There’s one Cher joke that has endured over the years: "The only thing left after a nuclear war is cockroaches … and Cher."
It’s a wry reminder of the remarkable longevity, survival and staying power that the GRAMMY-winning singer has achieved in her legendary half-century career.
First hitting the airwaves in 1964 with husband Sonny Bono, Cher has persevered in a perilous industry, one that long denied female artists autonomy, agency and artistic freedom. Not only has Cher sustained her popularity and relevance, but she has succeeded in most of her extracurricular endeavors of television, film, and fashion. One hundred million records and countless accolades along the way, Cher remains one of the world’s best-selling music artists and among its most timeless.
As a musician, Cher's career is tough to trump — from her Best Dance Recording golden gramophone for the seminal "Believe" to being the only solo artist to have a Billboard No. 1 single in seven consecutive decades. The singer’s fearlessness and tenacity has long resonated with listeners and musicians. The playbook Cher has followed — moving between genres, transforming her public image, launching countless "comebacks" — has been followed by later single-name contemporaries such as Madonna and Beyoncé.
From donning her infamous bodysuit for "If I Could Turn Back Time" to insisting producers use the Auto-Tuned version of "Believe," Cher’s outspoken backing of herself has become the singer’s trademark attitude. If Cher believes she can, she will. Even her more recent wild and sometimes incoherent tweets reflect the way Cher has always boldly narrated her own story.
Whether through provocation, ingenuity or a complete reinvention, Cher stands as one of modern music’s most trailblazing and transformative female artists. Her career has mirrored the story of popular music — from the birth of rock and roll to the disruptive changes technology offered artists in the new millennium. Despite the odds stacked against her, the singer has continued to offer a powerful story of resilience, returning each decade with a return serve.
In celebration of her new retrospective album, Forever and upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, GRAMMY.com charts Cher’s folk-rock beginnings, countless rebirths, and recent dancefloor triumphs. The songbook reveals a pioneering female entertainer whose mantra has always been to sing, create and perform on her own terms — and rebel when the naysayers so no.
A Sonny Romance During "Free Love"
When Cher began her career in the 1960s, she intertwined her solo efforts with duets featuring her musical and romantic partner, Sonny Bono. In the mid-'60s and through the end of the decade, the pair were an incredibly popular, if not saccharine, presence. In the era of free love, hedonism and rebellion, Sonny and Cher's sweet love songs celebrated sweet romance and monogamy.
A 16-year-old Cher first met Sonny when he was 27 and working as a record producer for Phil Spector. Romance and marriage followed, and the couple began to write and record together. Cher had intense stage fright and insisted that Sonny accompany her for early performances. Their debut 1965 album, Look at Us, was a smash success, hitting No. 1 in America and delivering their signature song "I Got You Babe." (The track was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2017.)
Cher’s early career might have been defined by a man but this designation was only short-lived. While performing as Sonny and Cher, the young singer tried writing her own verses. (Sonny recognized her viability as a solo singer and supported his partner.) Cher’s first single, a cover of Bob Dylan’s "All I Really Want to Do," attracted minor chart success, but "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" ushered in her first big hit (and many covers). Other releases dealt with contentious social issues, from divorce on "You Better Sit Down Kids" to "I Feel Something in the Air" on an unwanted pregnancy.
While Sonny and Cher had fallen out of popularity by the end of the decade due, at least in part, to their ongoing conservatism, Cher's star rose. The singer, long known for her striking features, distinctive voice, and noteworthy sartorial choices, was pitched to the public as a folk-rock singer who was unafraid to share confessional tales on controversial issues. Her appearance was considered radical, confusing and likely exciting more middle-of-the-road audiences with such androgynous looks.
Still, Cher’s own rebelliousness and singularity — namely her contralto voice, which according to her 1998 memoir The First Time, radio stations confused for the voice of a man — helped shore up a dedicated fan base. As she stepped away from Sonny and throughout her illustrious career, Cher continued to challenge popular views on sexuality and femininity. Cher's rebellion — seen on TV, in fashion circles and through music — soon made her a bold new music star on the rise.
