the title after her label's chief dismissed the project as "nice, but not commercial" and rejected it for its explicit language and unsparing themes, including the suicide of Kurt Cobain, homelessness, veteran neglect and personal trauma.

Cher sold it independently on her website, an unusual move for an artist under contract with a major label.

In June 2002, Cher launched Living Proof: The Farewell Tour, promoted as her final concert tour, though she planned to keep recording and acting.

Jon Pareles of The New York Times praised it as a celebration of Cher's resilience, highlighting her ability to "triumph over restraint, aging and gravity" and calling her "a hit machine immune to sagging flesh".

The compilation album The Very Best of Cher peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum by the RIAA.

In June 2013, Cher headlined the annual Dance on the Pier benefit, celebrating LGBTQ Pride Day, achieving the event's first full-capacity crowd in five years.

Cher embarked on the Dressed to Kill Tour in March 2014, over a decade after announcing her "farewell tour", joking during shows that this would actually be her last farewell tour while crossing fingers.

Cher collaborated with American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan on their 2015 album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, credited under her 1964 alias, Bonnie Jo Mason.

At the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, Cher performed "Believe" and "If I Could Turn Back Time", her first awards show performance in over 15 years.

In March 2018, Cher headlined the 40th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, with tickets selling out in three hours after she hinted at her involvement on Twitter.

Dancing Queen received widespread critical acclaim; Rolling Stone commented that Cher makes the ABBA songs sound as if they were written for her, while Entertainment Weekly praised it as her "most significant release since 1998's Believe".

The Cher Show, a jukebox musical with three actresses playing Cher at different stages of her life, premiered in Chicago in June 2018 and ran on Broadway from December 2018 to August 2019, later touring the UK, Ireland and the US.

Cher was featured in The New York Times Magazines annual "Best Actors" list for 2020, becoming the first actor included without appearing in a theatrical release that year; her performance in Moonstruck was praised as "radiant" and a source of comfort during quarantine.

That month, Cher began dating music executive Alexander Edwards, 40 years her junior.

In December 2023, Cher criticized the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for excluding her since becoming eligible in 1990, saying, "I wouldn't be in it now if they gave me a million dollars", and suggesting the institution "can just you-know-what themselves".

Cher decided to accept the honor out of admiration for her fellow inductees.

In November 2024, Cher published Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the first of a two-part autobiography covering her childhood, early career and marriages to Sonny Bono and Gregg Allman.

Cher has explored diverse musical styles, including rock, soul, jazz, disco, new wave, power ballads, hip hop and electronic dance music, aiming to "remain relevant and do work that strikes a chord".

Cher, who proposed the effect, faced resistance from her label but insisted it remain, saying, "You can change [the song] over my dead body".

Cher used Auto-Tune extensively on Living Proof and subsequent albums.

Cher often portrays women who help marginalized male characters navigate mainstream society.

Cher was ranked first by Billboard on its list of "The 100 Best Acting Performances by Musicians in Movies" for her role in Moonstruck, with the performance described as "the standard by which you mentally check all others".

Author Diane Negra described this as Cher embracing her identity as a "fictionalized production", offering audiences a "pleasurable plurality".

Cher subsequently appeared five times as the cover model for US Vogue.

Cher has attracted media attention for her physical appearance, including her youthful looks, hairstyles and tattoos.

Cher has admitted to plastic surgery but criticized media speculation, denying most rumored procedures.

Cher argued that Cher's idealized beauty "now acts as a standard against which other women will measure, judge, discipline and 'correct' themselves".

Paddy Calistro of the Los Angeles Times wrote that during Cher's rise as a movie star in the 1980s, her "highly articulated bone structure captured audience attention", which led to an increased number of medical requests for "surgically inserted 'cheekbones'".

Cher has stated that wigs help her "stay current" while protecting her natural hair.

Cher liked to do things for the shock they created.

Cher was the inspiration for Mother Gothel, a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' animated feature film Tangled.

