Cher Biography

Cher’s career has lasted over forty years of fame, first as a singer, then as a TV comedian and, later, as a mature and talented actress.

The young Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre was dragged out of her job as a studio back-up singer by crooner and music promoter Sonny Bono when she was just seventeen. Failing to impact as double act “Caesar and Cleo”, the tall, deadpan girl and the diminutive Bono gained huge popularity as Sonny & Cher, though each continued to occasionally record on their own. Sonny and Cher married in 1964.

Musically, the husband-wife team grew ever more popular with hits such as ‘I Got You Babe’ and ‘The Beat Goes On’. Changing musical tastes at the turn of the decade, flop films they had financed and the birth of a daughter meant the couple were seriously in debt. The humiliation of the Lounge circuit finally evolved into Las Vegas appearances. Their onstage banter and lavish Bob Mackie costumes formed the basis on their TV show. They started to work on comedy sketches. 'The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour' debuted in 1971, and ran for three years on the networks.

By 1974 Sonny and Cher split, both professionally and romantically. Cher returned to music and recorded a series of commercially successful pop albums. Sonny eased himself out of showbiz and into politics. Cher was remarried briefly, in 1975, to Greg Allman.

Film was Cher’s passion of the 1980’s, and she worked hard on small parts, eventually winning Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance in 'Silkwood'. Buoyed by her success, Cher was offered starring roles in 'Mask', 'Suspect' and 'The Witches of Eastwick'. In 1988 she won the Academy Award’s Best Actress for her role in 'Moonstruck'. At the same time, her ‘Heart of Stone’ album produced a sizeable hit ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ and a memorably risqué outfit for the video.

She made her directing debut, with 'If These Walls Could Talk', in 1996. Despite her reputation as supporter for gay rights and AIDS charities, Cher was initially less than delighted when her daughter was outted by the press. Their relationship mended in time for Chastity to break the news to her mother that Sonny had died while skiing. The eulogy to her former partner displayed Cher’s vulnerable side to the public.

In 1998, her album ‘Believe’ was to reinvent Cher as an electro pop, disco diva and earn her the biggest selling album of her entire career. The single stayed at number one in the charts for seven weeks. Cher launched her last worldwide tour in June 2002, a camp spectacular called ‘The Farewell Tour’, which circled the globe for almost three years earning almost 250 million dollars and the record as the most successful tour by a solo female singer in history.