Taking The Provocative Path Forward
Cher the solo artist soon gained a larger audience — to the tune of 30 million weekly viewers. On the primetime television show "The Sonny and Cher Show," Cher exuded performative femininity and daring sex appeal. Shielded by the figurative protection of her marriage, Cher was free to dress provocatively and showcase a more liberal side of her artistry.
Between 1971 and 1974, Cher used costumes, wigs and comedy to perform different female characters (and caricatures) often provoking shock or delight in viewers. She performed her first No. 1 solo hit, "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves," on the show — the rolling, narrative track detailed the prejudice and poverty of travelling gypsies, alluding to Cher’s own impoverished background.
"The Sonny and Cher Show" was not without backstage drama, however. It led to a string of arguments where the singer fought the network censors, including to have her navel exposed on television. "When I was married and doing the ‘Sonny and Cher Show,’ I could get away with all kinds of double entendre stuff, and nobody took it seriously," she wrote in The First Time. "But after my divorce, all that changed."
Sonny, Cher and their child Chaz would appear as a happy family on the show. And while 1974 saw the end of her marriage to Sonny, the year had signs of continuing success. "Dark Lady" (from the album of the same name) hit the top of the charts and became her third No. 1, making Cher the first female artist with the most Billboard number ones at that time. The narrative song paired folk music with pop sensibility to deliver a gritty yet toe-tapping tale of squaring fortunes and exacting revenge. It also was another song in Cher’s growing repertoire that celebrated a woman at the margins, a major theme of Cher’s 1970s output.
Around this time, Cher also released "Half-Breed," a controversial entry in her discography. The song retold the story of a young woman with a white father and a Native American mother, with the singer donning a feathered headdress in the music video and similar clothing for live performances (even as recently as 2018). Cher has no claim to Native American ancestry and many have now criticized her appropriative costumes in live performance. Nevertheless, the divisive song hit No. 1 and helped connect Cher's sound and image with an eclectic mix of class, race and gender identities.
By the end of the decade, Cher was struggling to continue such formidable success. She released a series of flop albums — I’d Rather Believe in You, Cherished and Prisoner — before making a brief effort at disco, Take Me Home. Despite reportedly not wanting to enter the genre and stick with pop music, the 1979 release's title track had minor success. Whether that success was due to the music itself is debatable; its bold album cover featured Cher, half naked, staring right back at her audience.
The Comeback Queen
By the early 1980s, music had begun to take a backseat for Cher. A Giorgio Moroder produced song from 1980, "Bad Love," went nowhere. An experiment helming a punk band called Black Rose wrapped up only after one year. Another album, this time experimenting with new wave and soft rock, failed to chart. Cher, true to form, reassessed and reinvented, returning to acting.
During a five-year hiatus from music, Cher the actor earned significant accolades — including an Academy Award for Moonstruck, a Golden Globe for Silkwood and the Best Actress gong at Cannes for Mask.
Cher emerged from this period as a successful and widely respected actor, soon proving to any skeptics that she was a truly multi-hyphenate artist. Cher’s new credentials as a talented actor did not come without naysayers, especially when musicians — including female artists — were mostly expected to stay in their own lane at the time.
Cher made what would be one of several (and successful) comebacks, returning to her roots with the 1987 rock album Cher. The genre was a safe gamble, taking on the radio-friendly rock format (aided by the likes of producers Michael Bolton and Jon Bon Jovi it), and delivering the Top 10 cover "I Found Someone." Such success again — after 20 years in the music business — was an early providence of greater things to come.
What followed in 1989 would attract equal parts public notoriety and critical acclaim. Heart of Stone was another rock foray, featuring the sweet Peter Cetera duet "After All" and forceful rock anthem "Just Like Jesse James." Its greatest and most iconic track, however, remains the Diane Warren-penned pop rock anthem "If I Could Turn Back Time" and its infamous music video.
