Cher

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Cher in the 1970s

Cherilyn "Cher" Sarkisian (b. 1946) is a prolific American entertainer who has gained fame as a singer, actress, presenter and philanthropist in the course of a career spanning nearly sixty years.

She originally entered the spotlight in The Sixties as one half of Sonny & Cher, a Pop/Folk duo in which she performed with her then-husband Sonny Bono. They had a string of hits, including the #1 hit "I Got You Babe," then fell out of favor for a few years before roaring back as co-hosts of the The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (which also revived their recording careers), but eventually they decided to go their separate ways both personally and professionally. In The Seventies, Cher scored solo hits on both the record charts and on television and moved into Disco by decade's end, but when that scene collapsed, her attempts to switch to a more contemporary Arena Rock sound fell flat.

Instead, she spent The Eighties primarily establishing herself as an actress, earning an Academy Award nomination for her appearance in the film Silkwood and winning the Best Actress Oscar for Moonstruck. With her success in this field solidified, she returned to music, revisiting her earlier attempt at Arena Rock to great acclaim and achieving her greatest success as a singer in The Nineties with her international number one dance hit "Believe" (her first US #1 Hot 100 hit in a quarter-century, and credited with making Auto-Tune mainstream). Since then she's once again become a beloved fixture in the dance music universe, with most of her success since "Believe" being in the clubs.

Her achievements include an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, several Golden Globes and five number one singles (counting "I Got You Babe") on the American Billboard Hot 100 chart (plus additional number one songs on the Adult Contemporary and Dance charts). As a testament to her Long Runner status, she held a record as the artist with the longest gap between their first and most recent number one hits, until Brenda Lee shattered that record in 2023. She's also the only artist to achieve a Number One single on at least one Billboard magazine chart in seven consecutive decades, from "I Got You Babe" in 1965 to "DJ Play a Christmas Song" in 2023.

In 2024, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cher provides examples of the following tropes:

• Auto-Tune: Probably the first artist to use it in a successful mainstream recording ("Believe"); she wasn't going to use it, but when she heard it being applied to her recorded vocals she liked it and decided to keep it in.
• Christmas Songs: It took Cher until 2023 (age 76) to do a Christmas album (aptly titled Christmas), but it was well received, with the single "DJ Play a Christmas Song" topping Dance and Adult Contemporary charts.
• Cool Old Lady: Now well into her 70s, Cher shows no signs of slowing down. In 2023, she not only released her first Christmas album but announced a new tour.
• Covered Up: 1987's "I Found Someone," the first big hit of Cher's arena-rock era, was co-written by Michael Bolton and had been a minor chart entry for Laura Branigan the year before.
• Creator Couple: With Sonny Bono at first, and later on with Gregg Allman.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In "I Hope You Find It," Cher hopes her former lover will find, on his own, whatever he felt he was missing in their relationship.
• Let's Duet: First, in the '60s and '70s with her then-husband Sonny Bono on hits like "I Got You Babe," "The Beat Goes On," and "All I Ever Need Is You." Then in 1989, she scored a big hit singing with ex-Chicago frontman Peter Cetera on "After All," from the film Chances Are. She even remade "I Got You Babe" with Beavis and Butthead in the early '90s!
• Mama Bear: When her child came out as a lesbian then later became a transgender man - author/actor Chaz Bono - Cher had a tough time dealing with it at first, but eventually came to accept him as he was and became a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ+ community after learning they didn’t have as many legal rights as straight people.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The narrator of "If I Could Turn Back Time," the biggest hit of her '80s/early '90s arena-rock era, expresses regret over her ill-treatment of a former lover.
• Only One Name: She legally changed her name, too, unlike many other performers who go by mononyms.
• New Sound Album: In the past, she modified her sound to accommodate changing trends (Folk-rock in the sixties, middle-of-the-road pop and then Disco in the seventies, Rock in the eighties and Electronic Dance Music from the '90s to now).
• Older Than They Look: Look at her Believe video. She was in her early 50s then, but could easily pass as being in her thirties. Even now, as she approaches 80, she still looks fantastic.
• Power Ballad: She has recorded many of them, especially in her late eighties Arena Rock days.
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: Used to great effect in "If I Could Turn Back Time."

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