Cher turns 70, still a ‘hot artist’ – Fans pay tribute

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LOS ANGELES, May 21, (Agencies):  May 20 marks the 70th birthday of Cher, who has enjoyed nearly a dozen showbiz careers in 50-plus years — and managed to maintain a sense of humor about herself despite all those changes and all the media attention.

She was born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946, in El Centro, Calif, and began her career 20 feet from stardom, as a backup singer for studio recordings while still a teenager. Her career moved into high gear when she met Sonny Bono. They had minimal success performing as Caesar & Cleo, but Variety first reported on them in 1965 when they were using their real names. On Aug 25, 1965, Herm Schoenfeld wrote: “In oblivion a year ago, Sonny & Cher are now hot artists.”

They were recording, together and individually, for Atlantic, Reprise and Imperial records — the industry was very different in those days — and sang on the primetime network music shows like NBC’s “Hullabaloo,” and ABC’s “Shindig!” and “Hollywood Palace.”

Sonny was “the creative sparkplug of this duo, and a songwriter,” wrote Schoenfeld. Bono couldn’t explain their popularity except to say, “Maybe it’s because we’re honest and real.” Cher was 19, he was 30.

Skit

A few years later, they debuted as hosts of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour,” which ran 1971-74. On Feb 29, 1972, Cleveland Amory in TV Guide gushed, “Is there anything she can’t do? She can sing any song, do any skit, wear any clothes and frankly, we’d tune in if all she did was to sing that ‘V-A-M-P’ song every week.”

Singer and actress Cher turned 70 on Friday, prompting fans to take to Twitter to celebrate the pop diva’s career spanning over five decades.

The California native gained musical recognition as part of duo Sonny & Cher in the 1960s before embarking on a solo career that made her a household name, with hits such as “Dark Lady”, “If I Could Turn Back Time” and “Believe”.

Fans marked the occasion by posting their favourite pictures of the music star, who has some 25 studio albums, a Grammy Award as well as an Oscar to her name, on Twitter.

The series showcased guests — on the second-season premiere on Sept 15, 1972, the lineup included the unlikely combo of Gov Ronald Reagan and the Jackson Five — and the show did well until the duo got a divorce.

They each got custody of their own series. He starred in “Sonny Comedy Revue” and she toplined “Cher” for 26 episodes in 1975-76. Guests included David Bowie, Ray Charles, Elton John, Lily Tomlin and Tina Turner, but Cher (in her Bob Mackie costumes) was clearly the drawing card.

Individually, their shows were not as successful as the original, so they reunited, just on a professional basis for “The Sonny and Cher Show.” It was the first case of a divorced couple starring in a TV series. “Sonny and Cher pick up their banter and putdowns as if nothing really happened,” Tony Scott wrote in a Feb 2, 1976, review for Variety.

She continued to have career ups and downs, but her next significant career boost came in 1982, when she appeared in the Broadway and film versions of Ed Graczyk’s play “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” both directed by Robert Altman. The following year, she was Oscar-nominated for the Mike Nichols-directed “Silkwood.”

Predicted

Reviewing the 1985 “Mask,” Julie Salamon of the Wall Street Journal said, “Cher is one of the most startling, vivid screen actresses in the movies today.” Many predicted a best-actress Oscar nomination, but it didn’t happen. However, she was invited to be a presenter and her Mackie-designed outfit of flesh, beads and feathers made the biggest impact of all the fashion that year, Variety wrote at the time.

One pundit said she looked like she was attending a Martian funeral, and some thought she was sending a defiant message to Academy voters. In 2015, Jessica Iredale wrote in Variety that it “still ranks atop the list of fondest Oscar fashion moments” and perhaps it is unreasonable “to expect the average nominee to rise to her level of fashion audacity.”

And that’s Cher. By the time she was 40, she had been a pop star, variety-show host, Oscar-winning actress, fashion icon and inspiration to countless drag performers. Over the years, she has also become a director (music videos and a segment of HBO’s “If These Walls Could Talk”), an infomercial queen, political pundit, philanthropist, advocate and tabloid fave, from her headline-grabbing marriage to Gregg Allman and her romances with David Geffen, Gene Simmons and Rob Camilletti (who was constantly beat up by the press, since he was 22 when Cher was 40).

In May 4, 1999, Variety’s Adam Sandler wrote that she was “riding a tsunami-sized comeback with her Warner Bros disc,” the global dance hit “Believe.” Sandler pointed out that she had enjoyed a top-selling album in each of the past four decades.

Cher increased her activism for LGBT rights when offspring Chaz Bono (born Chastity) came out as gay in the 1980s then as a transgender individual in 2009 (long before Caitlyn Jenner appeared). She has also been critical of George W. Bush, the Republican party and many government policies. In 2016, when most politicians were simply giving lip service to the Flint Michigan water crisis, Cher partnered with Icelandic Glacial to send more than 180,000 bottles of water to the residents.

Also:

NEW YORK: Whitney Houston’s estate on Friday abruptly halted the late singer’s hologram debut featuring Christina Aguilera, saying that the quality was not up to standards.

Footage that recently leaked online showed a hologram of the late pop great singing in duet with the real-life Aguilera to tracks including Houston’s “I Have Nothing.”

The performance was being planned to air next week on the popular television contest “The Voice,” but Houston’s estate said in a statement that “the hologram was not ready to air.”

“We were looking to deliver a groundbreaking duet performance for the fans of both artists,” the statement said.

“Holograms are new technology that take time to perfect, and we believe with artists of this iconic caliber, it must be perfect.

“Whitney’s legacy and her devoted fans deserve perfection,” it said.

The estate did not take issue with Aguilera, saying the 35-year-old pop singer’s own performance was “flawless.”

Hologram USA, one of the major producers of the new technology, last year said it was working on a global hologram tour of Houston, who died in 2012.

Music holograms became trendy that same year when Coachella, one of the leading festivals, brought back late rap legend Tupac Shakur via the technology for a headlining set with his living collaborators Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg.

This news has been read 5657 times!