Cher is revered by the LGBTQ community, a status attributed to her career accomplishments, distinctive style and enduring longevity.

Cher is regarded as a gay icon and is frequently imitated by drag queens.

Maclean's journalist Elio Iannacci stated that Cher was "one of the first to bring drag to the masses", hiring two drag queens to perform with her during her Las Vegas residency in 1979.

Music critic Jeff Miers credited Cher with setting the template for generations of female pop artists, citing her mastery of theatrical presentation, seamless genre shifts and knack for provoking without losing mainstream appeal.

Cher has been referred to as the "Goddess of Pop" in publications such as The Washington Post, Time and Billboard.

Cher's career has been marked by continual reinvention; professor Richard Aquila described her as "the ultimate pop chameleon", while The New York Times dubbed her the "Queen of the Comeback".

Cher's sustained success in a male-dominated entertainment industry has invited discussion around gender roles and autonomy in entertainment.

Early in her career, Cher's critics often framed her output as an extension of male collaborators, a view Cher addressed directly: "It was a time when girl singers were patted on the head for being good and told not to think".

Cher has been a teenage pop star, a television hostess, a fashion model, a rock star, a Broadway actress, an Oscar-winning movie star, a disco diva and the subject of a mountain of press coverage.

Cher is one of five singer-actors to have earned both an Academy Award for acting and a US number-one single and the only Academy Award-winning actor inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cher's breakthrough single "I Got You Babe" is a Grammy Hall of Fame inductee and appeared on Rolling Stones 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Cher is the only solo artist to have achieved a number-one single on a US Billboard chart in seven consecutive decades and the only solo artist to have released new material that reached the Official UK Top 40 in seven consecutive decades.

Cher has received numerous lifetime and career achievement honors, including the Vanguard Award at the 1998 GLAAD Media Awards, the Legend Award at the 1999 World Music Awards, the Influence on Fashion Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1999, the Lucy Award for Innovation in Television at the 2000 Women in Film Awards, the Icon Award at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards and the Ambassador for the Arts Award at the 2019 Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography.

In 2018, Cher received the Kennedy Center Honors, the highest cultural recognition in the US, and in 2024, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cher has said that she is not a registered Democrat, but has attended many Democratic events.

Cher has commented that she did not understand why anyone would be a Republican because eight years under the administration of George W Bush "almost killed [her]".

On October 27,2003, Cher anonymously called a C-SPAN phone-in program to recount a visit she 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.

In September 2013, Cher declined an invitation to perform at the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Russia due to the country's controversial anti-LGBTQ legislation that overshadowed preparations for the event.

Cher expressed support for Armenia and Artsakh on Twitter during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

In September 2020, Cher raised nearly $2 million for Biden's presidential campaign at a virtual LGBTQ-themed fundraiser.

In 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Cher voiced support for Ukraine on Twitter and called for humanitarian aid.

Cher referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a despot seeking to restore the Soviet Union and announced plans to provide shelter to Ukrainian refugees in her home.

Cher has been a vocal advocate for American soldiers, returning veterans and communities affected by war.

Cher has supported Operation Helmet, which provides free helmet upgrade kits to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and contributed to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, aiding military personnel severely injured in war-related operations.

Cher is a donor, fundraiser and international spokesperson for Keep a Child Alive, which seeks to combat AIDS, including providing antiretroviral medicine to children and their families.

Cher has served as the Honorary National Chair of Habitat for Humanity's "Raise the Roof" fundraising initiative, aimed at supporting the construction and repair of affordable homes for families in need.

In 2007, Cher became the primary supporter of the Peace Village School in Ukunda, Kenya, which "provides nutritious food, medical care, education and extracurricular activities for more than 300 orphans and vulnerable children".

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.

In 2017, Cher weighed in on the need to protect elder rights as she executive produced Edith+Eddie, a documentary about a nonagenarian interracial couple, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.