In the video, Cher — wearing a leather thong sitting astride a cannon — serenades real-life sailors on a naval warship. Few female entertainers at the time were baring all, but Cher was an unapologetic provocateur who knew how to stir up controversy. MTV first banned the video before compromising by playing it only after 9 p.m.; news outlets and the U.S. Navy went into a frenzy for her outrageous outfit. Risqué or not, Cher continues to don the ensemble that helped underscore her skill at using shock to her advantage.
Purveyors of Cher’s lore will also recognize the title track "Heart of Stone" as an autobiographical entry that nods to a string of relationships with younger men (from Tom Cruise to Val Kilmer). While those relationships became intense tabloid fodder, the song's music video stressed Cher’s fearlessness as she stood before a series of blinking televisions broadcasting key moments (and political events) from her career.
Cher thrived amidst the controversy around her third "comeback" and achieved some of her biggest hits in a decade. This combination galvanized her image as a defiant and brash rock star — now with serious acting creds to boot.
Singing The New (Auto-)Tune
Before there was Believe, Cher released two respectable, if safe, albums: Love Hurts and It’s a Man’s World. The '90s would represent her fourth "comeback" (but who’s counting?). Cher would achieve chart domination by using Auto-Tune, catapulting her to global superstardom again and forever changing the music industry and expectations of an aging pop-rock star.
The decade did start with personal setbacks, including doubts about her film career (after difficulties with 1990's Mermaids) alongside chronic health problems (leading to a string of notorious and much parodied infomercials). Love Hurts delivered a series of middle-of-the-road ballads and covers, including "The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)" and Bonnie Tyler soft rock anthem "Save Up All Your Tears."
It was followed up by clever and inventive It’s a Man’s World, which saw the singer embrace soul songs from male artists associated with the Deep South. Remaking music first popularized by men fulfilled a personal belief of Cher’s: that she could do anything a man could, perhaps even better. Much like her often-quoted response to her mom on needing a rich man for marriage, Cher rebutted by saying she was "a rich man."
The album featured the standout cover "Walking in Memphis" — including a video of Cher impersonating a young aspiring Elvis-esque man — that saw the singer push herself vocally and musically where she hadn’t yet ventured before. Although the song didn’t chart in the U.S., the second breathy single "One by One" gained traction on the dance charts. In it, Cher’s high falsetto broke with her trademark husky register and made for intoxicating listening. Unfortunately, it didn’t fare well commercially, so Warner Brothers suggested she try dance for her next album.
So begins the story of "Believe" and Cher’s transformative use of Auto-Tune. While the technology was typically used to mask vocal inaccuracies in recordings, Cher employed it for stylistic purposes. Embedding the digitized vocals into an anthemic Eurodance-inspired song about finding inner strength from past heartache helped Cher — in her early 50s, no less — radically revolutionize the music landscape. Soon others were adopting Auto-Tune for their tracks while aging female peers were embracing dance music to reinvigorate their careers. The manipulated sound wasn’t meant to remain on the final version until Cher insisted it stay even when the record label wanted it cut.
Believe was a cohesive, innovative and joyous dance record that once again pushed the singer to new sonic frontiers. Its declarative messages on freedom and self-knowledge ("I need time to move on/ I need love to feel strong") and transformative modern dance sounds exported from Europe (captured on "Strong Enough") took Cher’s career to new and unexpected heights. Soon enough, the album scaled the charts worldwide, hitting No. 4 in the U.S. and No. 7 in the U.K.
"Believe" eventually became the U.K.’s best-selling single ever from a woman, sold 11 million copies worldwide and won Cher the GRAMMY for Best Dance Recording.
Read More: 10 Ways Cher’s "Believe" Changed Pop Music
Inventing the "Farewell" Tour
Then came her "farewell."
