Cher

The diva known today simply as “Cher” was born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946 in El Centro, California to Georgia Holt and John Sarkisian, an Armenian farmer. The tumultuous relationship between Georgia and John; however, led to divorce while Georgia was still pregnant with daughter Cher. The early days for Cher and her mother, a struggling actress and eight time divorcee, were often difficult financially and led to Georgia placing Cher in foster care for a brief period of time as a child. However, Cher was enamored seeing her mother on stage and dreamed of one day becoming famous. Later, Georgia was able to provide her daughter with acting lessons to help guide her career.

By 1962, the sixteen year-old Cher left school due to her struggles which would later be attributed to dyslexia. In 1963, Cher met twenty-seven year-old Sonny Bono in a coffee shop and they soon began living together. Shortly thereafter, he introduced her to producer Phil Spector and she was enlisted as a backup singer for the Ronettes. Later that year Sonny and Cher began recording together under the name Caesar and Cleo and released two singles; Baby Don’t Go and Love is Strange. The two proclaimed themselves married in 1964 and snagged a recording contract with Atlantic Records where they would soon release their blockbuster single I Got You Babe using their own names, Sonny and Cher. The success of this release was followed with worldwide tours, a string of successful hits, and a hugely popular comedy-variety television show, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, which lasted until 1974 when the couple divorced. Their union produced one child, Chastity Sun Bono. Cher continued to work on her own television series for a while, and in the interim, married rocker Gregg Allman with whom she has a second child, Elijah Blue Allman. The brief marriage between Cher and Allman ended in 1979.

By this time, Cher was an unemployed, 33 year-old, single mom who still had dreams of pursuing an acting career. She moved to New York to continue acting studies. A stint in the play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, led to a supporting role in Cher’s first big film, Silkwood where she played opposite Meryl Streep. This led to a string of other blockbuster hits including Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress. After playing the role of film star throughout the eighties, Cher returned to the recording studio and released such CDs as the self-titled Cher and Heart of Stone accompanied by hugely successful tours.

In 1999, Cher released the CD Believe which became the best-selling album of her long career. The title track made Cher, at age 53, the oldest female to ever have a number one record as well as the longest span between number one hits (her first in 1965 and most recent in 1999) according to Billboard charts. She followed this hit with a lengthy and hugely successful Farewell Tour which began in 2002 and ended in 2005.

Cher’s career has spanned more than forty years as the diva has found success as a singer, television star, film actress, director, author, model, spokesperson, and business woman. Though Cher promises her touring days are over, the icon has no intention of retiring any time soon. Visit her website at: http://www.cher.com/

Research info gathered from: www.tv.com


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