It’s not a national holiday but Thursday is a very special day. It’s Cher’s 75th birthday.
The singer, actress and cultural icon was born on May 20, 1946 – the same year Tupperware and the bikini were introduced. But, in an interview with The Guardian last year, Cher said she hates ageing.
“What, I’m going to say I like it? No, I don’t,” she said. “Any woman who is honest will say it’s not as much fun.”
In honour of Cher’s milestone birthday, iHeartRadio.ca takes a look back at her phenomenal life and career:
- Born Cherilyn Sarkisian, she was named Cheryl LaPiere when her mother’s husband Gilbert LaPiere adopted her in 1961. Her first single was released in 1964 under the name Bonnie Jo Mason – and later that same year she teamed up with Sonny Bono to record several songs as Caesar & Cleo. She legally changed her name to just Cher in 1979.
- Cher told The Guardian last year: “People I’m close to don’t call me Cher. They have nicknames. No one ever called me Cher in my whole life.”
- Cher got her start in the music business by providing backing vocals on songs like “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” by the Righteous Brothers.
- Cher’s debut single was “Ringo, I Love You,” a Beatles tribute song produced by Phil Spector and released in 1964 under the name Bonnie Jo Mason. Later that year, as Cherilyn, she released “Dream Baby” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “All I Really Want to Do.”
- Cher’s debut album, All I Really Want to Do, was released in August 1965 – only weeks after the first album by Sonny & Cher, Look at Us. A collection of mostly covers, All I Really Want to Do peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 chart while Look at Us made it to No. 2.
- Cher has released 26 solo studio albums and five Sonny & Cher albums, as well as dozens of compilations, live and soundtrack albums.
- Cher has had 33 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including 12 that made it into the Top 10. Only four were No. 1 hits – “Gypsy, Tramps & Thieves” (1971), “Half-Breed (1973), “Dark Lady” (1974) and “Believe” (1999).
“Nobody expects to be working at my age. There are very few women on tour or women on stage now. I think Bette [Midler] and I are it.” - Cher, on The Graham Norton Show in 2018.
- Cher did 192 shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace from 2008 to 2011 as part of her Cher residency. It grossed $118 million at the box office. Between 2017 and early 2020, she did 104 Classic Cher shows in Las Vegas and Oxon Hill (Maryland) before COVID-19 forced her to pull the plug.
- In 1980, Black Rose – a rock band featuring Cher as lead singer – released a self-titled album that included a song co-written by Canada’s David Foster. Despite a six-date tour to promote the record, it was a flop.
- On June 14, 2002, Cher kicked off her Living Proof: The Farewell Tour in Toronto. Although billed as her farewell tour, Cher returned with 2014’s Dressed to Kill Tour and the Here We Go Again Tour, which ran from 2018 to 2020. Cher’s last show in Canada was in November 2019 at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.
- At the age of 52, Cher became the oldest female artist to have a No. 1 single in the U.S., when “Believe” topped the Billboard Hot 100.
- Canada loves Cher. Her Believe album was certified 6x Platinum in 1999, representing sales of 480,000. Heart of Stone earned 4x Platinum certification in 1990 and three other albums achieved Platinum status in Canada.
- Cher’s most recent album was 2018’s Dancing Queen, a collection of covers of ABBA hits.
- After making a pair of movies with Sonny Bono in the late ‘60s, Cher starred in the 1969 box office flop Chastity. She didn’t make another movie until 1982’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.
- On television, Cher first appeared in an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1967. She didn’t play another character on the small screen until 1996’s abortion drama If These Walls Could Talk.
- The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour premiered as a six-week summer series on Aug. 1, 1971. It was so popular, CBS turned it into a regular series that lasted three years. In 1975, CBS gave Cher her own eponymous show, which ran for two seasons. It was followed by the short-lived The Sonny and Cher Show.
- On her 1975-76 variety series, Cher welcomed music stars like Elton John, David Bowie, Ike & Tina Turner and The Jackson 5.
- In November 2013, Cher served as a guest judge on a Season 17 episode of Dancing with the Stars. All the competitors danced to Cher songs.
- Cher made cameos as herself in episodes of Will & Grace in 2000 and 2002.
- Her role in Burlesque earned Cher a Golden Raspberry Award (aka Razzie) nomination for Worst Supporting Actress. In an interview with The Guardian, Cher blamed director Steve Antin. “It could have been a much better film,” she said. “Terrible director! Really terrible director. And really terrible script.”
- In 2017, Cher was scheduled to be in Toronto to star in the Lifetime movie Flint but had to pull out only a month before production began. “Unfortunately, I will be unable to leave Los Angeles during the scheduled filming as I am dealing with a serious family issue that prevents me from going on location for the April filming,” she said in a statement.