Pegged to promote her 2001 album Living Proof — another entry embracing Auto-Tune and dance music — Cher embarked on the Living Proof: The Farewell Tour that ran for three years. It retrospectively became known as the "first" farewell tour as two more tours would follow, plus a Las Vegas residency in between. The residency's opulence and campiness underlined both Cher’s grandiosity and perseverance; decades in, Cher had a powerful mythology that embodied rule-breaking, brashness and survival.
The Living Proof album itself galvanized Cher’s image as a pop music maker, one that delivered a series of dance song anthems celebrating empowerment and emancipation. "Song for the Lonely," originally a dance song on love, was quickly recut as a heartfelt tribute to the devastation from the September 11 attacks. Legions of fans have since taken comfort in this redemptive upbeat track on overcoming loneliness and loss.
The Farewell Tour may not have been her final farewell, but it did break countless records by its end. Running between 2002–05, the tour had an incredible 325 dates and earned the singer $250 million, soon becoming one of the highest grossing tours of the decade. It was an incredible feat for an older female entertainer on the brink of irrelevance a decade earlier. ("Follow this, bitches!" she regularly told tour audiences.)
Cher may have entertained the idea of a retirement (keeping a low profile between 2005–08) but returned to the spotlight with a long overdue and campish performance in 2010’s Burlesque. The cheesy movie-musical co-starred Christina Aguilera and introduced Cher to a whole new generation, one perhaps not familiar with her diva-ish, outspoken and exaggerated public persona. (A status perhaps most iconically captured on-screen when Cher calls for Aguilera to perform "Wagon Wheel Watusi.")
Diane Warren also penned a new emotive ballad for the singer, aptly titled "You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me." Another declarative "comeback" track, it proved — vocally and musically — Cher was far from retirement, even at 64. The song attracted yet another Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a GRAMMY, achieving musical acclaim in a musical that has divided critics.
Capitalizing on the renewed interest, Cher hit the studio for her 25th album. Pulling in other successful artists as collaborators, including Timbaland and Lady Gaga, the dance pop genre came calling again with the release of 2013’s Closer to the Truth. After meeting Gaga at the 2010 VMAs, Cher worked with the singer on the duet, "The Greatest Thing." The track never made it into the final album after an apparent disagreement over the final vocals but a leaked version remains available.
With its Playboy centerfold style cover, Cher reminded the masses of her sex appeal, self-mockery and age-defying talents in her sixties. The song "Woman’s World" was a playful dance-pop chart declaring the importance of female empowerment, sincerely. "I Hope You Find It" saw Cher at a more tender side, offering a rawer ballad that reminded many of her vocal prowess and emotive abilities that were not always seen in her dance music.
Remember, You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Cher
Seven decades into her career, Cher maintains her Midas touch. The diva herself has reminded us that rules, records and conventions (like on aging and gender) are there to be broken — and she remains determined to shatter them.
After an appearance in the Mamma Mia movie sequel, the entertainer again welcomed her dance diva appeal with an album of ABBA covers, Dancing Queen. The 2018 record not only jump-started another world tour for the singer but also saw her garner some of her best critical reviews since Believe. Chart success also achieved with placings of No. 3 in the U.S. and No. 2 in the U.K.
In 2023, Cher set another music frontier to conquer: the Christmas album. The first single, "DJ Play a Christmas Song," was a pop-dance banger that continued the singer’s record as the only solo artist to secure No. 1 song on a Billboard chart in seven consecutive decades (from the 1960s to the 2020s).
After more than a half century making music, Cher’s songbook — one that traverses folk rock and disco, R&B, dance and rock, ABBA to holiday music — remains a lesson in ingenuity and perseverance. Cher’s enduring message has remained one about empowerment and rebelling against expectations.
Throughout, Cher has demonstrated an unparalleled ability to reinvent and persevere. Era after era, decade after decade, Cher has adapted (and mostly thrived) by challenging us to question and rebel against cultural, social and political biases against women, especially in the entertainment industry.
Through comebacks, farewells and reinventions, Cher remains living proof that it’s possible to succeed by breaking life’s rules — you just need to do it time and time again.