- On an episode of The Cher Show in 1975, Cher joined The Osmonds for a medley of Stevie Wonder hits. Cue the cheese.
- Cher won Best Actress at the Academy Awards in 1988 for Moonstruck. Four years earlier, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Silkwood. In 1985, her role in Mask earned her a Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.
- Cher earned an Emmy Award in 2003 for Cher: The Farewell Tour. She had six previous nominations dating back to 1972.
- Cher has never won an American Music Award (she has only been nominated three times) and she has only won a single Grammy from seven nominations.
- Although Cher declined a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1983, she showed up to the unveiling of a star for Sonny & Cher in 1998 because Sonny had died earlier that year.
Hulton Archive / Getty Images
- Cher has been eligible to be inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame since 1990 but has never been nominated. In 2019, a Gold Derby poll found that she was the top choice when readers were asked which female artist should be inducted. In 2010, Cher told Vanity Fair: “It just seems kind of rude.”
- Cher was 16 when she met Sonny Bono, who was 27. They married two years later in the bathroom of a hotel room in Tijuana, Mexico.
S. O'Meara / Getty Images
- Cher was married to Sonny Bono from 1969 to 1975 and to rocker Gregg Alman from 1975 to 1979. She had son Chaz in 1969 with Bono (who died in 1998) and son Elijah Blue in 1976 with Allman (who died in 2017).
“I’ve been notorious, I’ve been infamous, I’ve been famous for being famous and I’ve done some really good work ... I’m a very messy icon.” - Cher, to Jane Pauley in 1996.
- In 2010, Cher told David Letterman she had flings with Gene Simmons, Eric Clapton, Tom Cruise and Warren Beatty but denied she was ever with Michael Bolton. Cher admitted she wished she had hooked up with Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando.
- Taking part in a "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts" segment on The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2018, Cher was asked: “You’ve said Tom Cruise is one of your Top 5 favourite lovers. Who are the other four?” She chose to eat a dried caterpillar rather than answer the question.
- Cher’s mother Georgia Holt turns 95 next month and her half-sister Georganne LaPiere will be 70 in September.
- During a 2018 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Cher said when she was nine years old she ran away from home, stole a horse and jumped on a freighter – “and kept going until my girlfriend started crying for her mother.” She also admitted that she was arrested at the age of 11 after she was caught driving. “Not exactly arrested, just taken to jail,” said Cher. “Just as a warning.”
- In a 2019 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Cher recalled when she and Sonny Bono were broke and owed the U.S. government $278,000. “We just got in a car and headed towards Windsor, Ontario and started our life again. And we were broke a** broke," she said. The duo had a three-week run at a casino in the Canadian city. “Sonny just said ‘You are going to wear a gown and I'm going to wear a tuxedo and we are going to go there and we are going to see what can happen’ and the people hated us.” They developed an act that caught on – and sparked renewed interest in them as a comedy/music act.
- Canada’s Paul Shaffer played keyboards on “My Song (Too Far Gone)” and “Love & Pain” on Cher’s 1978 album Take Me Home. Shaffer also arranged and conducted “Love & Pain.”
- Cher’s only Oscar (for Best Supporting Actress) came for her role in Moonstruck, which was partly shot in Toronto with homegrown director Norman Jewison.
- The Cher Show, a stage musical about Cher’s life, premiered in Chicago in June 2018 before opening on Broadway in December 2018. It closed after 34 previews and 296 performances and won Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical (Stephanie J. Block) and Costume Design (Bob Mackie). A touring production was postponed due to COVID-19.
- In 2018, Cher tweeted that she was writing her “life story” for a book due to come out in early 2020. Fans are still waiting for the memoir. She previously published a collection of essays, The First Time.
- On the eve of her 75th birthday, Cher tweeted the news that Universal Pictures is making a movie about her life.
- On May 22, 1986, Cher made her first appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. During the sit-down, she explained she was hesitant to come on the show because she thought Letterman was “an a**hole.” In Nov. 13, 1987 Cher reunited with her ex-husband Sonny Bono on Late Night, where they performed “I Got You Babe.”
- In 1976, Mego released 12-inch dolls of Sonny & Cher to capitalize on the popularity of their variety show. The Cher doll, featuring a wardrobe designed by Bob Mackie, became the top-selling doll of 1976, surpassing Barbie. Today, the dolls can be found on eBay for between $40 and $150.
- On Ellen, Cher recalled how she and Meryl Streep rushed to the aid of a young woman who was being attacked on a New York City street. “She looks at us and she screams and she said ‘Oh my God I’m a singing waitress and no one’s going to believe that I got mugged – and saved by Meryl Streep and Cher.”